Gothenburg’s tech startups shine with a surge in exits
Last week marked a major event for tech startups from Gothenburg, with three companies based in Sweden's second largest city announcing being acquired (all covered in my daily PRO newsletters, of course).
Minna Technologies
Minna Technologies, Gothenburg-based provider of subscription management solutions, is being acquired by Mastercard. Financial details were not disclosed, though acccording to information obtained by Breakit (paywall), Mastercard pays $75 million. The transaction is currently subject to a regulatory review.
Minna Technologies was founded in 2016 by Joakim Sjöblom, Marcus Lönnberg, and Jonas Karles, and has raised around SEK 260 million (€23 million, $25 million at today's exchange rate) in total funding, according to data registered with Bolagsverket (sourced via Eivora), including a €15.5 million Series B round in early January 2021. Main outside shareholders are Zenith VC, Element Ventures, Swedbank, Nineyards Equity – and Mastercard competitor Visa. For 2023, Minna Technologies reported net revenue of SEK 24.8 million, and a loss of SEK 75.5 million.
Halon
Also last week, Finnish private equity firm Intera Partners announced that it is buying a majority stake in Halon, Gothenburg-based email infrastructure platform for service providers. Financial details were not disclosed.
Halon was founded in 2010 by Erik Lax, Anders Berggren, Jonas Falck, and Peter Falck, and had only raised funding in its early days, with Chalmers Ventures and Almi Invest being the main investors. While Chalmers Ventures is selling its entire stake to Intera, Almi Invest keeps some of its Halon shares.
According to the annual report (which I covered first in my PRO subscription in July), Halon grew net revenue in 2023 by 48% YoY to SEK 46.4 million, and reported a pre-tax profit of SEK 12.5 million.
Jobtip
Last but not least, it was announced that Gothenburg-based SaaS solution for automated social media recruitment Jobtip is being acquired by Norway-based HR software provider Talentech, for an undisclosed amount.
Jobtip was founded in 2014 by Patrik Wigton, and has some angel and private investors on its cap table, among them Tom Nyman (who posted on Linkedin about the deal). For 2023, Jobtip reported net revenue of SEK72.3M (up slightly YoY), and a profit of SEK0.6M.
Two more recent deals
The Gothenburg tech startup exit wave is even bigger than this: Less than a month ago, Mastercard revealed that it is buying the Gothenburg-founded threat intelligence platform Recorded Future for $2.65 billion.
And very recently, the US-based HR tech talent company Karat bought Gothenburg-based AI co-pilot for interviews Aspect (first covered in my PRO subscription on September 26). The startup was founded by Benjamin Warberg and Oscar Lagercrantz in 2021 as Hume, and had raised around SEK20M in funding from VNV Global, Altitude Capital, and VOI founder Fredrik Hjelm, among others.
While the financial dimensions of these deals vary, taken together, they shine a spotlight on Gothenburg and represent a welcome liquidity event for city's tech startup ecosystem.
Now only one question remains: Which Gothenburg-based startup will be next?
