Swedish Tech Weekly #376: Extended Control, Favro, Holyvolt, OlsAro, Matters, Grunden AI, 120ft, Ailit, FleetMQ, Patentir, Remote Aero, Quivv, Klippvia, fixkod, Norrsken100, Glenntex, Sferical AI, Modal, 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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• Marathon Software, the Swedish niche software acquirer, has bought a majority stake in Malmö-based company Extended Control, provider of system solutions for terminals handling bulk products (English).

• The bankruptcy estate of Favro (Uppsala; platform for leaders and teams to create and iterate their planning, workflows, automations, and dashboards without code or help from IT) was acquired by co-founder Patric Palm and eleven previous employees (Swedish / Breakit paywall.

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

• Holyvolt (Stockholm; materials discovery company inventing breakthrough battery materials): $45M in a funding round from Fifth Wall, Zone II Ventures, existing investor Course Corrected, and angel investors (English).

• OlsAro (Gothenburg, developing climate-resilient cereal genetics through a proprietary seed genetics platform, founded 2013): €5M ($5.6M) seed funding round led by Industrifonden, co-led by Nordic Foodtech VC (English). ➡️ Funding first covered in PRO on September 3.

• Matters (Stockholm, upcoming AI-native consumer bank, founded 2026): $5M in a pre-seed funding round led by Jakob Johansson (English). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on September 1.

• Grunden AI (Stockholm; secure, scalable AI infrastructure, made in the Nordics): undisclosed amount from Monterro, which thereby becomes the majority shareholder (English). ➡️ More details covered in PRO; funding first covered in PRO on October 1; startup first covered in PRO on May 13.

• 120ft (Stockholm, developing autonomous microfactories that bring manufacturing closer to demand): €576K ($640K) in an angel round from Ted Persson, Sophia Bendz, Matthias Dantone, and Planet A, among others (English). ➡️ Part of this round first covered in PRO during spring; startup first covered in PRO in November 2025

• Ailit (Stockholm, replacing diesel in rail with swappable batteries and Energy-as-a-Service): $500K from Y Combinator, as the startup joined YC's fall batch. With the announcement, Ailit emerged from stealth (English). ➡️ I've covered the company in PRO several times since August 2025.

• FleetMQ, formerly ABConnect (Stockholm; middleware technology that keeps moving machines connected in real time): undisclosed amount in a pre-seed funding round from Trio Impact Invest and Wallenberg Investments Ventures (previously Navigare Ventures) (English).

• [PRO last week] A Swedish YC alumnus quietly closed a previously unreported funding round from various early-stage investors from the US and Europe, after completing the YC program.

• [PRO last week] A startup at the intersection of climate tech and insurtech, has raised first, yet-to-be-announced funding.

• [PRO last week] A startup aiming to contribute to safer software, has also raised first, yet-to-be-announced funding.

I covered many more funding rounds, and more details for each, in Swedish Tech News PRO last week. PRO is ideal for early-stage startup investors. Sales professionals targeting Swedish startups also find it useful. Learn more.

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• Patentir, a new Stockholm-based startup, has launched its AI powered service for searching, predicting and filing trademarks in one place (English / STN PRO). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on June 12.

• Quivv, a new startup also from Stockholm that's building a decision layer for finance teams at industrial companies, has emerged from stealth mode (English / STN PRO). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on October 7.

• Remote Aero, a Stockholm-based startup developing technology to let fixed-wing drones launch in seconds, arrive in minutes, and stay on the scene for hours, has unveiled its first own drone (English). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in May 2024.

• ReeWant, a Växjö-based startup matching people with furniture in need of renovation with craftspeople who can restore it, has launched (Swedish). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on September 24.

• Klippvia, a startup also from Växjö, offering an AI-powered hairstyle advisor helping people find the perfect hairstyle, has been accepted into DraperU University, described as "Silicon Valley's largest residency fund backing pre-seed teams" (English). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO on May 18.

