Swedish Tech Weekly #346: Good Solutions, Holyvolt, Validio, Hedvig, Palats, BioCell Analytica, Nil Medical, Fuse, Atlaz, Kyla, EasyXit, Prospexs, KanEL, Cognibotics, Hubert, Jord Innovation, Emmel, Airon, Qick, 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.

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• Main Capital Partners, Netherlands-headquartered software investor, acquires a majority stake in Gothenburg-based Good Solutions, a provider of manufacturing improvement solutions (English). ➡️ Added to the Exits Database for PRO subscribers.

• Holyvolt (Stockholm; next-generation thin-film solar technology that enables screen printing of solar cells under ambient conditions) has acquired US-based battery materials discovery company Wildcat Discovery Technologies for $73M (English). ➡️ Holyvolt first covered in PRO in February 2023.

• Sectra, publicly traded Swedish medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company, is acquiring the Lithuania-based startup Oxipit, which specializes in AI for radiology (English).

• [PRO] The team of a VC-backed Swedish fintech startup has joined a Danish AI-native finance platform.

Send press releases about funding rounds, and other potentially relevant news, to news@swedishtechnews.com.

• Validio (Stockholm, agentic enterprise data management platform): $30M in a Series A funding round led by Plural. Previous investors such as Lakestar and J12, as well as angels, also participated (funding details page).

• Hedvig (Stockholm, digital insurance provider): SEK100M (€9.4M, $11M) from existing investors such as Adelis Equity Partners, SEB, and Yanno Capital (funding details page). ➡️ Funding first covered in PRO on February 25.

• Palats (Gothenburg, platform for reuse of furniture and building material): SEK20M (€1.9M, $2.2M) from existing investors, led by AGV Invest (funding details page).

• BioCell Analytica (Uppsala; effect-based methods to detect hazardous compounds in water, soil and sediment): SEK5M (€470K, $540K) in a funding round from new and existing investors including Gorilla Capital, Almi Invest, SLU Holding, SheCap Partners, among others (funding details page).

• Nil Medical (Umeå; developer of a medical vest, primarily designed for children and adolescents undergoing advanced treatment): SEK4.8M (€450K; $530K) from Barncancerfonden Impact Invest. The amount could eventually increase to SEK6M (funding details page).

• Fuse (Uppsala, functional drinks sold as small water soluble tablets): SEK1.8M (€170K, $190K) mostly from Jonas Tellander (Swedish / Breakit paywall).

• [PRO] A startup enabling smarter and safe roads through AI has closed its first funding round.

• [PRO] A sales tech startup from Stockholm has raised a first, yet-to-be-announced eight-digit SEK round led by a Swedish VC.

• [PRO] A startup from western Sweden, led by the brother of a high-profile startup founder, has raised yet-to-be-announced first equity funding.

• [PRO] A nano materials startup from central Sweden has raised first funding.

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

Startup founders: Request free access to my funding and investor database. Useful during your fundraising process.

• Atlaz, based in Stockholm, has launched its AI that captures tacit knowledge through interviews, and "provides decision-support you can verify and share". ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in January 2025.

• Kyla, Stockholm-based startup that's gearing up for the official launch of its palm cooling device for enhanced performance, managed to place its product in the hands of tennis champion Novak Djokovic, who could be seen in live TV using it regularly at the Australian Open. On Reddit, people speculated what this "cylindrical object" could be (Swedish, machine translation).

• EasyXit, based in Stockholm, has announced a first installation of its camera- and screen-based system to eliminate theft at self-checkouts (Swedish). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in February 2025.

• Prospexs, Stockholm-based startup founded by three siblings who funded their building process by running a window cleaning company, has launched its product, a B2B research assistant for sales people.

• KanEL, bootstrapped Stockholm-based provider of smart energy efficiency services and products for energy storage, grew net revenue by 50% year-over-year to SEK32M in 2025, while delivering a small profit. ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in 2024.

• 20 Swedish companies are included in the Financial Times' tenth annual FT1000 ranking of Europe’s fastest-growing companies, based on 2021-2024 numbers. Aonic is the highest-ranking Swedish protagonist, reaching #8 (English).

• Cognibotics, Lund-based developer of new robotics and automation solutions, secured an order valued at approximately SEK16M for its robot calibration technology, from "a leading global industrial robot manufacturer" (English).

• Hubert, Stockholm-based startup offering a solution for high-volume talent acquisition, signed staffing and recruiting giant Manpower as a customer for a global rollout (Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

• Jord Innovation, Östersund-based startup whose technology replaces single use plastics and metals with fiberbased materials, is now selling its first product, fire-resistant fiberbased tealight cups (Swedish / Impact Loop paywall).

• Emmel, Stockholm-based startup developing an all-electric utility vehicle for professional work, announced a strategic partnership with Swedish mountain tourism company SkiStar (English).

