Sweden tech2023 REPORT

February 2024

Foreword“

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The Sweden Tech Ecosystem database and this annual
report are the results of a cross-actor collaboration between
Business Sweden, Vinnova, The Swedish Agency for
Economic and Regional Growth, The Swedish Institute, andSwedish Incubators and Science Parks (SISP). It is an
important part of our ongoing eﬀort to make ecosystemdata freely accessible to everyone. The website, Swedish
Tech Ecosystem, serves as a digital showroom of activities in
our innovation ecosystem. Furthermore, we hope that thiswill enable investors and startups to match, companies tofind partners for business dialogues, and media to pick up
on great stories worthy of sharing! In addition, talents can
explore opportunities and companies may advertise theirneeds.
The key takeaways this year are that despite an unstableglobal economy, Swedish startups continued during 2023 toraise investments amounting to €4.7B. Close to 75% of thetotal venture capital investment was raised by impact
startups, making Sweden #2 in Europe. With a staggering
combined worth of €239B,

Swedish startups have not only doubled in value over thelast five years but have also created 41 unicorn
companies, solidifying Sweden as a powerhouse and theplace to be in the global tech
Scene. The Swedish Ecosystem is now starting to benefit
from a snowball eﬀect as alumni staﬀ
from successful unicorns spin out and become founders toseveral new startups. We also see how startups contribute to
the economy. Swedish startups have created an estimated138,000 jobs globally, including 79,000 jobs in Sweden.
Startups, notincluding top companies and unicorns, are creating 96% of
new local jobs. Weʼre proud that Sweden continues to rank
high on the global innovation scoreboards and, despite
global instabilities, manages to attract investors, talent, andnew deals. We are therefore committed to continuing oureﬀorts to ensure that Sweden delivers world-classconditions for startups to thrive.”

Global startup and venture capitalintelligence platform
Dealroom.co is a global intelligence platform fordiscovering and tracking the most promising
companies, technologies and ecosystems. Clients
include many of the worldʼs foremost organizations
such as Accel, Index Ventures, McKinsey, BCG,
Deloitte, Google, AWS, Microsoft, Stripe.
Dealroom partners closely with local tech ecosystemdevelopment agencies and enablers, to create acomprehensive multi-dimensional blueprint of thetech ecosystem, including capital, talent, innovation,
entrepreneurship and overall economic dynamism.

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Business Sweden helps Swedish companies
grow global sales and international
companies invest and expand in Sweden

Public agency that promotes interest andtrust in Sweden around the world

Business Sweden is commissioned by theGovernment and the Swedish industry with a uniquemandate and a mission to help international
companies gain access to the Swedish market andhelp domestic ones utilize it as a platform for
expansion. Their clients range from startups via
small- and medium-sized businesses tomultinational enterprises – with tailor-made services
catering to all of these segments.

The Swedish Institute operates in the fields ofculture, education, science and business in seeking
to strengthen international relations ties, andpromote development. The agency builds up lasting
relations between Sweden and other countries toenhance Swedenʼs nation brand and international
relevance. To this end, the Swedish Institutedisseminates information, develops skills, promotes
cultural exchange and cooperation, and provides
funding and grants.

Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional
GrowthThe Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional
Growth (Tillväxtverket), is a government agency
under the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation,
tasked to promote sustainable business development
and regional growth in all parts of Sweden.
Tillväxtverket supports companies and regions byoﬀering knowledge, networks for collaboration andfinancing.

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Swedish Incubators & Science Parks

Swedenʼs Innovation Agency

Swedish Incubators & Science Parks (SISP) is themember association for Sweden's incubators andscience parks as regional areas of innovation acrossthe country. SISPs members support knowledge andtechnology based startups and scaleups, as well as
established industries and the public sector, todevelop a sustainable society through innovation.
Several members also run business angel networks
and seed capital funds.

Vinnova is Sweden's governmental innovation
agency. Our mission is to strengthen Sweden's
innovative capacity and contribute to sustainablegrowth. We identify areas where our eﬀorts can makea diﬀerence, and we create opportunities andincentives for organisations to work together to meet
important societal challenges. Our financial support
gives companies and organisations the opportunity
to experiment and test new ideas before they
become profitable. Through open calls, Vinnova
invests approximately 300 m€ annually in researchand innovation in the form of grants.

