11 ms·

Swedish tech startups and scaleups

133 points by imartin2k 4y ago

forthelastime 4y ago
That's a long list. Wish it was possible to filter it by niche, opensource etc
mongol 4y ago
Fun list to scroll through. I had no idea about most of these startups, although some where familiar. For example, I saw Grafana Labs in the list. And Klarna is not exactly a startup any longer...
- arketyp 4y ago
  Not exactly a scaleup either...
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    Yeah, Klarna is rather more of a 'scale-down' recently.
  - imartin2k 4y ago
    Creator of the list here. For some of the companies on the list the label "startup or scaleup" is debatable ofc. But I often find it not to be a clear-cut thing in those cases. I tried to use a mix of "criteria" such as company age, whether it acts like a startup/scaleup (rapid innovation, invests heavily in growth, needs external funding to get going), whether it's covered intensely by the startup-focused tech media etc. To me, Klarna ticks those boxes.
    - arketyp 4y ago
      I agree, was just being witty. Impressive list -- cheers!
      - imartin2k 4y ago
        Thanks! Fortunately, I have been using the same structure in all my 171 previous weekly newsletter issues. So while it was a huge amount of copy & paste, the mental work was fortunately limited. Still I do feel exhausted now.
- kensai 4y ago
  Where is Paradox Interactive?! Aaah. Not a startup anymore.
  - imartin2k 4y ago
    I am the creator of this list. I chose to exclude gaming studios, because I don't really cover them in the newsletter, and have not really any good overview of that sector either.
    - SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
      A shame, because IMO Sweden has one of the better gaming start up scenes in the world as well.
      - sandebert 4y ago
        Might you perhaps be the Swedish musician Solar Fields, who also made the music for the game Mirror's Edge?
        ramigb 4y ago
        I have no idea if he is or he is not who you are asking him, but it's super impressive that you can recognize a musician name from working on a game. Respect for that sir a lot of musicians would appreciate that.
        sandebert 4y ago
        Thanks, but to be fair I also have a couple of his albums. :-) (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/solar-fields-mn0000645543 https://www.allmusic.com/artist/solar-fields-mn0000645543)
        SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
        I am not, only a fan of his music. Sorry to disappoint :)
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- mrweasel 4y ago
  That's okay, many of them aren't tech companies either. I didn't scroll past C, and I already seen a transport company, a car rental company and a fitness subscription. Just because a company uses computers in some form, doesn't make them a tech company. I know many retailers who are just that: retailers, who use pretty sophisticated software and employ a ton of developers, but they aren't tech companies and would never claim to be one.
eandre 4y ago
Founder of Encore here (on the list). Great to see so many wonderful companies represented. Sweden is a great place to start a startup these days.
- dijit 4y ago
  I'm starting a subsidiary of a start-up in Germany in Sweden. It's not my experience that Sweden is a great place for startups, the bureaucracy is extremely hit/miss. Setting up tax information for example is really difficult as a non-Swedish speaker and even tripped up my Swedish speaking friend (who is a project coordinator on the new Skane hospital: so she's somewhat aware of the tax system). How much of your daily work will be administration, how much will be selling services, how much money will you make do you estimate; you must give us an estimation: if it's too far off then we will fine you! Information in English is... scarce, but gives the illusion of being available. Hiring is also very complicated, you have to be very explicit in your contracts because anything not spelled out immediately falls in favour of the employed; which is nice, but as a novice employer that's very scary, because I don't know everything obviously. What in your mind makes you think it's a good place?
  - raverbashing 4y ago
    What makes you think that setting up a subsidiary is a "DIY" thing anywhere, especially if you don't speak the language? (Sweden is still probably easier than Germany, though that's a low barrier tbh) Edit: good to know about the UK
    - dijit 4y ago
      Because I did it in the UK and it was very much a DIY thing. 14GBP to Companies House, extra 10GBP to reserve the right to your name. File your books every year, expect to be audited randomly for a few years.
      - eandre 4y ago
        But you need a UK bank account, which requires a officer with a registered address in the UK. We were lucky our investors were UK-based otherwise it would have been a nightmare. Then you need to argue HMRC valuation discounts if you want to issue EMI options, which are only valid for 3 months, so you need to do it repeatedly. And then EMI option schemes are 15+ pages long contracts. Sweden has an equivalent stock option scheme that's ~2 pages, in comparison.
archydeb 4y ago
I heard that Sweden's high income tax actually incentivised startups, because the only way to get _seriously_ wealthy was through capital gains. Does anybody know whether that's true? If so, it really undermines the narrative that is somewhat dominant in Britain, that high income tax will disincentivize entrepreneurship and innovation etc etc
- codethief 4y ago
