News January 26, 2023: Supernormal, Viking Analytics, n-Ink, Exparang, Botanium, Swedish climate startup map, Instabee, Monterro and more

Here are today's news from Sweden's startup and tech sector, exclusively for subscribers of Swedish Tech News.

Mergers & acquisitions

• Bonnier News is increasing its cash offer for publicly listed Swedish digital magazine subscription service Readly after major Readly shareholders rejected the previous offer. The new offer values Readly at approximately SEK546M (€49M, $53M) (English, Swedish).

Funding news

• Supernormal (Stockholm & New York, AI platform that generates automated meeting notes): $10M seed round led by Balderton Capital, with participation from new investors Acequia Capital and byFounders, as well as existing investor EQT Ventures (English, Swedish).
• Viking Analytics (Gothenburg, AI-based machine health monitoring technology): more than €3M ($3.3M) in a Series A round co-led by Industrifonden and Finindus, with participation from ABB and unspecified existing investors (English).
• n-Ink (Norrköping, developer of leading inks for applications in printed electronics): SEK13.3M (€1.2M, $1.3M) in a funding round led by Navigare, with participation from Almi Invest (Swedish, machine translation).
• Exparang (Stockholm, platform for data driven executive recruitment matching): SEK6.1M (€550K, $600K) in a first close of the company's seed round, from new investors DHS Venture Partners, South Bay Ventures, as well as angels Charlotte Strömberg, Caroline Rosén, Per Hallius, Cecilia Kragsterman and Johan Ryrberg. Existing investor VNTRS and various previous angel investors also participated (English).
• Botanium (Stockholm, manufacturer of smart urban gardening products): SEK4M (€360K, $390K) in equity and debt from angel investors including Henrik Bergqvist (the former founder of mr Green and Betsson), and Sven Uthor (founder and former CEO of B3 Consulting Group). The money will be used to launch the new product, Botanium Vega, and scale up the business (English).
• Swedish impact private investments firm Trill Impact led a €43M ($47M) funding round raised by German smart thermostat startup Tado, after Tado's IPO plans faltered (English).
• Norrsken participated in a €15M ($16M) seed round raised by French nuclear fusion technology startup Renaissance Fusion (English).

News from Swedish startups, the tech sector and VCs

• Several industry organizations unveiled the first version of the Swedish Climate Startup Map, featuring 108 companies developing energy-related solutions (English).
• Creades, Stockholm-based investment company, cut the valuation of last mile delivery company Instabee to SEK13.5B (€1.2B, $1.3B), from SEK18.1B a few months ago, when Instabox and Budbee announced their merger to become Instabee (Swedish / Di Digital paywall).
• Stockholm-based Sileon, formerly Paynova, announced the launch of its SaaS BNPL platform (English).
• Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel is currently in Stockholm, it's not known why (Swedish, machine translation).
• Nordic B2B software growth investor Monterro has closed a new fund at SEK1.65B (€150M, $160M), which is entirely dedicated to investments in smaller companies with annual recuring revenue (ARR) in the range of €5M ($5.4M) (English, Swedish / Di Digital paywall).

Swedish tech earnings

• Creades (Stockholm, investment company) published its Q4 and 2022 annual report (Swedish / PDF).

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

• How to win in the Era of PLG (English).
• How to compete against an incumbent: change the atomic unit (English).

Other interesting things related to Sweden

• New Swedish fashion brand Benim Denim is designed "to shut down". The month-old Swedish firm will “live” only as long as its 170-meter roll of deadstock denim—partly made from Circulose, a material derived from recycled jeans—will allow it (English).
• Gang-related shootings and detonations have been escalating in Stockholm lately. But the gangs' leaders have fled Sweden and are orchestrating activities from abroad, complicating the situation for the authorities (English). Turns out, remote work is also appealing for organized crime.

+++

That's it for today.