Swedish Tech Weekly #339: Kaisa, Bright Energy, Avy, Appetite, Polar Light Technologies, Skygaard, Influeri, Toxotech, Molecular Attraction, Gambit, Energy Node, Vaja, Pubblo, GreenBioNourish, Besca, Svevr, eve, Hooked Foods, 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 3153 subscribers.

• Monterro, Swedish B2B software growth investor, has acquired a majority stake in Kaisa, Uppsala-based customer engagement platform for high-consideration purchases such as cars (English). ➡️ Added to the new Exits Database for PRO subscribers.

• Bright Energy (Stockholm, digital white-label platform for the energy sector) was acquired by Denmark-based software company EG (English). ➡️ Added to the Exits Database for PRO subscribers.

• Avy (Stockholm, tenant experience platform used by property owners across the Nordics) has been acquired by Stockholm-based investment company Fidelio Capital (English). ➡️ Added to the Exits Database for PRO subscribers.

• Appetite (Örebro, modular, AI-powered platform designed for the food and convenience service industry) is merging with Swedish industry peer Qvanti (Swedish, machine translation). ➡️ Added to the Exits Database for PRO subscribers.

PRO subscribers last week learned more details about each of these deals.

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• Polar Light Technologies (Linköping, developer of next-generation MicroLED technologies): €5M+ ($6M+) funding round led by existing investor J2L Holding (funding detail page).

• Skygaard (Stockhom, service for authorities and businesses to detect, track, and counter unauthorized drone flights): SEK10M (€930K, $1.1M) from Swedish and international angel investors. In other news, the company was chosen to protect this week's World Economic Forum in Davos (Swedish, machine translation). ➡️ Startup and funding first covered in PRO last year

• Influeri (Stockholm, AI-powered and fully automated platform for creator-driven growth): SEK5M ( €470K, $540K) convertible note from existing investors including Swedish pop star Zara Larsson (Swedish, machine translation).

• Toxotech (Stockholm, designs and develops novel toxin-based biological products for the treatment of neuromuscular and neurological disorders): undisclosed amount from Industrifonden (funding details page).

• Molecular Attraction (Stockholm; develops pheromones, stimulants and attractants for the control of vectors and pests): undisclosed amount from UpRoot Capital (funding details page).

• Gambit (Stockholm, real-money chess platform): media-for-equity funding from German multi-channel sports and entertainment platform Sport1 (funding details page).

• Energy Node (Gothenburg; technology that improvs thermal management in batteries, power electronics, and photovoltaics): undisclosed amount from Plug and Play (funding details page). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in December 2024

I covered many more funding rounds, and more details for each, in Swedish Tech News PRO last week.

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• Vaja, a startup from Stockholm, has launched its solar tracking system, touting "substantially increased energy production and revenue for solar farms beyond 30° latitude (English). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in May 2024

• Pubblo, Umeå-based "deal engine" for publishers, designers, and distributors of board games, to bring new titles to the market, has emerged from stealth mode. ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on July 17.

• GreenBioNourish is a new Malmö-based startup founded by the scientists Rita Del Giudice and Marité Cárdenas, that has developed a patent-pending technology that helps food makers boost micronutrients with biotech fortification and turnkey formulation solutions (Swedish / Rapidus paywall).

• Profile of Besca and interview with the founders Adam Dahlquist and Ben Stein. The Uppsala-based startup develops technology to turn biomass into high-valued carbon products (Swedish). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in November 2024

• Svevr, Skövde-based provider of drone technology for cleaning and treatment of roofs and facades, is launching in Sweden's largest cities (Swedish, machine translation).

• eve, a Stockholm-based startup founded last year, has launched its AI-based matchmaker for people tired of traditional dating apps, for the iPhone. ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on September 4.

• Cognibotics, Lund-based developer of new robotics and automation solutions, announced that the US-based AI-driven robotics company Standard Bots "has selected Cognibotics’ CogniCal calibration for its next-generation cobot platform" (English).

• Hooked Foods, VC-backed Stockholm-based producer of plant-based seafood founded in 2019, is bankrupt (English). ➡️ Added to the Bankruptcies Database for PRO subscribers.