  No idea about the situation in Sweden but generally speaking I'd say it depends a lot on whether "income" in "income tax" also includes capital gains.
  - Jolter 4y ago
    It does not, in Sweden.
  - geysersam 4y ago
    Don't know any country where it does. In Sweden it certainly doesn't.
    - LtWorf 4y ago
      It doesn't but they are taxed the second you sell them off. So cool… you're rich but if you actually want to use the money it is taxed.
      - pazx 4y ago
        Income tax and capital gains tax are two different things and two different rules sets. In Sweden income tax is max ~56% while max capital gains is 30%.
        kevinak 4y ago
        Don't forget to add the "totally not income tax" aka arbetsgivaravgift at another 30% :D
schiptsovgithub 4y ago
I want to relocate to Sweden. I am a top-tier FP guy among other things. https://schiptsov.github.io/ https://schiptsov.github.io/ Just read.
humbleferret 4y ago
What a great list. Are there any Swedish incubators similar to Y-Combinator that are facilitating startup growth?
- Jolter 4y ago
  There are a few but nothing at the scale of yc, obviously.
- mankz 4y ago
  Sure: https://sting.co/ https://sting.co/ https://www.abi.se/ https://www.abi.se/ and lots more listed at https://www.sisp.se/medlemmar https://www.sisp.se/medlemmar
- danadalis 4y ago
  Antler https://www.antler.co/ https://www.antler.co/
Jamie9912 4y ago
Isn't Spotify from Gothenburg?
- dotcoma 4y ago
  No, AFAIK they are from Stockholm. Crunchbase also say they are from Stockholm.
  - Shaanie 4y ago
    Yes, Spotify is from Stockholm. Though they do have a Gothenburg office.
LtWorf 4y ago
How many of those are actually "contracted for the development" by a company in Malta? The swedish startup I used to work for was setup in this way to scam taxes.
- jsty 4y ago
  The "contracted for development" setup is common amongst multi-territory IP-heavy businesses. You choose a country to hold all the IP and have other locations sell development services to that country's legal entity. You can do it to fiddle around with tax, but it's separately quite sensible to hold all your IP in a single region & entity to minimise the complexity - otherwise you'd have every territory licensing IP to every other territory, a.k.a an absolute mess.
  - LtWorf 4y ago
    There was no "multi territory", it was a shitty startup with a bunch of people sitting in a room and sharing the office with another startup that was also owned by kinnevik (swedish VC). It was set up that way to not pay taxes in case it would ever make money.
pluijzer 4y ago
I've pasted 150 items of this list to OpenAI and let it figure out what my username would be as a Swedish startup, the answer is Pluijzer (Stockholm, social enterprise that develops innovative solutions for a plastic-free future) So guess I have to start doing that ...
- carlbarrdahl 4y ago
  What are the 80/20 pareto efforts in terms of reducing plastics today? For example in cities and oceans as target areas.
  - wongarsu 4y ago
    In terms of reducing plastic pollution, the big things imho would be garbage collection for 3rd world countries (in many places "dump it in the river" is the only viable solution), biodegradable fishing nets, and more waste-fired power plants for plastics we can't efficiently recycle.
robalni 4y ago
What's up with all these two-dimensional solid color people graphics that often have unrealistic colors or body shapes? I see them everywhere. Here are a few examples from the list: * https://metry.io/img/metry-product-information.png https://metry.io/img/metry-product-information.png * https://norban.se/assets/img/front-page/section-1/room_7@1x.webp https://norban.se/assets/img/front-page/section-1/room_7@1x.... * https://nordtechgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/undrawdatare80ws.svg https://nordtechgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/undrawd... * https://www.nuvoair.com/_nuxt/img/home-enterprise-img.97f4619.png https://www.nuvoair.com/_nuxt/img/home-enterprise-img.97f461... * https://sanitation360.se/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/puff_protectingwater.png https://sanitation360.se/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/puff_pro... * https://securifid.se/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/kvinna-lockig-har-300x277-1.png https://securifid.se/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/kvinna-locki... * https://www.sinch.com/sites/default/files/styles/medium_hq/public/image/2021-09/Illustration_contact_us_girl_tablet_phone_0%20(1).png https://www.sinch.com/sites/default/files/styles/medium_hq/p... * https://workamo.com/img/hero-image.png https://workamo.com/img/hero-image.png * https://www.airmee.com/images/icon_airmee_delivery-fresh.png https://www.airmee.com/images/icon_airmee_delivery-fresh.png * https://www.budid.se/images/video-min.png https://www.budid.se/images/video-min.png
- sgt 4y ago
  I have a friend who looks exactly like that. Tiny head, huge body.
- vimy 4y ago
  I really dislike this graphical style. It’s been a couple years now so I hope something else will replace it soon.
  - robalni 4y ago
    This site has some more interesting graphics: https://www.gamifiera.com/ https://www.gamifiera.com/
    - vimy 4y ago
      That’s really cool. Are those custom made or can you buy them somewhere?
bazhand 4y ago
I joined Proxify (on the list) recently and was pleasantly surprised to find a quite vibrant tech scene. As someone who followed the more traditional startup hubs like Amsterdam, Berlin or Dublin, I've found that there are many gems in the Nordics.

