News October 29, 2024: Raketspel, EvoluteIQ, Challengermode, Aligned Bio, Audiodo, FibreStrap, Evertalk, Globy, Starmony, Akka Nordics, CARMATE, Algeno, 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

• Raketspel (Stockholm, mobile game studio, founded 2000) is being acquired by the publicly traded Stockholm-based investment firm RightBridge Ventures, for SEK79M (€6.9M, $7.4M). Raketspel is cited to have amassed over 175 million downloads across its portfolio (English). Raketspel was founded by Per Ekstig and two co-founders, and appears to not have raised any outside funding. According to the latest annual reports, the company was widely profitable between 2019 and 2021, but the performance worsened lately.

Funding news

⬜️ publicly traded

• EvolutelQ (Stockholm, AI-powered end-to-end intelligent business automation platform, founded 2019): $20M in a mix of equity and debt funding led by Round2 Capital, with participation from Nordea Growth Fund, DCAP Select, and PH ventures. The fresh funds will be used for the continued expansion in the US (English). The company just registered SEK90.3M in equity funding with Bolagsverket (data sourced via Eivora), at a pre-money valuation of around SEK1B. Previous to this new round, EvoluteIQ registered around SEK220M in equity funding with Bolagsverket. 📊 The company has not published its 2023 numbers yet, and did not report any revenue for 2022 (for its Swedish company – it's also incorporate in the UK).
• Challengermode (Stockholm, esports platform, founded 2014): SEK27M (€2.3M, $2.5M) in a funding round led by existing investor Back in Black Capital, with support from other existing investors, and new investors Ballista Capital and Seeker. The capital will be used to "expand Challengermode’s offerings beyond just esports to include a broader set of game-technology products. The company aims to further develop its offerings for game developers and AAA publishers" (English). In July 2023, Challengermode announced a SEK100M funding round. In early 2024, Challengermode acquired the assets of bankrupt Swedish competitor Stryda (formerly G-Loot). 📊 For the FY 2023/2024, Challengermode reported net revenue of SEK18.5M, up 58% YoY, and a loss of -SEK35.9M, vs -SEK64.6M during the FY 2022/2023.
• Aligned Bio (Lund, advanced nanowire technology for the biomedical industry, founded 2019): SEK19.4M (€1.7M, $1.8M) from new investors including Smile Inject Capital, family offices and individuals, as well as existing investors. With this financing, the company expects to be funded until the end of 2025 (Swedish / Rapidus paywall). ➡️ On July 24, I covered a partial closing of this round in the "unannounced funding" section, including valuation details.

Unannounced funding