Swedish Tech Weekly #277



Welcome to the latest from Sweden's startup & tech sector.

I'm Martin Weigert. Swedish Tech Weekly brings you a selection of some of the news I covered in my PRO newsletters last week, and is sent to 2583 subscribers today.

Mergers & acquisitions

• Parsly (Stockholm, app that analyzes restaurants’ purchases and shows how they can spend smarter and earn more) is being acquired by the US industry peer Buyers Edge Platform (English).

Funding news

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• Voi (Stockholm, e-scooter & micromobility operator): €50M ($55M) before issue costs, through the company's first-ever bond issuance (under a total framework of €125M). The proceeds will mainly be used to scale Voi’s fleet with the next generation e-scooters and e-bikes in 2025 (English).

• Paebbl (Stockholm/Helsinki/Rotterdam, developer of carbon-negative construction material): €22.8M ($25M) in a Series A funding round led by Capnamic, with participation from The Climate Pledge Fund (Amazon), and others (English).

• Altris (Uppsala, developer of sustainable sodium-ion batteries): SEK150M (€13M, $14M) in a Series B1 funding round from Clarios, Maersk Growth, and existing investors EIT InnoEnergy and Molindo (English).

• AirForestry (Uppsala, developer of drone technology for forest thinning): €10.3M ($11) in a seed funding round led by Northzone, with participation from Sveaskog, Kiko VC, CapitalT, Walerud Ventures, SEB Greentech VC, and Cloudbreak VC. €1.7M represents a grant from the Swedish Energy Agency (English).

• Centi (Stockholm, platform for Private Equity-owned businesses to run employee equity programs): SEK11M (€1M, $1.1M) in a seed funding round from Bust and angel investors (English). ➡️ Funding first covered in my PRO subscription on June 19.

• Holyvolt (Stockholm, technology for producing inorganic nano paste enabling high-performance solar cells, batteries & heaters): SEK100M (€8.8M, $9.7M) from FAM, Volvo Group, and existing investors Course Corrected, Jacob de Geer, and Magnus Nilsson (Swedish / Impact Loop paywall). ➡️ Company first covered in my PRO subscription in February 2023.

• Lovable (Stockholm & London; developer of AI-powered software that builds software, such as GPT Engineer): $7.5M in a pre-seed funding round led by Hummingbird VC and byFounders, with participation from angel investors (English). ➡️ Company first covered in my PRO subscription on February 2.

• Quartr (Stockholm, data platform for qualitative public market research): $6M from Silicon Valley-based VC firm Altos Ventures (English).

• Oddiko (Gothenburg, game studio): $570K from Behold Ventures and Windmill Game Invest, in first funding (English).

• Returbo (Stockholm, B2B SaaS for retailer return management): SEK4.6M (€400K, $440K) from Zero2Heaven and other angel investors (Swedish, machine translation).

• Wndy (Stockholm, platform that connects entrepreneurs with HR professionals): SEK2.7M (€240K, $260K) from new and existing angel investors (Swedish / Breakit paywall)

• Avay (Stockholm, platform for investments in shared vacation properties): €150K ($160K) in pre-seed funding from Antler. The company just launched its platform. ➡️ First covered in my PRO subscription on May 23.

• Fairpoint Capital led a €8M ($9M) round raised by Norway-based startup Muybridge, which develops a technology and platform that transforms cameras into software (English). More on Fairpoint Capital in the news section further down.

• For PRO subscribers: 6 additional rounds as well as more details and numbers for many of the above mentioned rounds (English).

• For PRO subscribers: Google Sheet with funding data, 1000+ rounds added during the past 12 months, updated daily (English).

News from the Swedish startup & tech sector

• Northvolt is reportedly in talks with investors and lenders to secure about €200M ($218M) in short-term funding. The struggling battery maker also says it will be able to pay its taxes of SEK287M ($27.5M) that fall due today (English).

• Simulair, Stockholm-based startup which developed a machine for fighting bed bugs, was named "Startup of the Year 2024" at the Venture Cup Startup 2024 Sweden final (Swedish, machine translation). ➡️ Company first covered in my PRO subscription in April 2023.

• gptme is a new open source personal AI assistant for the terminal, created by Swedish software engineer Erik Bjäreholt. ➡️ First covered in my PRO subscription on October 8.