133 points by imartin2k 4y ago

That's a long list. Wish it was possible to filter it by niche, opensource etc

Fun list to scroll through. I had no idea about most of these startups, although some where familiar. For example, I saw Grafana Labs in the list. And Klarna is not exactly a startup any longer...

arketyp 4y ago
Not exactly a scaleup either...
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  Yeah, Klarna is rather more of a 'scale-down' recently.
- imartin2k 4y ago
  Creator of the list here. For some of the companies on the list the label "startup or scaleup" is debatable ofc. But I often find it not to be a clear-cut thing in those cases. I tried to use a mix of "criteria" such as company age, whether it acts like a startup/scaleup (rapid innovation, invests heavily in growth, needs external funding to get going), whether it's covered intensely by the startup-focused tech media etc. To me, Klarna ticks those boxes.
  - arketyp 4y ago
    I agree, was just being witty. Impressive list -- cheers!
    - imartin2k 4y ago
      Thanks! Fortunately, I have been using the same structure in all my 171 previous weekly newsletter issues. So while it was a huge amount of copy & paste, the mental work was fortunately limited. Still I do feel exhausted now.
kensai 4y ago
Where is Paradox Interactive?! Aaah. Not a startup anymore.
- imartin2k 4y ago
  I am the creator of this list. I chose to exclude gaming studios, because I don't really cover them in the newsletter, and have not really any good overview of that sector either.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
    A shame, because IMO Sweden has one of the better gaming start up scenes in the world as well.
    - sandebert 4y ago
      Might you perhaps be the Swedish musician Solar Fields, who also made the music for the game Mirror's Edge?
      - ramigb 4y ago
        I have no idea if he is or he is not who you are asking him, but it's super impressive that you can recognize a musician name from working on a game. Respect for that sir a lot of musicians would appreciate that.
        sandebert 4y ago
        Thanks, but to be fair I also have a couple of his albums. :-) (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/solar-fields-mn0000645543 https://www.allmusic.com/artist/solar-fields-mn0000645543)
      - SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
        I am not, only a fan of his music. Sorry to disappoint :)
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
mrweasel 4y ago
That's okay, many of them aren't tech companies either. I didn't scroll past C, and I already seen a transport company, a car rental company and a fitness subscription. Just because a company uses computers in some form, doesn't make them a tech company. I know many retailers who are just that: retailers, who use pretty sophisticated software and employ a ton of developers, but they aren't tech companies and would never claim to be one.

