News November 1, 2022: Cling, Y/ELM, Ekobot, Mia&Noa, Mendly, memmo, Propel Capital and more

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

Mergers & acquisitions

• Fortnox (Växjö, cloud-based finance management platform for smaller businesses and accounting agencies) is buying 51% of Stockholm-based startup Cling, whose SaaS solution helps smaller companies cover the sales cycle from quote to invoice. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal comes with an option to acquire the remaining 49% in 2024 (Swedish, machine translation).

Funding news

• Y/ELM (Stockholm, protection system that enables riders to experience the thrill of riding hard without restraint): SEK5M (€460K, $460K) in a funding round led by Wellstreet, with participation from angel investors Alexander Hars and Ebba Danielsson (English).
• Ekobot (publ) (Stockholm, solutions for precision agriculture based on artificial intelligence and autonomous mob robot platforms): SEK2.4M (€220K, $220K) in a directed share issue from Navus Ventures (English).
• Mia&Noa / no website yet (Stockholm, developer of smart health tech for pets): SEK1.2M (€110K, €110K) from undisclosed investors. The startup is led and co-founded by Totte Löfström, who previously co-founded and sold Swedish crypto exchange Trijo (Swedish, machine translation).

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

News from Swedish startups, the tech sector and VCs

• Mendly, Stockholm-based app startup for chat-based, asynchronous cognitive behavioral therapy founded in 2018, is bankrupt (Swedish, machine translation).
• Kry is leaving the German market, where it launched in 2019. The decision was already made in spring this year (Swedish / Di Digital, Swedish #2, machine translation).
• memmo, Stockholm-based provider of personalised greeting messages from celebrities, laid off around 40% of its workforce right before summer. Now the company is reportedly cutting even more jobs, although details are scarce (Swedish, machine translation).
• Greentech investor Emanuel Andersson is new CEO of Propel Capital, the seed investment unit operated by accelerator Sting. He's joining from Almi Invest Greentech (English, Swedish).
• 🎧 "I don't believe we have seen the bottom of this market downturn yet. Startup entrepreneurs should keep focusing on cost control", says Backing Minds CEO and investor Sara Resvik in this wide-ranging podcast interview on the market climate, what investments Backing Minds is looking for, and her own journey (Swedish, 26 minutes).

Swedish tech earnings reports

• Albert (Gothenburg, digital learning subscription service for kids and teens): English.

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

• Why "generative AI" is suddenly on everyone's lips (English).
• What is a fair amount of equity for a late co-founder? (English).

Other interesting things related to Sweden

• The number of bankruptcies in Sweden during October 2022 was 38% higher than during October 2021 (English / Bloomberg paywall, alternative URL, Swedish).
• The app of Stockholm's public transport SL can now show the location of buses on a map in real time (Swedish, machine translation).

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That's it for today.