• Boost08 is a new Stockholm-based venture studio that "builds, develops, and scales companies within AI and business automation". The first two products are AIwhisper and ACRMI (Swedish, machine translation).

• Neko Health, Daniel Ek's and Hjalmar Nilsonne's preventive healthcare startup, will begin its previously teased US expansion this spring, with New York City first out (English).

• Stegra has secured Thyssenkrupp Materials Processing as its first customer for non-prime steel (English)

• The acquisition of Northvolt's assets by US-based company Lyten, announced in August, has still not been completed. Reportedly, Lyten struggles to find sufficient funds (English).

• Klarna is adding a feature for instant p2p payments to its app for users in 13 countries, including Sweden (English).

• Listen Labs, San Francisco-based AI-first research platform founded by the Swedish serial entrepreneur Alfred Wahlforss, has raised a $69M Series B round (English).

• Interview with Techarena founder Omid Ekhlasi, on creating "Scandinavia's largest tech conference" (English).

• HackEurope, "Europe's largest student hackathon", will take place February 21-22 in Stockholm, Dublin and Paris (English).

• Ignite, Swedish non-profit organisation working to increase business collaborations between startups, industry and the public sector, is expanding into Norway (English).

• The incubator Uppsala Innovation Centre (UIC) is teaming up with the Swedish Air Force, to help facilitate business between startups and the Swedish Army (Swedish, machine translation).

• The Swedish biotech- and medtech-focused angel network Life Science Invest has raised SEK31M from 35 angel investors for the fund LSI Zeta (Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

• Norrsken Evolve, the Swedish pre-seed fund that evolved from Norrsken Accelerator, has now a team in Estonia (English).

• Felicia Nordgård, previously Stockholm-based Partner at Peak, has left the European VC firm, to join London-based payments startup Riva Money, to lead Business Development (English).

• Devotion Ventures, Gothenburg-based VC firm and venture studio, announced entrepreneur and operator Nick Börjlind as new General Partner (English).

• Flat Capital has appointed Rickard El Tarzi as new CEO (English).

• A new Swedish AI browser startup is gearing up to reveal itself soon

• A new startup, still in stealth, wants to help founders automate investor updates

• A serial founder is building an AI-driven universe platform "that brings users’ imagined worlds to life, based on simple input"

• A vet tech startup raised a yet-to-be-announced strategic investment from a pet insurance company

• A startup that uses audio sensors for defense, raised a first small amount of funding

• A startup using AI to help teams make better decisions, raised first funding from founders, operators, and an up and coming angel network

• A stealth mode startup that participated in a recent SSE Business Lab cohort, wants to enable business to build their "own secure company brain"

• A digital pet insurance startup has shut down

And much more. PRO is read by many of Sweden's best and most active startup investors. Service providers targeting Swedish startups also find it useful.

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

• Customer Success, Operations Manager, Sales & Growth Manager (Mimbly)
• Mid-level Fullstack Developer (Velora Health)
• Various roles in Engineering and Sales (Airspot)
• Demand Generation Manager (Palats)
• GTM Lead, Founding Engineer (Applied AI) (veyra)
• CFO/Head of Finance (ChargeNode)
• Backend Engineer (Motorica)

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.

• A look at Norway's startup funding in 2025, with lots of charts (English).

• In 2025, app downloads declined for the fifth consecutive year, while consumer spending grew (English).

• In the new era in which execution is cheaper than ever, the builders who thrive will be the ones that can identify the right problems, reach the right people, and iterate faster than everyone else (English).

• Ericsson plans to cut approximately 1600 jobs in Sweden, representing about 12% of its workforce in the country (English).

• Volvo Cars is putting its battery cell subsidiary Novo Energy into hibernation, until a battery partner is found (English, Swedish).

• Swedish politician Arba Kokalari of the Moderate party has been appointed as the European Parliament's chief negotiator regarding regulatory simplifications for AI (Swedish, machine translation).

• An AI-generated song has become the top streamed track on Spotify in Sweden – but it's barred from the official Swedish music charts (English, Swedish).

• Almost every other teenage boy in Sweden is at risk of becoming addicted to video games, according to a study (Swedish).

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

Martin