News June 16, 2022: Zcooly, Lysa, Kavall, Happie Camp, Truecaller, Aline, Spotify, Readly, Amazon and more

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

Mergers & acquisitions

• Zcooly (Gothenburg, game-based learning app for children) acquires Stockholm-based company Peppy Pals, creator of apps and books that nurture children's social & emotional intelligence (EQ) through story-telling. Financials were not disclosed (Swedish, machine translation).

Funding news

• Lysa (Stockholm, robo advisor): SEK350M (€33M, $34M) in a funding round led by Nicklas Storåkers, with participation from SEB Venture Capital and Ramsbury (English, Swedish).
• Kavall (Stockholm, hyper-local rapid grocery delivery service): SEK22M (€2.1M, $2.2M) from Nordic Angels and Bring Ventures (English, Swedish).
• Happie Camp (Karlstad, online service for booking accommodation in pre-rigged camps along the Swedish countryside): SEK6M (€560K, $580K) from Södra Ädla and other undisclosed investors (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

• Truecaller is the new main sponsor of AIK, one of Stockholm's 3 mayor football teams (English). Here's a photo of co-founder and CEO Alan Mamedi in the new jersey.
• Aline, Stockholm-based learning experience platform co-founded and led by Innocent Mugenga, was selected by Google for Startups for its second Black Founders Fund in Europe, "out of 700+ applicants", according to co-founder and CEO Innocent Mugenga. Aline will receive $100K in equity-free cash and up to $200K in Cloud Credits (English).
• Spotify will reduce hiring by 25 percent (English).
• Readly, Växjö-based subscription service for digital magazines, is integrating podcasts associated with magazines from selected publishers into its offering (Swedish, machine translation).
• Amazon is bringing its "Prime Day" to Sweden on July 12 and 13 (Swedish, machine translation).

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

• The VC firm True Global Ventures 4 Plus, which lately invested in several Swedish web3 startups and is headquartered in Singapore, announced the closing of a $146M "follow-on" fund for web3 investments (English).
• What should startup employees do with options during a downturn? (US-centric regarding taxation, but possibly still an informative read) (English).

Other interesting things related to Sweden

• Sweden drops from #2 to #4 in this year's World Competitiveness Ranking by the IMD Business School. Denmark overtakes Switzerland as new champion (English / Bloomberg paywall, alternative URL).
• Swedish estate agents call a buyer’s market (English / The Local paywall, alternative URL).

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That's it for today.