News June 24, 2024: Klarna checkout, Mentimeter, Ezeride, Carjoy, FirstVet, Net Zero Company, Blodtrycksdoktorn, Green14, Cellufy, Magnowlia, Noah, The Nordic 100, Budi, Depict, and more

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

Mergers & acquisitions

• A consortium led by BLQ Invest founder and CEO Kamjar Hajabdolahi, is buying Klarna's Checkout business (KCO). The amount was not disclosed, but according to Bloomberg, the transaction values KCO at SEK5.4B (€480M, $520M). That the payments and shopping company was looking to offload KCO had been rumored previously. The deal will go into effect on October 1. The consortium also includes Systematic Growth, and the serial entrepreneur Martin Randel (English, Swedish).
• Swedish investment company Bure Equity is acquiring Alfvén & Didrikson's 12.3% stake in Stockholm-based audience engagement platform Mentimeter. The transaction reportedly values Mentimeter as a whole at SEK3.7B, and nets Alfvén & Didrikson SEK450M. Mentimeter was founded in 2014. Alfvén & Didrikson joined as investor at some point before 2020 through a secondary transaction, and later did a follow-on investment (English, Swedish / Di Digital paywall). 📊 Mentimeter also just published its 2023 numbers: Net revenue was SEK452M, up almost 35% YoY, and loss was -SEK56.6M, vs -SEK33.6M in 2022.
• Ezeride, Trollhättan-based provider of carpooling solutions for companies, has been acquired by Carjoy, an Alingsås-based startup founded in 2021 (and recently funded with SEK2.3M) that offers a B2B mobile mechanics service for cars. The price was not disclosed (Swedish, machine translation). Ezeride was founded in 2020 – though I have not been able to verify in a reasonable amount of time who counts as founder(s). The company's main investors were NEVS and Mekonomen. 📊 By August 2023, Ezeride had still been pre-revenue.

Funding news

⬜️ publicly traded

• FirstVet (Stockholm, digital veterinary clinic, founded 2016): €20M ($21M) in a Series C funding round led by new investor TELUS Global Ventures, with participation from existing investors OMERS Ventures, Mubadala Capital, and Cathay Innovation (English). This is the company's first funding since late 2020, when it raised $35M led by Mubadala Capital. FirstVet is currently offering its service in seven countries, including the US and the UK. 📊 For 2022, reported revenue was SEK178.9M, and loss -SEK137.1M.
• Net Zero Company (Stockholm, carbon removal company, founded 2022): $5.5M seed funding led by Oilinvest, VARO Energy, and SilviCarbon. The funding will support the global expansion and the launch of a new product suite, including the Carbon Removal Token, a real-world, asset-backed token (English). Net Zero Company (NZC) was founded by Peter Ebsen, Robin Stenman, and Anders Forsberg, and is led by CEO Håkan Nordkvist. The startup has registered around SEK50M in total equity funding with Bolagsverket since its inception, which today's announcement likely refers to.
• Blodtrycksdoktorn (Lund, digital healthcare provider focusing on hypertension management and weight loss, founded 2017): SEK36M (€3.2M, $3.4M) from LMK Forward (seems to be a new investor), and existing investors including CEO Jonas Wohlin, Roosgruppen, and Mathias Kamprad. This brings total equity funding raised to almost SEK200M (Swedish / Breakit paywall).

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