Swedish Tech Weekly #290


Welcome 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 previously covered in my daily PRO newsletters, and is sent to 2687 subscribers today.

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Mergers & acquisitions


• Insert Coin (Gothenburg, B2B SaaS provider of gamification technology under the brand name GWEN) has been acquired by Linköping-based software company BRP Systems (English).

• Primetime, Swedish mobile app for live quizzes, was bought back by one of its founders, Martin Palm, from mobile gaming company MAG Interactive, for a symbolic 1 SEK (English).

• Watersprint (Lund, patented UV LED-based water purification technology) acquired the assets of bankrupt Canada-based industry peer Acuva (English).

• The estate of bankrupt Stockholm-based EV charging solutions provider Eways has been acquired by the Swedish vehicle wholesaler KG Knutsson, which plans to continue Eways' operations (Swedish, machine translation).

• EasyPark (Stockholm, provider of digital parking and mobility solutions) acquires France-based industry peer Flowbird Group (English).

• Aonic (Stockholm, video gaming and technology group) is buying a 10% stake in Turkey-based mobile gaming loyalty and discovery platform operator Mega Fortuna, with the option to acquire its entire share capital for $70M (English).

Funding news

• Privasea (Gothenburg; provider of fully homomorphic encryption solutions using blockchain technology, to attest users' human liveness to protect their digital presence from bots and AI impersonations): $15M in a Series A funding round from crypto investors (English).

• Clira, formerly AreaChica (Stockholm; B2B procurement platform and marketplace): SEK22M (€1.9M, $2M) from individuals and angel investors (Swedish, machine translation).

• Rebel Work (Stockholm, SaaS solution for administrating a limited company): SEK6M (€520K, $530K) from Green Frug (Swedish / Breakit paywall).

• PlayWellMinds (Stockholm, app for mental training for young people): seven-digit amount from angel investors (Swedish / Di Digital paywall). ➡️ Startup first covered in August 2024 in Swedish Tech News PRO.

• Kattalo (Gothenburg, digital service for teachers to support children's early language development): SEK1M (€87K, $90K) grant from the National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools, SPSM (Swedish, machine translation).

• Meadow (Stockholm, circular system that turns the aluminum beverage can into versatile pre-fill solution for use across different categories): undisclosed amount in a strategic investment from US-based Ball Corporation (English). ➡️ Meadow has kept a low profile so far, despite having raised over SEK130M in mostly unannounced funding. I first covered the company in Swedish Tech News PRO in April 2024.

• Nordic Forestry Automation (Lund, digital perception technology enabling future forestry): undisclosed amount from new investor Navigare Ventures, and existing investors Sveaskog, Södra Ädla and Almi Invest (English).

• OurGreenCar (Malmö, platform for group sharing of EVs): undisclosed amount from angel investors (Swedish).

• Creandum led a $8M seed funding round raised by the AI networking startup Boardy (English).

• Creandum also participated in a $8M funding round raised by Lithuania-based startup nexos.ai, building an AI orchestration platform for the agentic era (English).

• Volvo Cars Tech Fund participated in a €120M Series B funding round raised by German humanoid robotics company NEURA Robotics (English).

• For PRO subscribers: 12 additional rounds as well as more details and numbers (English).

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

• Funding data can also be found in my new database located at data.swedishtechnews.com. It's currently free for founders.

News from the Swedish startup & tech sector

• Emfas, a Stockholm-based startup founded last year, has emerged from stealth mode. The company offers an "AI workspace for product catalogs", to solve "the e-commerce product enrichment process" (English). ➡️ First covered in July 2024 in Swedish Tech News PRO.

• Also coming out of stealth mode: SWEBAL, a startup co-founded by former Minna Technologies co-founder Joakim Sjöblöm, aiming to establish a manufacturing plant for TNT in Sweden, as a "vital part of European supply chains" (English). ➡️ First covered in November 2024 in Swedish Tech News PRO.

• AI-Access is a side project created by PaidTabs founder and CEO Adam Lababidi, offering an "exclusive community of AI founders", and promising "direct access to AI tools, technical implementation guidance, and proven growth strategies". ➡️ First covered on December 17 in Swedish Tech News PRO.

• Swedish startup Mantaray has developed a new hydrofoil boat (Swedish, machine translation).

• Peafowl Plasmonics, VC-backed developer of plasmonic solar cell technology, has shut down and been liquidated (Swedish / Di Digital paywall). ➡️ Liquidation first covered in May 2024 in Swedish Tech News PRO.

• Swedish energy storage solutions provider Polarium, and Stella Futura, Swedish Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) developer, will bundle some products and services, to "accelerate the deployment of BESS in Northern Europe" (English).

