Swedish Tech Weekly #291


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 2688 subscribers today.

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Mergers & acquisitions


• China-based HongShan Capital Group is acquiring a majority stake in Stockholm-based audio and music tech company Marshall Group, which is being valued at €1.1B in the deal (English).

• Swedish PE firm Standout Capital acquires a majority stake in Denmark-based startup Tjekvik, a provider of self-service software solutions for the automotive aftermarket (English).

Funding news

Do you have unreported funding news you want to see here? Respond to this email.

• Neko Health (Stockholm, preventive healthcare using AI-powered early detection methods): $260M in a Series B funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from General Catalyst, Rosello (Martin Lorentzon), O.G. Venture Partners, Lakestar and Atomico. The post-money valuation reportedly was $1.8B (English).

• Wingbits (Stockholm, decentralized physical infrastructure network for aviation): $5.6M led by existing investor Borderless Capital and new investor Bullish Capital (English). ➡️ Startup first covered in Swedish Tech News PRO in November 2023.

• Carla (Stockholm, online store for used electric vehicles): SEK38M (€3.3M, $3.5M) from existing investors (English, Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

• Open Payments (Stockholm, B2B SaaS solution providing infrastructure for open banking): €3M ($3.1M) led by Alfvén & Didrikson, for the continued European expansion (English).

• RECOMA (Hässleholm; developer of a low-carbon, fully circular alternative to traditional construction boards, made from discarded waste): SEK30M (€2.6M, $2.7M) from new investor GES Group, and existing investors (Swedish / Impact Loop paywall). ➡️ Funding first covered in Swedish Tech News PRO on January 20.

• Sightic, formerly Eyescanner (Gothenburg, AI-based software for drug and alcohol testing): SEK25M (€2.2M, $2.3M) led by automotive industry veteran Gunnar Bark (Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

• Charge Amps (Stockholm, manufacturer of smart EV charging solutions): SEK19.4M (€1.7M, $1.8M) from existing investors (English).

• nomio (Stockholm; patented and clinically science-backed performance enhancer for athletes, made from natural ingredients): SEK13M (€1.1M, $1.2M) from Antler and angel investors (Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

• Xaga Surgical (Helsingborg, reinventing the medical needle, founded 2016): SEK8M (€700K, $730K) from Almi Invest, SmiLe Inject Capital, and private investors (English).

• Innoscentia (Lund, technology for a more accurate shelf life determination to reduce food waste): SEK6M (€520K, $540K) from existing angel investors (English, Swedish / Impact Loop paywall).

• Vaja (Stockholm, developing solar tracking and mounting systems): SEK4.5M (€400K, $410K) in pre-seed funding from node.vc. With this announcement, the startup comes out of stealth mode (English, Swedish / Breakit paywall). ➡️ Startup first covered in May 2024 in Swedish Tech News PRO.

• Nothing Fishy (Landskrona, maker of vegan fish substitute): undisclosed amount from new investors Rickard Häll, Saminvest, and Skåne Ventures, with participation from existing investor Eqventus (Swedish, machine translation).

• Klang.ai (Helsingborg, SaaS for AI-powered interview and meeting transcription): SEK3M (€260K, $270K) from angel investors (English). ➡️ Funding first covered in Swedish Tech News PRO on January 20.

• Eliq (Gothenburg, open platform for energy data): undisclosed amount from Volvo Cars Tech Fund (English). ➡️ Funding first covered in Swedish Tech News PRO in September 2024.

• Creandum led a €25M Series A funding round raised by German startup Sereact, which develops AI-powered robotics solutions (English).

• EQT Ventures led a €16M Series A funding round raised by German energy management software provider ecoplanet (English).

• For PRO subscribers: 9 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).

• For PRO subscribers (and founders): Exclusive funding database located at data.swedishtechnews.com.

News from the Swedish startup & tech sector

• Sourceful Energy, based in Kalmar, wants to build the world’s largest network of distributed energy resources (Swedish, machine translation).

