Swedish Tech Weekly #363: Combify, Blenda Labs, Airon, Nordic Foresty Automation, Digiclean, Radar Reticence, Tendavo, Original Creation, Caplyzer, BRYM, Blaise, CarboGaia, Unna, Cognivity AI, 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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• Combify (Stockholm; platform that helps property developers and investors find, assess, and acquire land with development potential) is being acquired by Norway-based real estate decision-making platform Placepoint (Swedish, machine translation). ➡️ Added to the Exits Database for PRO subscribers.

• Blenda Labs (Stockholm, platform that combines AI-native workflows with human creative direction to produce high-quality video content that rights-sensitive customers can trust) has been acquired pre-launch by Epidemic Sound. Blenda had been in stealth mode so far (English). ➡️ Blenda first covered in PRO in November 2025.

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

• Airon (Lidköping; designs, builds and operates vertically integrated AI factories in Sweden): nine-digit euro amount in financing from Meanings Capital Partners, for the completion of two additional data centres (English, Swedish / Di Digital paywall). ➡️ Company first covered in PRO in October 2024.

• Nordic Forestry Automation (Lund, technology for precise and sustainable forestry): SEK48M (€4.3M, $5M) led by existing investor Navigare Ventures and new investor Almi Invest GreenTech (English, ℹ️ database).

• Digiclean (Borås, AI and sensor technology that monitors and optimizes the usage of process fluids within producing industries): €2.5M ($2.85M) in a seed funding round led by Unconventional Ventures and Almi Invest GreenTech (English, ℹ️ database). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in October 2024.

• Radar Reticence (Halmstad, interference-free technology for automotive radar): SEK10M (€900K, $1M) in a first proper equity funding round from new investors Chalmers Ventures, East Sweden Capital, and Almi Invest, among others. The company also was awarded a €2.5M grant from EIC Accelerator (English, ℹ️ database).

• Tendavo (Stockholm, platform for public procurement bids): SEK10M (€900K, $1M) in first external funding from Aligned VC, Neptunia Invest, and angel investors (Swedish, ℹ️ database). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in October 2025.

• Original Creation (Umeå; traceability platform for managing detailed information about product life cycles, including their origin & environmental impact): SEK7.7M (€675K, $880K) in first equity funding from Partnerinvest Norr and angel investors. The company also secured a SEK1.2M innovation grant (Swedish, ℹ️ database).

• Caplyzer (Stockholm; develops membraneless electrolyzers for green hydrogen production): SEK7M (€630K, $730K) in a first funding round led by Trio Impact Invest and Almi Invest (English, ℹ️ database).

• BRYM (Stockholm, wearable EEG technology to improve cognitive performance): €650K ($750K) in a pre-seed funding round led by Lotus One Investment, with participation from Antler (English, ℹ️ database). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in April 2025.

• Blaise (Stockholm, AI system that builds custom software for organizations, in days, for a fraction of the price of the firms it replaces: $500K from Y Combinator, as the startup joined the YC summer batch (English, ℹ️ database). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on March 2.

• CarboGaia (greater Kalmar area, developing CO₂-capturing circular biofertilizers that restore soils and enable sustainable food production): SEK1M (€90K, $100K) convertible note from Kick Capital och Almi Invest (Swedish, ℹ️ database).

• Unna (Stockholm, developer and producer of infant & baby nutrition): undisclosed amount from Partnerinvest Norr, CN Invest, and Eljest Kapital (Swedish, ℹ️ database).

• [PRO last week] A startup from southern Sweden specialised in improving rapid diagnostics, has raised pre-seed funding and opened a seed round.

• [PRO last week] A startup offering a solution for effortless usage-based billing & subscription management, has raised yet-to-be-announced funding at its largest valuation to date.

• [PRO last week] A Swedish VC firm made its largest single investment in one go into a company ever (though not in a Swedish one).

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.

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

• Sweden's most active startup investors – I've published the quarterly update to the Leaderboards. Go here to see details. For easy sharing, here is a LinkedIn post, and here are image versions:

I'll publish the next Leaderboard update on October 1 (and I can tell you already that one prolific angel investor not included in the current Leaderboard because most of his investments were not public, will enter the next one at a rather high spot).