eandre 4y ago

Founder of Encore here (on the list). Great to see so many wonderful companies represented. Sweden is a great place to start a startup these days.

dijit 4y ago
I'm starting a subsidiary of a start-up in Germany in Sweden. It's not my experience that Sweden is a great place for startups, the bureaucracy is extremely hit/miss. Setting up tax information for example is really difficult as a non-Swedish speaker and even tripped up my Swedish speaking friend (who is a project coordinator on the new Skane hospital: so she's somewhat aware of the tax system). How much of your daily work will be administration, how much will be selling services, how much money will you make do you estimate; you must give us an estimation: if it's too far off then we will fine you! Information in English is... scarce, but gives the illusion of being available. Hiring is also very complicated, you have to be very explicit in your contracts because anything not spelled out immediately falls in favour of the employed; which is nice, but as a novice employer that's very scary, because I don't know everything obviously. What in your mind makes you think it's a good place?
- raverbashing 4y ago
  What makes you think that setting up a subsidiary is a "DIY" thing anywhere, especially if you don't speak the language? (Sweden is still probably easier than Germany, though that's a low barrier tbh) Edit: good to know about the UK
  - dijit 4y ago
    Because I did it in the UK and it was very much a DIY thing. 14GBP to Companies House, extra 10GBP to reserve the right to your name. File your books every year, expect to be audited randomly for a few years.
    - eandre 4y ago
      But you need a UK bank account, which requires a officer with a registered address in the UK. We were lucky our investors were UK-based otherwise it would have been a nightmare. Then you need to argue HMRC valuation discounts if you want to issue EMI options, which are only valid for 3 months, so you need to do it repeatedly. And then EMI option schemes are 15+ pages long contracts. Sweden has an equivalent stock option scheme that's ~2 pages, in comparison.

archydeb 4y ago

I heard that Sweden's high income tax actually incentivised startups, because the only way to get _seriously_ wealthy was through capital gains. Does anybody know whether that's true? If so, it really undermines the narrative that is somewhat dominant in Britain, that high income tax will disincentivize entrepreneurship and innovation etc etc

codethief 4y ago
No idea about the situation in Sweden but generally speaking I'd say it depends a lot on whether "income" in "income tax" also includes capital gains.
- Jolter 4y ago
  It does not, in Sweden.
- geysersam 4y ago
  Don't know any country where it does. In Sweden it certainly doesn't.
  - LtWorf 4y ago
    It doesn't but they are taxed the second you sell them off. So cool… you're rich but if you actually want to use the money it is taxed.
    - pazx 4y ago
      Income tax and capital gains tax are two different things and two different rules sets. In Sweden income tax is max ~56% while max capital gains is 30%.
      - kevinak 4y ago
        Don't forget to add the "totally not income tax" aka arbetsgivaravgift at another 30% :D

schiptsovgithub 4y ago

I want to relocate to Sweden. I am a top-tier FP guy among other things. https://schiptsov.github.io/ https://schiptsov.github.io/ Just read.

humbleferret 4y ago

What a great list. Are there any Swedish incubators similar to Y-Combinator that are facilitating startup growth?

