News May 24, 2022: Photon Sports, Polestar, Klarna, Södra, founder-VC alignment, chicken-free eggs and more
Here is today's curation of news from Sweden's startup and tech sector, exclusively for subscribers of Swedish Tech News.
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Subscribe to Swedish Tech News to get access to a daily newsletter that brings you a brief overview of news from the Swedish startup & tech sector, curated by Martin Weigert.
Or, if you prefer a free weekly newsletter, subscribe to Swedish Tech Weekly!
Funding news
- Photon Sports (Skellefteå, mobile performance tracking solution to optimise sports training): SEK19M (€1.8M, $1.9M) from Pulsen Group (Swedish, machine translation).
- Swedish EV maker Polestar invests an undisclosed amount in Israel-based EV battery startup StoreDot, as part of a strategic partnership (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
- Klarna is laying off 700 employees, representing 10% of the workforce (English). Here's the official announcement by CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski (English). The company is also reporting a loss of -SEK2.5B (€240M, $250M) for Q1 2022, compared to -SEK0.8B for Q1 2021. Free cashflow was at a negative -SEK7.3B during Q1 2022 (Swedish, machine translation). Meanwhile, Swedish labor unions are unhappy that Klarna didn't talk to them before deciding about job cuts (Swedish, machine translation).
- Einride orders 110 electric trucks from Scania. The fleet will be built to Einride's hardware specifications and powered by their first of its kind operating system Saga (English).
- In Q1 2022, Swedish e-commerce revenue dropped by 8% compared to the record Q1 2021 (Swedish, machine translation).
- Swedish forest industry group Södra is launching an investment vehicle to invest a total of SEk200M (€19M, $20M) in around 20 startups with relevance to the forest sector (Swedish / DI Digital paywall).
Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond
- Based on new survey data, founders and VCs should have more discussions and alignment on expectations at the start of their relationship (English).
- A survey with responses from 34 VCs investing in Europe shows money is still flowing, but investors are more careful (English / Sifted soft paywall, alternative URL).
- Eric Byrenius of Swedish early-stage foodtech micro fund Trellis Road published an analysis of the chicken-free egg space (English).
Other interesting things from Sweden
- The Swedish government aims to cull the country's wolf population by as much as half (English).
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That's it for today.
