Swedish Tech Weekly #361: Qred, Lightbringer, Cognibotics, Vaja, Tonada, Reactional Music, Zaplar, PlutoVets, Emulsi Biotech, bifrost, Cleean, Pango, Valkyr, SSE Business Lab, Goldfish, W Social, Juritas, Abstract, Eatit, 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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• Qred (Stockholm, small business lending platform) is merging with the UK-based industry peer Liberis (English).

• EQT is acquiring the Germany-based satellite deployment technology and launch mission management firm Exolaunch (English).

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

• Lightbringer (Malmö, AI-powered all-in-one solution for patent protection): $10M in a Series A funding round co-led by 6 Degrees Capital and Newion (English, ℹ️ database).

• Cognibotics (Lund, developer of new robotics and automation solutions): €6.5M ($7.5M) in blended funding from EIC Accelerator (English).

• Vaja (Stockholm, solutions for wind-adaptive solar farms): €3.1M ($3.6M) in a seed funding round led by The Footprint Firm (English, ℹ️ database). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in May 2024.

• Tonada (Stockholm, AI-generated sound platform for retail and hospitality): $3M pre-seed funding round led by Antler (English, ℹ️ database). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on November 10.

• Reactional Music (Stockholm; programmable, interactive, and rights-compliant music infrastructure for games and interactive media): €2.5M ($2.9M) grant from EIC Accelerator (English).

• Zaplar (Stockholm, agentic operating system for hotels): $820K from Y Combinator, Nyman Holding, and Michael Ingelög. Zaplar was just accepted into the YC summer batch (English, ℹ️ database). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on March 17.

• PlutoVets (Stockholm, digitally powered veterinary clinic that also offers house calls): SEK7.4M (€680K, $790K) from Flat Capital (English, ℹ️ database). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in December 2024.

• Emulsi Biotech (Lund, self assembling lipid mixtures for drug delivery): SEK7M (€640K, $740K) in a pre-seed funding round led by BSV Ventures (English, ℹ️ database). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in February 2025.

• bifrost (Malmö, platform for runtime security and risk prioritisation in containerised software): SEK6.7M (€610K, $710K) led by Almi Invest. The company also announced a "fully sovereign offering for the Swedish and European market" (English, ℹ️ database).

• Cleean (Stockholm; provider of drone-powered facade, window and roof cleaning): SEK6M (€550K, $630K) in first funding from VEQ (ℹ️ database). ➡️ Funding first covered in PRO on May 25.

• Pango (Stockholm; autonomous digital employee that runs back-office operations for e-commerce companies): $500K from Y Combinator, as Pango was accepted into the summer program (English, ℹ️ database). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in October 2024.

• Valkyr (Malmö; developing cost-effective, agile, and modular defense solutions with a focus on COTS components, practical innovation, and short time-to-market): SEK4M (€370K, $430K) in first funding from I Love Lund and angel investors (Swedish, ℹ️ database). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on December 5.

• [PRO last week] An AI matchmaker raised first funding from a highly active VC firm.

• [PRO last week] A US-based accelerator and others invested in a Swedish startup that's building always-on software that captures what a user does in the background.

• [PRO last week] A startup that's turning Apple and Google Wallet into a retention channel, raised first unannounced funding.

I covered many more funding rounds, and more details for each, in Swedish Tech News PRO last week. Learn how to get access to PRO.

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• SSE Business Lab has announced eight startups selected for the incubator's summer program (English, ℹ️ database).

• Goldfish, a Swedish startup that offers a "private AI memory layer" for Mac and Windows, launched, and became "Product of the day" on Product Hunt (English). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on April 27.

• W Social, a new Stockholm-headquartered social media platform that wants to offer a European-built, trusted global alternative to X, has launched (English, Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

• Juritas, a Stockholm-based startup founded by Michelle Cotter, has emerged from stealth mode, aiming to give visibility and structure to the commitments businesses run on but cannot fully see. ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on May 29.