What you need to know.
Swedish startups are now worth a
combined €239B.

Swedish startups attracted €4.7B
of investment in 2023.

The Swedish tech ecosystem iscollectively worth almost a quarter of atrillion dollars, including 41 unicorns.
The combined ecosystem value has
doubled in the last five years.

Sweden maintains its position as 4th inEurope by VC investment raised, behindjust the UK, France and Germany. It
ranks 3rd in Europe for deep tech
investment and 2nd for Impact.

Two Swedish Universities areamong Europeʼs top 20 for
producing VC-backed founders.

7 counties across Sweden are now
home to more than 50 VC-backed
companies.

KTH ranks 10th in Europe by number ofalumni who have raised €10M+, theUniversity of Stockholm ranks 18th.
Sweden ranks 5th in Europe based onuniversity spinout value created.

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Source:However, geographical distribution ofstartups and VC investment remains
largely centralized, with Stockholm
county capturing 90% of VC investment
since 2019.

Dealroom.co. *Only includes VC Backed companies with disclosed investment amounts.

Key Figures.

€4.7B

€3.5B

VC investment raised
In 2023

Impact VC investment
raised in 2023.

Sweden ranks 4th inEurope for VC
investment raised.

Sweden ranks 2ndin Europe for impact
VC investment raised.

€239B

41

Ecosystem Valuation

Unicorns

Growing x2 since 2019.

Sweden ranks 9th
globally by numberof unicorns.

1 The Swedish Tech Ecosystem
2 Innovation and Ecosystem Enablers
3 2023 VC investment update
4 Regional trends

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The combined enterprise value of Swedish startups

Swedish startups are
now worth €239B,
growing 2x
since 2019.
The value of the Swedish ecosystem has
decreased by 28% since 2021, due to adrop in the value of Swedish decacorns:
the private decacorn Klarna as well as
top public companies like Spotify.

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Source:Dealroom.coSweden is showing a promising funnel of startups, breakouts and scaleups.
Sweden pre-funding
companies± 150 Swedish startups
raise their first
VC round each year

VC-backed Swedish companies

VC-backed €1B+ Swedish companies
founded since 1990

1.7K

138

27

Startup(€0–15M
total
funding)

Breakout(€15–100M
total
funding)

Scaleups(€100M+
total
funding)

€1B+

€10B+

€100B+

37

3

0

1% of
globalPage / 8

Source:Dealroom.co

0.8% ofglobal0% ofglobalThe top 100 startups in Sweden
according to
Dealroomʼs powerful predictive algorithm helps surface theworldʼs most promising companies.
The input for each Signal's algorithm includes company growth (team size,
product growth), founders strength, completion score and contextual data (doesthe company fit into segments of interest), timing (is the startup likely to raise
their next round soon) and team composition.

» Top 100 Swedish Startups to watch

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Source:Dealroom.coSweden remains a global top 10 country by
number of unicorn startups created.
Top countries by number of unicorns

+44
+20
+6
+4
+1
+4
+3
+2
+0
+1
+1
+2

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Source:Dealroom.co

Explore Swedish unicorns and 1B+ exits» view online

Success breeds success: Swedish unicorns haveproduced dozens of alumni founders.

& 4 others& 28 others& 10 others& 16 others& 38 others

Startups founded by former employees of Swedish unicorns
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Source:Dealroom.coSwedish startups create 138K jobs globally, including 79K jobs in Sweden.
Startups outside top companies and unicorns are creating 96% of local jobs.
Jobs per location

Local job creation in Sweden▉ Jobs in HQ country ▉ Jobs in rest of the world

76k jobs (96%)

3.2k jobs (4%)

Jobs created by 3K+
Swedish startups locallyJobs created by top 5 startups

150K

138K
Jobs created globally

100K

79K
Jobs created locally
50K

21K
impact jobs createdglobally

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Source:Dealroom.co. Data taken from Nordics Jobs report 2023.

Total

Impact138K jobs

21K jobs

1 The Swedish Tech Ecosystem
2 Innovation and Ecosystem Enablers
3 2023 VC investment update
4 Regional trends

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The Swedish Innovation Ecosystem

Sweden is known as one of the world's most innovative countries, consistently ranking high ininternational rankings year after year. In 2022 it ranked #1 in the European Innovation
Scoreboard and #3 in the Global Innovation Index 2022.

