News October 17, 2022: Liquid Wind, Dandi, Meds, Reselo, Rabble, Off Script, Ment, MIOO, Bitrefill 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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Funding news

  • Liquid Wind (Gothenburg, developer of a solution to convert CO2 and wind energy to liquid fuel): €15.2M ($14.9M) in a Series B round from HyCap and existing investors Uniper, Alfa Laval, Siemens Energy, Topsoe, Elyse and others (English).
  • Dandi (Stockholm & New York, analytics platform for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace): $3.7M in seed funding led by Springbank and Alleycorp Impact, with participation from Atlassian Ventures, Impact Engine, Uncommon Denominator, AAF and Heirloom VC (English).
  • Meds (Stockholm, online pharmacy): SEK40M (€3.6M, $3.5M) loan facility from an undisclosed major bank (Swedish / DI Digital paywall, Swedish #2, machine translation).
  • Reselo (Stockholm, developing a sustainable rubber from forest residues): €2.5M ($2.5M) grant through the European Union's EIC Accelerator (English).
  • Kale United (Stockholm, holding company for plant-based food innovation): SEK13M (€1.2M, $1.2M) through an equity crowdfunding round from around 640 investors (Swedish, machine translation).
  • Rabble (Stockholm, cashback platform for FMCG brands): SEK10M (€900K, $900K) in a funding round led by existing investor Inbox Capital. The company, which started in 2010 with an app for discounts, launched a cashback feature in early 2022, which has now 100,000 monthly active users. The funds will be used to launch Rabble in Finland, Norway and Denmark (Swedish / DI Digital paywall)
  • Off Script (Stockholm, e-commerce platform for creators): SEK10M (€900K, $900K) in a pre-seed round of funding led by Watertower Ventures, with participation from 3KVC. The financing will be used for the expansion into the US. For that purpose, Off Script's co-founders Pontus Karlsson, Yuriy Kurylenko and Tom Coleman have moved the company's headquarter to the US and relocated to West Hollywood (English, Swedish).

>> 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

  • Ment, Stockholm-based developer of a smart digital service for ADHD, is looking to raise €650K (€630K) for 25% of the company, according to a press release sent out by existing investor Curus (English). A 27-page pitchdeck is provided (PDF). Seems an unconventional approach, but why not try.
  • MIOO, Stockholm-based startup offering an app for on-demand bicycle repairs, is launching a large-scale expansion into Germany and the UK. Next up could be France, The Netherlands and Italy (Swedish, machine translation).
  • Bitrefill (Stockholm, service to let people buy gift cards and refill phones with cryptocurrencies) generated net sales of SEK1.7B (€154M, $150M) and an operating profit of SEK10M in 2021, according to a profile published by Breakit. The majority of the startup's business is coming from markets outside Europe. Co-founder and CFO Michel Gustavsson says the company, which currently has a headcount of 54, is considering raising a Series B funding round to accelerate growth – but there is no pressure to do so, if terms aren't good (Swedish / Breakit paywall).
  • Creandum and Slush launched an anonymous founders' salary survey for VC-backed tech companies from pree seed to Series B and beyond (English).
  • UK-based equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs is looking for a Head of Nordics (English).

Other interesting things from the startup/VC world & beyond

  • Some European VC firms are spreading misleading fund announcements (English)
  • Swedish parliament backs center-right leader Ulf Kristersson as new PM, with support from the far-right Sweden Democrats (English)
  • Sweden’s incoming cabinet says new reactors will be built (English / Bloomberg paywall, alternative URL).
  • Researchers in Sweden have constructed a scent machine that can be controlled by a gaming computer, potentially paving the the way for the development of smell-based game mechanics (English).

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That's it for today.

Martin Weigert

Martin Weigert

Martin is the founder of Swedish Tech News. Every day he spends many hours gathering and curating the latest from Sweden's startup & tech sector. Contact: m@swedishtechnews.com
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