• Kvist.ai, new Stockholm-based startup that aims to build the next generation edutainment platform, has launched a Chrome extension for its AI-powered quiz generation tool, that lets users create instant quizzes from any webpage. ➡️ Company first covered in my PRO subscription on September 19.

• Worldish, Linköping-based startup specialised in communication assistance solutions for breaking communication barriers, is launching Helen Amigo! – an AI language coach for professionals and students. It's initially available as Android app and on the web (English).

• Pirr, Stockholm-based app for personalized, AI-driven erotic stories, launched a browser version.

• GAIA Biomaterials, Helsingborg-based manufacturer of a material that has most of the qualities of plastic, but not the disadvantages, will supply the US sustainable serviceware producer Evanesce, for the production of 7.5 million drinking straws (English).

• Västerås-based startup NoviOcean has tested a third-gen prototype of its floating combination wind/solar/wave energy platform. Next step: a full-scale pilot (English). The company is about to launch an equity crowfunding campaign.

• Profile of Parking Time and interview with founder and CEO Matilda Öhman. The Nyköping-based startup is bringing the parking disc into the digital age (Swedish, machine translation).

• David Prien, co-founder of Stockholm-based digital veterinary clinic FirstVet, is stepping down as CEO after 8.5 years, to – quote – "focus on what I love most: partnerships and international expansion". His co-founder colleague Per Victor is taking over at the helm (English).

• Exeger, Stockholm-based manufacturer of flexible solar cells made to power gadgets, is cutting around 20% of the workforce, affecting approximately 45 employees (Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

• The power struggle between Klarna's two founders Sebastian Siemiatkowski (Klarna CEO) and Victor Jacobsson (not active in the company anymore, but a significant shareholder) continues (English).

• Apotea, Swedish online pharmacy, is reportedly considering an IPO in Sweden as soon as this year, raising $200M to $300M (English).

• Sting launched the "Sting Climate Race", a six-week program for climate tech startups with the goal of raising funding (English).

• The applications for Di Digital's annual Female Founders pitch competition are open (Swedish).

• The applications for Antler Nordics Spring 2025 program are open, as usual targeting individuals ready to start something new, and who are looking for the right co-founder (English).

• Fairpoint Capital announced the first closing of its second fund, at SEK600M, to invest in "innovative Nordic companies built by passionate founders around fundamentally original engineering (English).

• Stockholm-based Zenith VC announced two new Partners: Oliver Molander (based in Stockholm), and Dany Bidar (based in London) (English).

• J12 Ventures, Stockholm-based early-stage VC firm, published an extensive report on "what's next in data and AI" (English).

• For PRO subscribers: 16 new Swedish tech startups tracked last week, among them 6 stealth startups. You won't read about most of these 16 companies anywhere else yet (English).

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

• Venture funding to European startups reached $10B in Q3 2024 — the lowest quarter since Q3 2020, according to Crunchbase data (English).

• The share of exits in which VCs made back less than their initial investment is at the highest level since at least the global financial crisis of 2007-09, according to PitchBook (English).

• London-based AI investment firm Air Street Capital has released its seventh State of AI report (English).

• A report on "the untold stories of mothers in VC" (English).

• How incumbents try to kill innovative ideas inside of organizations and at startups (English).

• How good leaders stay in the detail and run great companies at scale (English).

• Uncertainty ahead for the .io domain: The British government is giving up ownership of the Chagos Islands, marking the end for the British Indian Ocean Territory (English).

• How to be a VC before you know if you’re any good at it (English).

• The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Nobel Prizes for AI-related research and its pioneers, in Physics and Chemistry (English, English).

• Sweden's inflation fell to its lowest level in almost five years (English).

• Sweden’s Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) has released a new version of its famous "If Crisis or War Comes" booklet. It states that Swedes must be able to survive on their own, without assistance from the rest of society, for a week (English).

• High school students in Sweden can now choose AI as a subject – a year earlier than planned. However, so far only eight teachers are qualified in the subject (Swedish, no machine translation available).

• Swedish astrophysicist Ylva Götberg is one of the 100 names on Time Magazine's latest list of people who are shaping the future, Time100 Next (English).

• Automatos is a new comparison site for EVs launched by the gadget/tech publication Feber, featuring all 284 models that are officially sold in Sweden.