• BONI, Stockholm-based all-in-one interior design tool, is adding a floor plan feature to its SaaS solution, to "designing accurate, to-scale floor plans and layouts" (English).

• Meva Energy, Gothenburg-based provider of clean energy solutions to customers in the manufacturing industry, has entered into a 15-year agreement with European copper wire manufacturer Elcowire, worth SEK500M English).

• Di Digital launched the annual voting for female founder of the year (Swedish) and female investor of the year (Swedish).

• Creandum published the third edition of their annual report on early-stage founder compensation (English).

• Boozt, Swedish online fashion retailer, is laying off around 10% of the workforce, citing efficiency gains thanks to AI (Swedish, machine translation).

• Klarna's buy now, pay later service will become available as a payment option for merchants using Stripe's payment tools in 26 countries (English).

• The applications for Fast Track Malmö's Accelerator 2025 are open (English).

• Sthlm Tech Week, a five-day forum initiated by serial founder Ludvig Bergström, will take place on September 15-19 (English). ➡️ Added to the Swedish tech event calendar for PRO subscribers.

• Mashup, the annual event described as "the most exclusive startup conference in Europe", will take place on May 27-28, as usual in Malmö. ➡️ Added to the Swedish tech event calendar for PRO subscribers.

• Stockholm-based seed stage VC firm Luminar Ventures promoted Reid Jackson to Partner, and Eira Tobrand to Associate (English).

• Almi Invest GreenTech has recruited Linda Murray Wennberg as Investment Manager (Swedish).

• 📺 Video podcast interview with Rebecca Sjödin, co-founder of and Principal at Stockholm-based early stage VC firm node.vc, on what it’s like to raise funding from a fund’s point of view (English / 36 minutes).


PRO subscribers also read last week

• 14 new Swedish tech startups tracked, close to 700 during the past 12 months

• A stealth startup using AI for waste detection raised pre-seed funding

• Two serial entrepreneurs have founded a new startup seeking to improve monitoring of data privacy incidents

• Another serial entrepreneur is building again, aiming to help parents to protect their kids online

• A bootstrapped software startup which made waves in 2024, built a dev tool for internal use, and decided to launch it as its own product

• A marketplace startup which grew revenue by over 150% YoY to over SEK10M, is bankrupt

• An up-and-coming startup in the distributed energy space is releasing a smart meter device

• A Malmö-based startup using AI to detect mental illness went bankrupt in 2024, but returned under new name

• An under-the-radar EV niche startup opened a pre-seed round

And much more! Swedish Tech News PRO gives startup investors, analysts, and VC teams an easy information advantage. Join today.

Selected Swedish tech startup jobs

A non-exhaustive selection of open positions at Swedish tech startups.

• HR Administrator (360Player)
• E-Commerce & Logistics Manager (Soundtrack)
• Head of Marketing (Personalkollen)
• Group Brand Lead (Stegra)
• R&D Chemist (Vividye)
• Senior Backend Engineer (Combify)
• Data Scientist (Rule)
• Chief Product Officer (Hypocampus)
• Senior Backend Engineer (Gilion)

To the listings

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond


• VCs don't owe founders a response or a follow up (English).

• The uncertainty of what comes next for SaaS companies is a large potential risk to valuations today (English).

• Google’s share of the global search engine market fell below 90% for the first time since 2015, according to Statcounter (English).

• 📺 Here's the lauded CES speech by Sweden's Deputy Prime Minister, Ebba Busch, in which she promotes Swedish innovation, and talks about hope fueled by technological progress (English, 8 minutes).

• The Swedish Companies Registration Office is no longer permitting companies with more than three shareholders to make board decisions without holding a physical or digital general meeting (Swedish, machine translation).

• FOI, the Swedish Defence Research Agency, is launching an open crowd forecasting platform named Glimt, to help Ukrainian authorities with data to support analysis and decision-making.

• Swedish PM says the country is neither at war nor at peace (English).

• Sweden has started building a final storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, only the second such site in the world, where highly radioactive waste will be stored for 100,000 years (English).

• The number of cinema visits in Sweden in 2024 dropped by 5% YoY to 10.6 million (Swedish, machine translation).

• For most Swedes, the country's quasi-cashless economy is swift and convenient. But for the few people who still depend on cash, life is getting harder (English).

• Sweden plans to tighten citizenship requirements (English).

• Burgerdudes' annual list of Sweden's 100 best hamburger restaurants is out (Swedish, machine translation).

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That's it for this week. Thank you for being a subscriber!

Martin