• Stockholm ranks #4 in Europe (and #5 if including Tel Aviv) when it comes to founder factory unicorns and tech-enabled startup creation, according to a new Accel report on Europe & Israel’s founder factories (English).

• Nordan AI, the Stockholm-based startup building AI-powered systems for trusted decisions, ran 28 of the most advanced AI models directly against the 35-question Swedish election compass of public service broadcaster SVT, via API. The result: most models landed closest to the left block (Enligsh)

• Cognivity AI, a Gothenburg-based battery software startup, is teaming up with an unnamed "California-based luxury EV manufacturer", to investigate how decentralized AI can be integrated directly into existing battery systems (English). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in September 2025.

• Brain Stimulation, a VC-backed Umeå-based company offering a digital solution for stimulating rehabilitation, cognitive screening and diagnostic support after stroke and acquired brain injuries, is bankrupt. ➡️ Covered in PRO on July 3.

• In a new test, Candela's hydrofoiling electric ferry P-12 Nova is now in service in Stockholm’s archipelago, operating within Waxholmsbolaget’s regular traffic network (English).

• Lovisa Qvarner, co-founder of dibz, is stepping down as CEO of the Stockholm-based queue-management platform for housing and beyond. Her co-founder colleague Richard Valleryd is taking over the role (Swedish / Breakit paywall).

• Vigor Sörman, Swedish serial entrepreneur with three exits, says he plans to launch two to four startups each year as co-founder (Swedish / Breakit paywall).

• Daniel Berntsson, one of the two founders and co-CEOs of bootstrapped and highly profitable Swedish VPN provider Mullvad, has made a personal SEK5M donation to the populist Örebro Party, sparking a backlash online (English).

• Google has been ordered by a Swedish court to pay $1.97B in damages to PriceRunner, a price comparison service owned since 2022 by Klarna (English, Swedish / Di Digital paywall, Swedish #2).

• Elin Torstensson has been appointed CEO of SSE Business Lab and SSE Ventures, following Isabel Keulen (English).

• [PRO last week] A former VC has founded a Stockholm-based startup, building an integration layer for clinical trials.

• [PRO last week] An exited Swedish founder has co-founded a startup headquarterd in San Francisco that's offering an AI creative suite for consumer brands.

• [PRO last week] A startup incorporated in Malmö is raising first €1M in funding for its anime-style voice-first health & mental wellness companion.

• [PRO last week] A startup that's offering an AI-powered visual inspection and analytics platform for manufacturing companies, increased net revenue by 500% year-over-year, to almost SEK15M.

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

New startups added daily, many still completely under the radar.

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

• Technical Co-Founder / Founding CTO (Persistent Flow)
• Founding Software Product Engineer, ML Engineer Computer Vision, Head of Sales (Repli5)
• Chief of Staff, Member of Technical Staff (Enlace)
• Head of Marketing & Growth (Tendy)
• AI Agent Lead – Credit Underwriting (Treyd)
• Senior Fullstack Developer (Pattern)
• Senior Full Stack Developer (Salus mea)
• Sales Development Representative – Suppliers (Stockfiller)
• Head of Growth (Velora Health)

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.

• Climentum Capital, the Copenhagen-headquartered pan-European climate hard tech VC, has announced a €60M first closing of its second fund (English).
  
• Report on the state of the AI economy by Exponential View (English).
  
• The AI-design aesthetic that’s taking over the internet (English).

• Sweden's upcoming interpretation of the EU's new consumer credit directive puts an end to the intransparent kickbacks that credit companies such as Klarna, Qliro, Svea and Norion have long offered to online retailers (Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

• "Drunk riding" is behind almost half of fatal electric scooter crashes in Sweden. And almost nine out of ten alcohol-related e-scooter deaths occurred with privately owned vehicles (English).

• Sweden's passport ranks first in the world in a new ranking which assesses visa-free access as well as investment attractiveness and quality of life (English).

• Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) is placing a $10B order for 40 Airbus A330 widebody jets – the largest aircraft order in the Scandinavian carrier’s history (English). 

• As of last week, psychological violence is a crime in Sweden, which may result in up to four years in prison (Swedish).

• During the previous weekend, Malmö saw its warmest day on record (English).

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

Martin

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