Swedish universities has a high number of scientific publications with high relevance for development of deeptech innovations.
The unique Professorʼs privilege policy means that researchers and teachers own their research and IP, which also means great
opportunities for researchers who want to build a company upon their research. This includes foreign researchers who performtheir research at Swedish universities. Swedish universities are at the forefront of research in areas such as information
technology, engineering, and life sciences. Most universities have holding companies performing their commercial activities andfunctions often as investors in very early phases of a company's development.
Sweden has a world-class innovation support system. Throughout the country, there are innovation-supporting entities that can
assist researchers and entrepreneurs in taking research all the way from idea to the international market. Sweden has 16+
universities, 19 holding companies, 13 innovations oﬀices, 38 university-close incubators and 30 Triple Helix-based science parks,
plus great clusters. The world-class national incubator program has proven track records. This ecosystem plays a pivotal role infostering technological advancements, entrepreneurship, and collaboration between academia, industry, and the public sector.

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Source :From research and idea to established company.
Research

Ideas

Startups

Innovation oﬀice

Pre-incubator

Holding company

Incubator

Scaleups

Sustainability
Readiness Level

University
spin-oﬀs

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Businessdevelopment,
financingAccelerator
Cluster

Ignite(customers)
IP, guidance, pointing
in the right direction

Science Park

STEP
(team development)
PrivateSectorCompany
spin-oﬀs

ChannelPartners

Idea owners

Publicsector

Source:Established businessCompanies

Research and innovation at Universities
Swedenʼs 16+ universities, 19 holding companies and 13 innovations oﬀices.
Selected Universities

Holding companies

Innovation oﬀices

Uppsala University
Lund University
University of Gothenburg

Chalmers Ventures
GU Ventures
Högskolan i Borås Holding
Högskolan Kristianstad Holding
HHU AB (Halmstads högskola)
Karlstad Universitet Holding
KI Holding
KTH Holding
LiU Holding
LUD AB (Linnaeus University)
LU Holding
Holding
Mau Holding
Miun Holding (Mittuniversitetet)
SLU Holding
SU Holding
UmU Holding
Uppsala University InvestÖrebro University Holding

Chalmers Innovation Oﬀice
Research & Innovation Oﬀice at Gothenburg University
KI Innovation
KTH Innovation
LiU Innovation
LTU Business
LU Innovation Innovation Oﬀice South:
Fyrklövern Innovation Oﬀice
Malmö Innovation Oﬀice
Stockholm University Innovation
SLU Holding
Innovation Oﬀice North at Umeå University
UU Innovation

Stockholm University
Karolinska InstituteUmeå University
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Linköping University
Swedish University of Agricultural SciencesLuleå University of Technology
Karlstad UniversityÖrebro University
Mid Sweden University
Linnaeus University(Växjö University + Kalmar University)
Malmö University

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Source:University alumni that founded startups that raised >€10M» view online

Swedenʼs top
universities are abreeding groundfor fostering
entrepreneurial
talent, in Sweden
and abroad.
Swedish Universities in theEuropean top 20

10th in Europe

18th in Europe

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Source:Dealroom.co. Data as of December 2023.

European countries by spinout value created

Sweden ranks 5th
among European
countries based on
spinout value
created.

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Source:Dealroom.co. Data as of Q4 2023. Spinouts policies vary from country to country. Countries like France and Sweden are hard to compare due tothe professor privilege model, where universities have no stake in any research innovation coming out of the activities carried out there. The
definition of spinouts and their comparison with other countries like UK, Germany and Switzerland is therefore challenging. Some universities
such as KTH collaborated in sharing detailed data for a fair comparison. The ranking might evolve with better involvement of more universities.

