News June 21, 2022: Carla, Validio, Lingio, Rerun, VOI, Mullvad, Volta Greentech, Normative, Butterfly Ventures and more

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

Funding news

• Carla (Stockholm, online store for used electric vehicles): SEK205M (€19M, $20M) in a funding round led by Bonnier Ventures, with participation from existing investors, including Inbox Capital, Black Ice, and VNV Global. This investment brings total funding to date to around SEK340M (English, Swedish).
• Validio (Stockholm, next generation data quality platform): $15M in a seed round led by Lakestar, with participation from J12 Ventures and angel investors such as Zlatan Ibrahimović, Denise Persson, Kevin Ryan, Emil Eifrem, Mehdi Ghissassi as well as Kim Fai Kok & Dara Gill (English).
• Lingio (Stockholm, language learning SaaS solution for organizations and companies): SEK41M (€4M, $4.1M) from Backing Minds (English, Swedish).
• Rerun (Stockholm, visual introspection tool for teams building perception-heavy products): $3.2M in a pre-seed round led by Costanoa Ventures, with participation from Seedcamp along with angel investors, among others Jan Erik Solem, Luc Vincent, Sune Alstrup and Alper Aydemir (English).
• SEB Venture Capital invested an undisclosed amount in Danish Asset-as-a-Service management platform Leneo (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

• VOI wants to focus on profitability and aims to reduce the overall headquarter cost base by 25%. The Stockholm-based e-scooter company plans to cut around around 35 roles at the HQ (10% of central roles), among other measures (English, Swedish).
• Mullvad, Gothenburg-based VPN provider, is removing the option of PayPal and credit card subscription payments in order to increase user privacy (English). The announcement got huge attention on Hacker News. In the comments, people are pretty lyrical about the service (English).
• Volta Greentech, Stockholm-based startup creating feed supplement for cows from seaweed, launched "the world's first low methane beef", availabe now as a pilot in selected Swedish grocery stories belonging to the Coop chain (English, Swedish).
• Stockholm-based carbon accounting engine Normative launched a free carbon legislation tracker to help businesses stay compliant with fast changing carbon legislation in the EU, UK, and US (English).
• Stockholm-based crypto exchange Quickbit launches its Visa-powered Quickbit Card in Norway (English).
• Nordic VC firm Butterfly Ventures, with Stockholm-based partner Tanya Horowitz, announced the first closing of €47M of their new €100M seed entry capital fund, which focuses on science based deep tech and hardware startups in the Nordics and Baltics (English).
• Alex Paterson-Pochet, founding partner at J12 Ventures, summarizes a couple of key ideas and resources for navigating the fundraising landscape in a downturn (English).

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

• Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson on staying positive as founders/startup leaders in challenging times (English).
• European sales tech companies Echobot and Leadfeeder merge and raise $190M in consolidation play (English).

Other interesting things related to Sweden

• Polestar's SPAC merger is expected to close this Thursday and to raise at least $850M (English).
• One fifth of Swedish properties are selling for below asking price (English / The Local paywall, alternative URL).

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That's it for today.