Swedish Tech Weekly #327: Encube, GreenIron, Strawberry, Sportway, Liquid Wind, Helios Innovations, Zivi, Real Talk, Detecht, T-Unit, Stegra, Superagent, Sortrace, Sourceful Energy, Natural Cycles, Deliplant, Grewbik, Telgea, and more

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

I'm Martin Weigert. Every Monday morning, Swedish Tech Weekly brings you a selection of some of the news I previously covered in my PRO newsletters, which are available as daily and weekly version. Today's newsletter was sent to 3101 subscribers.

Mergers & acquisitions

• Sportway (Stockholm, AI-automated sports video and data production) acquires French competitor Sportall (English) and Dutch industry peer Eyecons (English).

• Nordtech, Swedish acquirer of niche software companies, acquires Optiplan (Norrköping, digital solutions for schools and transportation) (Swedish, machine translation) and BM System (Uppsala, developer of intelligent management systems (Swedish, machine translation).

• Intelliplan (Stockholm, SaaS systems for recruitment and staffing) acquires EuroNetics, Linköping-based industry peer (Swedish, machine translation).

• Swedish bank SEB acquired an unspecified minority stake in Nordic Angels, Stockholm-based high trust social network for angel investors (Swedish, machine translation).

Get 50% off all Techarena 2026 tickets!
Connect with 12,000 founders, investors, and decision-makers.

Want more visibility? Apply for a startup booth now: techarena.se/2026

Funding news

Sweden-based startup founders, request free access to my funding and investor database.

Note to first time founders: Raising VC funding is not a goal in itself, and not every company is a fit for it. If you plan to choose that path, make sure to understand the implications.

• Encube (Stockholm; visual collaboration platform for hardware teams): $23M in now announced seed and Series A funding from Kinnevik, Promus Ventures, and Inventure. With this, Encube comes out of stealth mode (English). ➡️ Seed funding first covered in Swedish Tech News PRO in early 2024; Series A funding first covered in PRO in January.

• GreenIron (Stockholm; technology for reducing the climate footprint of the world’s metal, mining and manufacturing industries): SEK125M (€11M, $13M) from existing investors such as FAM, Almi Invest GreenTech, and Longrun Capital. FAM recently also converted a SEK111M loan into equity (Swedish / Impact Loop paywall).

• epiminds (Stockholm, multi agentic teams for marketing): $6.6M in a seed funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. With this, the startup comes out of stealth (English). ➡️ Company added on June 3 to the New Startup Database for PRO subscribers.

• Strawberry (Stockholm, AI browser): $6M from General Catalyst, EQT Ventures, and angel investors (English). ➡️ EQT investment first covered in PRO in fall 2024; General Catalyst investment first covered in PRO on August 23.

• Sportway (Stockholm, AI-automated sports video and data production): SEK42M (€3.8M, $4.4M) from existing investors (Swedish / Di Digital paywall). ➡️ Partial closing first covered in PRO on October 9.

• Liquid Wind (Gothenburg, eFuel facility developer): €3.6M ($4.2M) grant from the Swedish Energy Agency’s "Industriklivet" program (English).

• Helios Innovations (Halmstad, evaporation technology that cleans process fluids using waste heat): SEK14.2M (€1.3M, $1.5M) from BackingMinds, partly for the international expansion (English).

• Zivi, formerly Woshapp (Linköping, digital provider of B2B car care services): SEK8M (€730K, $840K) from existing investors such as CSB Capital and Bonnier Capital (Swedish / Impact Loop paywall).

• Real Talk (Stockholm, solution for answering support calls automatically with AI): SEK6M (€540K, $630K) led by Almi Invest, with participation from DHS Venture Partners, Simon Josefsson, Mattias Weinhandl, and Leo Giertz (English).

• Detecht (Gothenburg, motorcycle app with automatic crash detection): undisclosed amount from existing investors Chalmers Ventures, Almi Invest, and Länsförsäkringar, partly for the international expansion (Swedish, machine translation).

PRO subscribers learned more details for most of these rounds, as well as about many more funding rounds last week.

PRO subscribers also get full access to the Startup Database by Swedish Tech News, packed with high quality curated data.

For the movers & shakers

We prep, plan, negotiate and execute big deals so you don’t have to worry about legal friction.

Qap Legal - your M&A boutique law firm

Let’s shake! →

News from the Swedish startup & tech sector

• The Spotify founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon are reuniting, and have founded a new Stockholm-based software startup named T-Unit. According to a job ad, T-Unit is "building tools that help society withstand and adapt to security threats, natural disasters, extreme weather and other threats" (Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

• Stegra, developer of a fossil-free steel plant being built in northern Sweden, is raising SEK10B in additional funding (Swedish, machine translation). Existing investors, including FAM, Altor and Harald Mix, state that they will participate (Swedish, machine translation).