“To stay innovative and growthe ecosystem in the future,
Sweden needs to makestrategic investments inemerging technologies like AI
and quantum technology especially education, researchand supporting early stage
startups in these areas.
Joseph Michael
Investor Partnerships Manager
at Google

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One of the main strengths of the tech ecosystem in Sweden is
the unique combination of talent in software development anddesign. This combination of skills has allowed a wide range ofsuccessful companies to launch innovations with a humancentric approach.
Google is working closely with the Swedish tech ecosystem tosupport entrepreneurs and innovators in the region. For
example, Google launched the Google.org Social Innovation
Fund on AI to provide capital, share expertise and grow the AI
ecosystem. Specifically, €1M of the fund will be dedicated to
non-profits helping to strengthen and grow social
entrepreneurship in Sweden. We also launched a new AI
startup program last year that provides cloud credits andhands-on support to AI first startups."

Business developing
and ecosystem enablers
Swedenʼs university-close incubators and Triple Helix-based
science parks(in categories on the next slide)

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Source:Swedenʼs incubators, accelerators and science parks by tech segment*
General/Mixed Tech Areas

Fashion/TextileDeeptech**

FoodTechGaming/Creative/
Social

BioTech/Forest Tech

IndTechMobility/
ICT

Incubator

Accelerator

Incubator &Science Park

Science
Park

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Source:Many of the incubators. accelerators and science parks can support startups and scaleups in various tech areas, but this map gives an overview of some of their specific strongholds.
** Advanced materials, nanotechnology, additive manufacturing, drone and robotics, radar, photonics and electronics, semiconductors, micro and nanoelectronics, computer vision, artificial intelligence, big data,
quantum technology, deep and machine learning, blockchains, IoT, virtual reality, autonomous systems, cyber security for advanced industrial digitization, edge computing, digital twins.

Life Science

MarineTechNational Incubator Program

Attracted equity

Drives towards excellence and global sustainability
Sweden's national incubator program ranks as world class, and several of
the incubators rank among the best in the world. Vinnova's funding is
aimed at incubators that demonstrate excellence in the incubator process,have global sustainability goals and an equality perspective as a driving
forces. At the turn of the year 2022/2023, there were 655 companies in the
incubators. Independent innovators, business and academia contributebusiness ideas to the incubators.
The results from the national incubator program are consistently positive,
with increased turnover, employees and attracted capital. The incubators
also have an important role in promoting sustainability and equality in thebusiness world.
The availability of equity capital for companies in incubation has
increased dramatically in recent years, despite reduced availability of risk
capital. The life science sector attracts the most capital from bothgovernment and private sources.

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Source:Equity per industry (2022)

1 The Swedish Tech Ecosystem
2 Innovation and Ecosystem Enablers
3 2023 VC investment update
4 Regional trends

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Swedish startups have raised €4.7B in 2023.
VC investment in Swedish startups* » view online

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Source:Dealroom.co. *Includes only companies HQʼd in Sweden. Includes convertible rounds.

Top rounds in Swedish startups, 2023
» view online

Sweden maintains its
position in Europe as
4th country for VC
investment raised.

Top 10 European countries by VC investment raised in 2023

VC investment decreased by 12% since2022, the lowest year on year change
besides Denmark.

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Source:Dealroom.co. *Includes only companies HQʼd in each respective ecosystem. Includes
convertible rounds.

Sweden ranks 1st percapita among top
European countries.

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VC investment per capita
Of top 10 European countries by VC investment raised in 2023

Source:Dealroom.co. *Includes only companies HQʼd in each respective ecosystem. Includes
convertible rounds.

Sweden ranks 3rd in Europe for deep tech VC investment in 2023, and 7th at early-stage.
Top European countries
Deep tech VC investment in 2023

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Source:Dealroom.co. *Includes only companies HQʼd in each respective ecosystem. Includes convertible rounds. Early stage rounds
include rounds below €15M.

Top European countries
Early stage deep tech VC investment in 2023

Sweden ranks 2nd European country for impact investment in 2023, and 6th at early stage.
Top European countries
Impact VC investment in 2023

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Source:Dealroom.co. *Includes only companies HQʼd in each respective ecosystem. Includes convertible rounds. Early stage rounds
include rounds below €15M.

Top European countries
Early stage Impact VC investment in 2023

Impact startups
contributed closeto 75% of total VC
investment in
Sweden this year,
the first in theNordics.

Impact investment as a percentage of total VC funding
74% Sweden

53% Finland
52% Norway

39% Iceland

35% European
Average

15% Denmark

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Source:Dealroom.co. *Includes only companies HQʼd in each respective ecosystem. Includes
convertible rounds.