• Airon, Swedish provider of non-shared AI infrastructure, collaborated with a group of amateur sleuths, who applied modern AI to one of Europe's most debated cold cases – the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986 (English).

• Qick, bootstrapped Örebro-based e-scooter provider that so far focused on smaller Swedish cities, launched in Germany.

• Earthbanc, Stockholm-based startup providing "AI-powered asset and vegetation intelligence", is facing accusations of having inflated the climate impact of tree-planting projects in Kenya and India, and having used the schemes primarily to refine its technology, while not caring enough about the actual outcome (English, Swedish).

• "What I fear most is that you will stop thinking for yourself", writes Daniel Langkilde – co-founder and CEO of Gothenburg-based autonomy data annotation scaleup Kognic – in an email he sent to employees (English).

• As Swedish AI native startups raise large amounts of funding, only a small number of women are part of the founder teams – with dire consequences (Swedish, machine translation).

• Bond financing is booming in the Nordics, and an increasing number of Swedish tech startups and scaleups –as well as international companies – are borrowing cash that way (Swedish / Breakit paywall).

• Swish, Sweden's ubiquitous instant payments app owned by a number of banks, is being integrated into PayPal, allowing Swedish users to pay with Swish in foreign online shops (Swedish, machine translation).

• Revolut, UK-headquartered digital bank that touts over one million users in Sweden, is becoming the main sponsor of Stockholm's Allsvenskan football club Hammarby (Swedish, machine translation).

• The Swiss single-family office Infinitas Capital has launched a new investment fund in Sweden, and plans to publicly list on Nasdaq Stockholm (English / Impact Loop paywall).

• Emma Kjellander is new Investment Associate at Norrsken Launcher (English).

• [PRO] A stealth startup quietly launched its design tool built for AI-first development.

• [PRO] A fintech developing a smart receipt solution, aiming to offer consumers the "last app needed for private finances" has emerged from stealth mode

• [PRO] An investor with a past at a major Swedish VC firm, is now launching and raising her own yet-to-be-announced fund, to invest first checks in AI-native deeptech startups "that have a tether to the physical world".

• [PRO] A second-time founder, with experience from the Swedish television sector, has co-founded a startup focused on AI-powered automated video post-production.

• [PRO] A Swedish healthtech provider has spun off a new startup, which offers a solution for professionals that "watches how they work, and removes what slows them down".

I covered many more news – many of which have not been reported elsewhere – and more details for each, in Swedish Tech News PRO last week.

You can upgrade to a PLUS or PRO plan, to get access to the following features:

• Sting Demo Day – March 10 – Stockholm
• Assembly Conference – March 11 – Stockholm
• Swedish Big Science Forum – March 11-12 – Lund
• Stockholm Fintech Week – March 18-19 – Stockholm

For more major and flagship events, check the Swedish tech event calendar.

• TechChill 2026, one of the largest Baltic Tech events – March 25-27 – Riga, Latvia

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

• Senior Fullstack Developer (Flowity)
• Account Executive - Founding Team (Revny)
• Founding Frontend Developer/Designer (Spiich)
• Product Manager (Lovable)
• Software Engineer (KanEL)
• CRM & Lifecycle Marketing Manager (Natural Cycles)
• Talent Acquisition Partner - Tech & Product (Voi)
• Ecommerce Manager (Tapster)
• Various incl Senior Optimization Engineer, Senior Business Developer, and more (Flower)

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.

• PLG requires a level of product polish and user experience design that most early-stage startups don’t have yet (English).

• "When a team of five with fifty agents is shipping faster than your entire engineering org, the question won't be whether you have enough dashboards. It'll be whether anyone in the building can explain what your system is actually doing right now" (English).

• "With AI coding, Engineers are now falling victim to the same addictive, dopamine-driven feedback loops we built into consumer apps" (English).

• An investigation by Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten found that workers at Meta's Kenya-based subcontractor are reviewing footage from customers’ glasses, included sensitive content. Now Meta is sued for it in the US (English).

• A new report proposes tax cuts to support graduate employment in the age of AI (English).

• A student at KTH Royal Institute of Technology hacked a popular children’s smartwatch, found 17 vulnerabilities and full remote access (English).

• Meanwhile, other KTH students have created the world's probably smallest beer bottle (Swedish, no machine translation available).

• Swedish households should keep SEK1000 in cash per adult for emergencies, Sweden's Central Bank recommends (English).

• Trust in society's institutions is on the rise, according to the latest Trust Barometer. Swedes place the highest level of trust in the Police (75%, +1), Systembolaget (73%, +1) and the Armed Forces (69%, +1). Trust in the Royal Family also reaches its highest level ever (English, Swedish).

• Apropos police: The government has tasked the Swedish Police Authority to develop a state e-identification card with the highest security level, linked to the national ID card (Swedish, machine translation).

• Prices for owner-occupied apartments in Stockholm have reached an all-time high (English).

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

Martin