Swedish Tech Weekly #293


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 2706 subscribers today.

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Mergers & acquisitions

• Dryft, Stockholm-based tech enabled full-service provider for home improvement and maintenance, is merging with Renomate, Stockholm-based home renovation service (Swedish).

• Leaseright (greater Trollhättan area, solution that automates and optimizes the handling of leasing and rental agreements) is being acquired by Nordtech, Stockholm-based acquirer of niche software companies (Swedish / Breakit paywall).

• Vitec, Umeå-based publicly traded provider and acquirer of standardized software and SaaS solutions for various niches, is acquiring the Netherlands-based software company Intergrip (English).

Funding news

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• Froda (Stockholm, digital loan provider for small businesses): €100M ($104M) additional loan guarantee through the European Investment Fund, expanding on a previous €50M lending capacity (English).

• Teneo.ai, formerly Artificial Solutions (Stockholm, publicly traded AI-driven automation solutions for voice and text-based customer service): SEK60M (€5.3M, $5.5M) before issue costs through a directed share issue to new and existing shareholders (English).

• Green14 (Stockholm, technology for decarbonising the production of Silicon): €2M ($2.1M) from Ingka Investments (English).

• Payap (Helsingborg, online payroll solution): SEK10M (€880K, $920K) led by Ulf Bokelund Svensson, CEO at SME financial software provider Bjorn Lunden, partly for the European expansion (Swedish).

• Dynamic Code (Linköping, provider of end consumer health and diagnostic tests): SEK6M (€530K, $550K) from new and existing investors, in a first closing of an ongoing round (Swedish / Breakit paywall).

• Konvoj (Stockholm, scheduling solution for healthcare and social care): €75K ($77K) grant from the Women TechEU program, as the only Nordic company (English).

• FenoMark Diagnostics (Stockholm, developing better diagnostic assays for cancer therapy selection): undisclosed amount from Almi Invest, KI Holding, Blue Cabinet, and angel investors (Swedish).

• DREV (Gothenburg, developer of sustainable battery cleaning technology): undisclosed amount from EIT Manufacturing (English).

• Blue Ocean Closures (Karlstad, developer of cellulose fiber based caps and lids that are recyclable as paper): undisclosed amount in a strategic investment from Japan-headquartered technology company Nissha Group (English).

News from the Swedish startup & tech sector

• Spotify generated a net profit of €1.14B in 2024 – the company's first full year with profitability (English).

• Freda is the name of a new fintech startup in stealth mode, founded by the founders of Stockholm-based open banking platform Tink (acquired by Visa in 2021 for €1.8B), Daniel Kjellén and Fredrik Hedberg.

• Eqvor, based in Umeå, launched an online trading platform for secondaries in unlisted Swedish companies (Swedish, machine translation). ➡️ Startup first covered in January 2024 in Swedish Tech News PRO.

• Sting announced the ten startups selected for its spring 2025 cohort (English). ➡️ Eight of them have previously been covered in Swedish Tech News PRO.

• Waveium, a Lund-based startup offering a solution for instant API-powered wireless simulations to enable devices "see" changes before they happen, has emerged from stealth mode. ➡️ Added on January 31 to the New Startup Database for PRO subscribers.

• Another startup from Lund just came out of stealth: BuyBye, aiming to "make it super easy for anyone to buy and sell second-hand stuff". ➡️ Added on October 9 to the New Startup Database for PRO subscribers.

• Klimra, a Stockholm-based startup, has launched its service that promises to fully automate train travel reimbursement. ➡️ Added on June 17 to the New Startup Database for PRO subscribers.

• Grönska, Stockholm-based vertical farming company, is restarting after bankruptcy, now fully focused on providing vertical grow cabinets (Swedish / Impact Loop paywall).

• New for PRO subscribers: The exclusive Swedish Tech News Database located at data.swedishtechnews.com, featuring curated data on funding, new startups, and bankruptcies/shutdowns.

• Blykalla, Stockholm-based nuclear energy startup, broke ground for its Advanced Reactor Test Site, which will hold the company's electrical test reactor. Blykalla describes this as "massive step toward realizing our goal of building Europe's first advanced SMR" (English).

• Ribbn, Sweden-founded commerce platform for resale merchants, announced "the world’s first AI-powered resale stores", deeply integrated with Ribbn's platform, located in Stockholm (English).

• Varannan Vecka launched its subscription app for separated parents and their children on the US market under the name Co-Parenting.

• RapidRide is a newly launched initiative by the two EV mobility startups Vidde and STILRIDE, aiming to enable new companies in the electric mobility space to kickstart their development and shorten time to market.

• Your Way Home, based in Stockholm is pivoting: From previously focusing on building micro-mobility services helping to get home safe at night, the startup is now developing an app helping parents to make sure their kids are safe, while also offering autonomy to children.

• The New York Times published a long profile of Klarna's Sebastian Siemiatkowski, titled "Why Is This C.E.O. Bragging About Replacing Humans With A.I.?" (English).

• A new version of the Swedish Climate Startup Map is available, now featuring 542 companies, 34 more than last year (English).

• The applications for Venture Cup's annual national startup competition STARTUP are open (English).

• The nominations for NyTeknik's annual list of Sweden's 33 most innovative and promising tech startups are open (Swedish).

• Vinnova, Sweden's innovation agency, has awarded grants to 31 Swedish startup incubators (English / scroll down for the list).

• IKEA plans to launch a business incubator at its headquarter in Älmhult later this year (Swedish, machine translation).

• The UK-founded initiative Girls Are Investors (GAIN) has launched in Sweden. GAIN is dedicated to improving the gender balance within the investment management industry.

• Swedish climate tech VC Course Corrected (CC), run by Christine Ahlstrand, Katja Bergman and Kerstin Cooley, announced the first close of ifs second fund, "exceeding SEK720M" (English / PDF).

• Apropos climate tech: There has been some talk lately about the category supposedly being dead. Climate-focused Swedish VC firm Pale blue dot says: "Stop talking about labels and get back to work" (English).

• Germany-headquartered VC firm Cherry Ventures, which also has a base in Stockholm, raised $500M in two new funds, to support "the first trillion-dollar company in Europe", and help "make European tech a global force" (English).

• Emblem, a Paris-headquartered VC firm which has Sweden as one of its three special focus regions, closed its first fund at €80M (English).

Selected Swedish tech startup jobs

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

• Various roles in Engineering, Product Design, Product Management, Compliance (Freda)
• Director of Marketing (Normative)
• Product Development Engineer – Optics & Microscopy (Holtra)
• CTO (Meela)
• Automation Technician (Gimic)
• Senior Frontend Developer (intric)
• CFO (DP Patterning)
• CX Designer & Frontend Developer (SolidSport)

To the listings

• Sweden is in shock following the country's "worst mass shooting in history", which left 11 people dead (including the shooter) at an adult education center in Örebro (English).

• Inflation in Sweden increased to 2.2 percent in January, in a surprise jump that dampens hopes of interest rate cuts in the near future (English).

• Expressen, one of Sweden's two major tabloid newspapers, is rolling out AI-powered audio versions of its articles (Swedish).

• Swedish nicotine pouches are taking over the US (English).

• The city of Malmö launches a new cohort of its Residency program, which offers up some core resources and paid travel + accommodation for those looking to temporarily base themselves in the city to develop a new idea, start a new project, or find partners to collaborate with (English).

• The Finnish business community envisions a direct link between the city of Turku (Åbo), and Stockholm, via the Åland Islands (Swedish).