• Sana, the Swedish enterprise AI startup, aims to become a public company in the US in a couple of years, says founder and CEO Joel Hellermark (English).

• Flightradar24, Stockholm-based flight tracking service, grew net revenue during the financial year 2023/2024 by 18% to over SEK417.9M. Pre-tax profit was SEK274M, vs SEK229M during the previous period. ➡️ More fresh annual numbers from Swedish tech startups/scaleups covered last week in Swedish Tech News PRO.

• The former CEO of Skåne Startups, Arlon den Teuling, has founded PhaseOne AI – a full service AI automation agency, targeting startups and innovative companies (English). ➡️ First covered in Swedish Tech News PRO in December 2024.

• Esther's, Stockholm-based online community for interior design to monetize creator marketing, has shut down (Swedish, machine translation). ➡️ Added to the bankruptcy & shutdowns tracker available to PRO subscribers. Several additional shut downs covered last week.

• Lovable, the Swedish AI web app builder, launched a native integration with the desing tool Builder.io, enabling Lovable users to turn Figma designs into apps (English).

• Apica, Stockholm-based active monitoring platform that helps solve complex digital performance issues, is launching a free plan for "enterprise-grade telemetry data management and observability" (English).

• Planboo, Stockholm-based startup facilitating carbon removal through applying biochar to soils, announced that e-commerce platform giant Shopify signed a carbon removal offtake (English).

• CemVision, Stockholm-based developer of "the world's most resource-efficient cement", is expanding into the UK (Swedish, machine translation).

• Hemla faces criticism for sending an advertising brochure to a couple of thousand households, which resembles the look of the famous booklet “In case of crisis or war” distributed by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

• MoveByBike, publicly traded Malmö-based smart city logistics provider, applied for a corporate restructuring process (Swedish, machine translation).

• Truecaller, publicly traded Swedish caller ID company, is bringing real-time caller ID support to its paying iOS subscribers, thanks to Apple finally supporting this with iOS 18 (English).

• This year's Norrsken Impact Week will again take place in Barcelona, on October 1-2 (English). ➡️ Added to the Swedish tech event calendar PRO subscribers.

• Industrifonden published a report on the state of the deep tech funding landscape in Sweden (English).

• Flat Capital invests SEK49M in a "mini-portfolio" consisting of four US-based AI companies, including Anysphere, maker of Cursor (English).


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Selected Swedish tech startup jobs

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

• Marketing Manager (Geofy)
• Global Partner Manager (Mevisio)
• Senior QA Engineer (Neko Health)
• Strategic Marketing and Sales Manager (Profundus)
• Senior Backend Developer (.NET) (Majority)
• Electrical Engineer (LexEnergy)
• Lead AI Developer (Zimply)
• Project Manager (Bizzdo)
• Fullstack Product Engineer (Scratx)
• Backend Developer (Kivra)

To the listings

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond


• Deloitte published its 16th annual Tech Trends report (English).

• The applications for Y Combinator's first ever spring batch, abbreviated X25, are open (English).

• Carta published a report detailing how startups in the US divide their equity among co-founders and other key shareholders (English).

• Reasons why a VC may not invest in a startup, that are disconnected from the company's fundamentals and outside the founders' control (English).

• Solar generated 11% of EU electricity in 2024, overtaking coal which fell below 10% for the first time. EU gas generation declined for the fifth year in a row, and total fossil generation fell to a historic low (English).

• During the current academic year, 40,892 high school students in Sweden are running a so called youth company (UF), a new record (Swedish, machine translation).

• On the roads of Örnsköldsvik in Sweden's north, an autonomous, AI- and sensor-powered salt spreader will be tested (Swedish, machine translation).

• Two Swedish government agencies launched guidelines to promote the use of generative AI in public administration (Swedish).

• In October, construction of the world's largest city made entirely from timber – "Stockholm Wood City" – began. It is set to provide 2,000 new homes by 2027 (English).

• Alma and Noah were Sweden's most popular names for newborns in 2024 (Swedish, machine translation).