News July 21, 2022: Kry, Normative, Meela, Sinch, Hopsworks, memmo, Zebrain, The Inner Foundation and more

Here is today's curation of news from Sweden's startup and tech sector.

Funding news

• Kry (Stockholm, digital healthcare provider): $160M in debt and equity in a follow-on round from its Series D, from Teachers’ Venture Growth, P Capital Partners and existing investors Index Ventures, Accel, Creandum and Project A (English).
• Normative (Stockholm, carbon accounting engine): €31M ($32M) in a Series B funding round led by Blume Equity, with participation from new investor Horizons Ventures and existing investors Future Five, ETF Partners and 2150 (English).
• Meela (Gothenburg, personalized therapy for women): undisclosed amount from The Inner Foundation (English / Bloomberg paywall, alternative URL, Swedish).
• Creandum led a $18.6M Series A funding round raised by Czech startup Better Stack, provider of observability tools for shipping better software faster (English).

>> Daily updated, subscriber-exclusive Google sheet with all funding rounds raised by private Swedish startups and scaleups. Request access.

News from Swedish startups, the tech sector and VCs

• In the wake of a 90% stock price collapse, Stockholm-based mobile engagement communications platform Sinch announced that CEO Oscar Werner is stepping down with immediate effect. Co-founder Johan Hedberg will act as interim CEO (English). Alongside its quarterly report which was published today, the company also announced cost cutting measures (English).
• Hopsworks, Stockholm-based AI platform, launches a serverless Python-centric feature store for machine learning, in what it describes as an "industry first" (English).
• memmo, Stockholm-based provider of personalised greeting messages from celebrities, which a few weeks ago announced laying off around 40 % of its workforce, is looking to raise new funding (Swedish, machine translation).
• A brief profile of Zebrain, Stockholm-based personalized online coaching platform that aims to "democratize professional and personal development" for employees, according to CEO and co-founder Anna Bloth Karling (English).
• Swedish VC Pär-Jorgen Pärson, famous for his early Spotify investment, and his wife Annika Sten Pärson, active as social entrepreneur, board member & impact investor, have launched the non-profit organization The Inner Foundation and funded it with €100M ($101M). The initiative focuses on improving the mental well being of young adults and has already made a number of investments, among them one in Gothenburg-based Meela, a startup offering personalized therapy for women (English / Bloomberg paywall, alternative URL, Swedish).

Swedish tech earnings reports

• Quickbit (Stockholm, crypto exchange): English.
• Viaplay (Stockholm, streaming service for movies, shows and sports): English.
• Litium (Stockholm, cloud-based digital commerce platform): Swedish, machine translation.
• Funnel (Stockholm, marketing data analysis platform) generated sales of SEK175M in 2021, but also an operating loss of SEK174M. Both key figures increased by approx. 45% compared to 2020 (Swedish / Breakit paywall).

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world

• In the current environment in which many VCs are scared, "a founder willing to play into an investor’s need for certainty is a founder that’s going to come away with a deal" (English).
• New startups are "default global". Thus, the software stack for a default global company’s functions needs to be international from the start in order to better integrate everything from local employment law and talent sourcing to multi-country incorporation and expense management (English).

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That's it for today.