• fixkod, a Gävle-based startup offering a QR-code solution for reporting broken equipment or property-related problems, recently signed its largest contract to date with a property company from Halmstad, which manages around 11,000 apartments (Swedish, machine translation). ➡️ Startup first covered in PRO in April 2024.

• 12 Swedish startups are featured in this year's Norrsken100 list, which highlights the "100 most promising early-stage companies solving hard problems at scale, by outperforming the legacy models that created them (English).

• Glenntex, a VC-backed Gothenburg-based startup that aims to reduce virgin plastic consumption through smarter material design with graphene-based nanotechnology, is bankrupt (English / STN PRO).

• Lovable is entering the martech space, by letting users run their Google, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook ads from within the platform, as well as to get advice on the best marketing moves to make next (English).

• Sferical AI, the new company initiated last year by several Swedish industry giants and Wallenberg Investments, has launched Sferical One, a shared AI supercomputer in Sweden (English).

• Norrsken Foundation and Nvidia will open a hub for AI startups in central Stockholm in 2027, located about 200 metres from Norrsken House (English).

• The applications for the next batch of KTH Innovation Launch are open (English).

• Stockholm ranks #3 in terms of the share of founders relative to population, according to Cherry Ventures' new report on how Europe's inception-stage companies are forming (English).

• Modal, the New York-based provider of AI cloud infrastructure, co-founded and led by Swedish software engineer Erik Bernhardsson, has raised a $750M Series D round, and more than tripled its valuation within less than six months (English).

• Margarethe Böhme, based in Stockholm, was appointed Managing Partner of Wave Ventures, to lead the early-stage firm's €10M Fund III across the Nordics. This makes the 23-year-old "the youngest VC Managing Partner in Europe" (English).

• Sprints Capital, the London-based VC firm founded by the Swedes Henrik Persson and Pierre Siri, announced the final close of Sprints V at its €725M hard cap, 40% larger than Sprints IV (English).

• [PRO last week] A well-founded new healthtech startup from Stockholm quietly launched in the UK with a product aimed at doctors.

• [PRO last week] New details about a stealth startup currently being built by two Sana alumni.

• [PRO last week] A VC-backed startup looking to bring complex product knowledge into the sales process, is gearing up for its launch.

• [PRO last week] A startup with the vision of connecting innovators with scientific experts, labs, or instruments, is bankrupt.

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.

Search curated data on almost 5000 active startups and scaleups from Sweden – new ones added daily.

• Nordic Fusion Forum – Oct 19 – Copenhagen (DK)
• Helsingborg Tech Week – Oct 19-25 – Helsingborg
• Venture Cup Regional Final South – Oct 20 – Helsingborg
• Dalarna Startup Arena – Oct 21 – Borlänge
• Venture Cup Regional Final East – Oct 21 – Stockholm
• Breakit AI x SaaS Summit – Oct 22 – Stockholm
• Grow Invest 2026 – Oct 22 – Helsingborg

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

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


• Various incl. Simulation Engineer, Robot Learning Engineer, AI Systems Architect (120ft)
• Various incl. AI / Agent Engineer, Plattform Engineer, Information Security Architect (Aura Cloud)
• Developer (Skygaard)
• Platform Engineer, Senior People Partner, Lead Service Designer (Volumental)
• Full-Stack Developer (Fibbler)
• Prototype Technician (NitroCapt)
• Experienced Embedded Developer (Satcube)
• Head of Finance (Podspace)
• Product Marketing Manager (Grasp)
• Aftersales & Customer Success Manager (ROXEN)
• Account Manager (Vålt)
• Junior R&D Chemist (Kitocoat)
• CRM & Marketing Automation Specialist (DP Patterning)

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.

• Swedish commercial banks are the world's safest, according to a new ranking (English).

• The entire edited season of the upcoming reality show "The Challenge Sverige" has been accidentally deleted, wiping out hundreds of hours of work. Broadcaster TV4 denies media reports blaming an AI agent, attributing the loss instead to a failed backup system (English, Swedish).

• Deadly gun violence continues to fall in Sweden (English).

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

Martin

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