Jolter 4y ago
There are a few but nothing at the scale of yc, obviously.
mankz 4y ago
Sure: https://sting.co/ https://sting.co/ https://www.abi.se/ https://www.abi.se/ and lots more listed at https://www.sisp.se/medlemmar https://www.sisp.se/medlemmar
danadalis 4y ago
Antler https://www.antler.co/ https://www.antler.co/

Jamie9912 4y ago

Isn't Spotify from Gothenburg?

dotcoma 4y ago
No, AFAIK they are from Stockholm. Crunchbase also say they are from Stockholm.
- Shaanie 4y ago
  Yes, Spotify is from Stockholm. Though they do have a Gothenburg office.

LtWorf 4y ago

How many of those are actually "contracted for the development" by a company in Malta? The swedish startup I used to work for was setup in this way to scam taxes.

jsty 4y ago
The "contracted for development" setup is common amongst multi-territory IP-heavy businesses. You choose a country to hold all the IP and have other locations sell development services to that country's legal entity. You can do it to fiddle around with tax, but it's separately quite sensible to hold all your IP in a single region & entity to minimise the complexity - otherwise you'd have every territory licensing IP to every other territory, a.k.a an absolute mess.
- LtWorf 4y ago
  There was no "multi territory", it was a shitty startup with a bunch of people sitting in a room and sharing the office with another startup that was also owned by kinnevik (swedish VC). It was set up that way to not pay taxes in case it would ever make money.

pluijzer 4y ago

I've pasted 150 items of this list to OpenAI and let it figure out what my username would be as a Swedish startup, the answer is Pluijzer (Stockholm, social enterprise that develops innovative solutions for a plastic-free future) So guess I have to start doing that ...

carlbarrdahl 4y ago
What are the 80/20 pareto efforts in terms of reducing plastics today? For example in cities and oceans as target areas.
- wongarsu 4y ago
  In terms of reducing plastic pollution, the big things imho would be garbage collection for 3rd world countries (in many places "dump it in the river" is the only viable solution), biodegradable fishing nets, and more waste-fired power plants for plastics we can't efficiently recycle.

robalni 4y ago

What's up with all these two-dimensional solid color people graphics that often have unrealistic colors or body shapes? I see them everywhere. Here are a few examples from the list: * https://metry.io/img/metry-product-information.png https://metry.io/img/metry-product-information.png * https://norban.se/assets/img/front-page/section-1/room_7@1x.webp https://norban.se/assets/img/front-page/section-1/room_7@1x.... * https://nordtechgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/undrawdatare80ws.svg https://nordtechgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/undrawd... * https://www.nuvoair.com/_nuxt/img/home-enterprise-img.97f4619.png https://www.nuvoair.com/_nuxt/img/home-enterprise-img.97f461... * https://sanitation360.se/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/puff_protectingwater.png https://sanitation360.se/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/puff_pro... * https://securifid.se/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/kvinna-lockig-har-300x277-1.png https://securifid.se/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/kvinna-locki... * https://www.sinch.com/sites/default/files/styles/medium_hq/public/image/2021-09/Illustration_contact_us_girl_tablet_phone_0%20(1).png https://www.sinch.com/sites/default/files/styles/medium_hq/p... * https://workamo.com/img/hero-image.png https://workamo.com/img/hero-image.png * https://www.airmee.com/images/icon_airmee_delivery-fresh.png https://www.airmee.com/images/icon_airmee_delivery-fresh.png * https://www.budid.se/images/video-min.png https://www.budid.se/images/video-min.png

sgt 4y ago
I have a friend who looks exactly like that. Tiny head, huge body.
vimy 4y ago
I really dislike this graphical style. It’s been a couple years now so I hope something else will replace it soon.
- robalni 4y ago
  This site has some more interesting graphics: https://www.gamifiera.com/ https://www.gamifiera.com/
  - vimy 4y ago
    That’s really cool. Are those custom made or can you buy them somewhere?

bazhand 4y ago

I joined Proxify (on the list) recently and was pleasantly surprised to find a quite vibrant tech scene. As someone who followed the more traditional startup hubs like Amsterdam, Berlin or Dublin, I've found that there are many gems in the Nordics.