• Superagent, Y Combinator-backed Gothenburg-based startup, has pivoted, and is now "building open-source defense for AI agents" (English).

• Sortrace, Stockholm-based AI-powered waste detection solution for municipalities and waste management companies, is now being tested in the city of Östersund (English, Swedish). ➡️ Company added in January to the New Startup Database for PRO subscribers.

• Sourceful Energy (formerly SRCFUL), Kalmar-based startup aiming to build the world’s largest network of distributed energy resources, is launching a solution for storing, using and selling electricity via the electric car (Swedish, machine translation). ➡️ Yet-to-be-announced seed funding first covered in PRO in April.

• Natural Cycles, Stockholm-based digital birth control solution, is expanding with a tool for women who are navigating perimenopause, and also launches an accompanying wearable (English).

• Profile of Uppsala-based startup Deliplant and interview with the founder Sarosh Bejai Ramachandra. The company is developing technology for autonomous & AI driven vertical farming (Swedish, machine translation).

The news continue after the sponsor ad

Startup Recruitment is a leading recruitment partner for startups and scaleups, combining AI-driven precision with human expertise.

We offer both headhunting and interim recruiters to help fast-growing tech companies hire CTOs.

Contact us: startuprecruitment.se

• Grewbik, a startup from western Sweden, has launched the pre-orders for its modular children's bicycle "that grows with the child". ➡️ Added on April 23 to the New Startup Database for PRO subscribers.

• Telgea, based in Stockholm, launched a startup program, giving young growth companies "access to enterprise-grade mobile infrastructure, without enterprise pricing" (English). ➡️ Company added in July 2024 to the New Startup Database for PRO subscribers.

• The Swedish Energy Agency and Cleantech Scandinavia launched the Cleantech Investment Accelerator: Seed Track, designed to attract both national and international private capital to energy startups and SME (English).

• The Swedish Energy Agency has granted support totaling approximately SEK178M to 22 research and innovation projects for the development of future nuclear power (Swedish, machine translation).

• A study on the Swedish medtech market (English).

• The Norrsken Foundation will host "the world's largest fixathon" on December 5-6 – a global hackathon focused on tackling the world's biggest problems (English).

• The winners of last week's Angel Prize awards – the annual angel investor event hosted by Nordic Angels (English).

Exclusives in PRO last week

• A startup from western Sweden, which aims to transform idle processors into virtual data centers, emerged from stealth mode.

• Three Klarna alumni are building a new startup to "rethink the rails of the CFO office".

• First details on a Stockholm-based startup that wants to improve childbirth.

• An AI-powered PR platform from Stockholm promises startups/scaleups to "get media coverage without a PR agency".

• A new startup founded earlier this year, already touts "over 100 large corporate customers on both sides of the Atlantic". The company just raised a family and friends round.

• A Stockhom-based startup that's making extremely small optical components, secured first funding.

• A foodtech startup from western Sweden has raised its first funding round at a valuation of SEK200M, after several years in existence.

• 25 new Swedish tech startups

Selected Swedish tech startup jobs

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

• Founding Full-stack Engineer (epiminds)
• Marketing & Growth Specialist (Lumoo Studio
• Technical Project Manager (Nordic Air Defence)
• Various roles including Startup Operations Manager (Cytely)
• Clinical Manager (Din Psykolog)
• Customer Delivery Manager (Fidesmo)
• Strategic Brand Manager (Magma)
• Head of Operations (Done)
• Growth Director (EMEA) (Einride)
• Senior XR/Unity Developer (Flowtropolis)
• Backend developer (Froda)
• Sales Director (Kreditz)
• Account Executive (PocketLaw)
• Fullstack Developer (Portally)
• Head of Collector Ops (ABC Labs)

To the listings

Special shout-out to my partner Eivora for providing me with access to their awesome AI-powered ownership database of Swedish companies.

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

• Creandum launched its annual Founders' Compensation Survey (English).

• Nordic Blue by A’Pelago is the the region’s first equity-free accelerator dedicated to startups in the blue economy (English).

Other interesting things related to Sweden

• Sweden has the highest median speed for train Wi-Fi in Europe (Swedish, machine translation).

• In Sweden, training for 'mushroom consultants' is in high demand (English).

• A report shows what Swedes want most in city centers: more greenery (36%), more restaurant/café outdoor seating (29%), and more shops (27%) (Swedish, machine translation).

• Swedes will soon be able to travel to China without needing a visa, though details are still scarce (Swedish, machine translation).

+++

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

Martin