• Abstract, an Uppsala-based platform that connects research with the people and problems that need it most, now allows researchers, startups, and companies to "explore specialized instruments and facilities across 100+ laboratories in Sweden, the EU, and the US" (English). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in September 2025.

• GOALS, the Stockholm-based startup which officially launched its online multiplayer football game two weeks ago, says it reached one million players (English).

• Eatit, a Stockholm-based digital healthcare provider focusing on weight loss, grew net revenue 86% year-over-year to SEK36.6M, and turned profitable. ➡️ First covered in PRO on June 16.

• Roni Zacharion, co-founder of Kreditz, is stepping down as CEO and leaving his operational role in the Stockholm-based AI-driven, real-time credit and risk intelligence startup. Malin Önnby was appointed interim CEO (English).

• Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss, the Swedish serial entrepreneur who co-founded and sold Soundcloud and Dance, has left his long-term homebase Berlin, to build a new startup in San Francisco, named Nell (English).

• OpenAI will open a Nordic office in Stockholm in the coming months (English, Swedish).

• KTH Royal Institute of Technology is joining an existing partnership between Telia and Brookfield for the development of sovereign AI services and applications in Sweden (English).

• Bonnier News is centralising coverage of startups and unlisted tech companies at Breakit. Di Digital's reporters Johannes Karlsson and Ida Hansson Brusewitz are joining the Breakit editorial team (Swedish, machine translation).

• Wave Ventures, the prolific Nordic VC firm that focuses on early-stage investments in exceptional young entrepreneurs, announced the final close of their third fund, at €10M, and launched a grant program (English) ℹ️ database: recent Wave Ventures investments in Sweden

• Varangians, a new Stockholm-based investment fund, has closed at SEK100M to back Ukraine’s defense tech ecosystem (English).

• Propel Capital, the angel network that invests in startups that participate in the Sting incubator/accelerator, is now allowing startups to apply directly for an investment, before joining Sting (English).

• Minc, the Malmö-based startup hub and incubator, is hiring a Head of Strategy & Operations (English).

• [PRO last week] A new Swedish AI infrastructure startup, which aims to establish distributed datacenters that operate as a grid, has quietly emerged from stealth mode.

• [PRO last week] A former startup founder who sold her company before switching sides and becoming a VC, is back in the founder seat.

• [PRO last week] A startup has quietly launched an app which offers continuous agentic search for second hand items.

• [PRO last week] A startup using gamification for in-store sales training, is raising first funding.

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. Learn how to get access to PRO.

Find information on thousands of Swedish tech startups

Dozens of new startups from Sweden added each week!

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

• Software Engineer (Simulair)
• Tech Sales Account Manager (Clips)
• Robotics Engineer – Autonomous Marine Systems (Nautrik)
• Founding Account Executive (epiminds)
• Various incl. Senior Product Designer, CFO, Junior Data Scientist (Hedvig)
• Various incl. Grid Specialist, Commercial Delivery Manager, Senior Product Manager (Flower)
• R&D Scientist (CubaseBio)

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.

• SpaceX is now officially acquiring the AI coding startup Cursor, in a $60B stock deal (English). Per previous reports, this will turn the US-based Swedish Cursor co-founder Arvid Lunnemark into a (SpaceX stock) dollar billionaire.
• A speculative scenario titled “Europe 2031” projects economic and political instability in the EU if it fails to keep pace with the US and China in the AI race (English).
• When applying the Rule of 40 to a young hardware company, the shape of the curve matters more than any one quarter (English).

• ABBA co-founder Björn Ulvaeus gave a speech on human creativity in the age of AI (English).

• 1.8 million people in Sweden woke up very early on Monday last week – or stayed up all night – to watch the first Sweden game of the FIFA Worldcup 2026, which kicked off at 4:00 in the morning (Swedish, machine translation).

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

Martin

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