96% of late-stage VC investment in Sweden was raised by impact startups in 2023.
Late stage (100M+) VC investment into Swedish startups

Startups raising megarounds in 2023

ImpactPage / 30

Source:Dealroom.co. *Includes only companies HQʼd in Sweden. Includes convertible rounds.

580+ Swedish startups tackling SDGs.
Climate Action (#13)
Northvolt
Re:newcell
Normative.io+200 more…

Life below water(#14)
X ShoreSwedish Algae Factory
Nordic Sea Farm
+20 more…

Partnerships (#17)
TransferGalaxy
Material Exchange
Doconomy+20 more…

Zero hunger (#2)
Matsmart-Motatos
Karma
Oatly
+60 more…

Industry innovation andinfrastructure (#9)
H2 Green SteelEnginzyme
Charge Amps
+100 more…

Reduce inequalities (#10)
UGLK Science
Panion
EdQu+50 more…

Explore the Swedish impact landscape

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is one of Sweden's startups' absolute“ Impactstrongest areas, and this is confirmed in the figuresseen in this report. I now hope that many moreinvestors and customers will open their eyes tothese rapidly growing companies.
Here are many answers to our global challenges andnow is the time to rally together for scaling up!”
Stina Lantz
CEOat Swedish Incubators & Science Parks

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Participation from Swedish investors decreased, while investors from the rest ofEurope participated in 33% of rounds.
Number of rounds by location of investors» view online

Selected foreign investors active since 2022

▊ Asia▊ US▊ European▊Domestic

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Source:Dealroom.co. *Includes only companies HQʼd in Sweden. Includes convertible rounds.

1 The Swedish Tech Ecosystem
2 Innovation and Ecosystem Enablers
3 2023 VC investment update
4 Regional trends

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Geographical distribution of VC
investment remains unequal,with Stockholm county capturing
90% of total.
Top 3 counties for VC investment raised since 2019 include
Stockholm County, Västra Götaland County and Skåne County.
They capture more than 98% of total VC investment since 2019.
€435M was invested outside of the top 3 counties since 2019.

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Source:Dealroom.co. *Includes only companies HQʼd in Sweden. Includes convertible rounds.

Startups from close to 50 cities acrossSweden raised VC funding in 2023.

Over 570 Swedish startups
have raised in 2023

View live »Page / 36

Source:Dealroom.co. *Includes only companies HQʼd in Sweden. Includes convertible rounds.

7 counties in Sweden are
now home to more than 50
VC-backed companies,
across all of Sweden.

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Source:Dealroom.co. *Includes only companies HQʼd in Sweden. Includes convertible rounds.

Promising startups are growing throughout the country.

VC Backed

Not (yet)fundedPage / 38

Source:Norrland

SvealandGötalandGävleborg, Jämtland, Norrbotten, Västerbotten and
Västernorrland

Dalarna, Örebro, Södermanland, Uppsala, Värmland
and Västmanland

Blekinge, Gotland, Halland, Jönköping, Kalmar,
Kronoberg, Östergötland, Skåne and Västra
Götaland“

The West Swedish ecosystem isa hotspot for innovation
thanks to the public andprivate sectors working inconvergence. We have won
many prices globally as thefront runner in sustainability
and we call ourselves masters
of collaboration.
Klementina Österberg

We are closely aﬀiliated to both academia and industry. The
strength of the region is its many industry clusters working insector convergence, for instance mobility, shipping, telecom,
defence, energy, pharma, biotech and medtech connected tothe biggest harbour in the heart of Scandinavia with long
relations for instance to Asia.
We have two well-known universities in close collaboration
with the hospital and the healthcare system, all of them famous
for their innovations in collaboration with industry. As theSwedish law allows the researchers to own and commercialise
their own ideas, we have also many new companies spun out
from our universities, alongside with all other entrepreneurs
building new businesses.”CEO
at GU Ventures

Read full interview »Page / 39

Our methodology.
What is a startup?

Underlying Data

Regional Breakdown

Companies designed to grow fast. Generally, suchcompanies are VC-investable businesses.

Dealroomʼs proprietary database and software
aggregate data from multiple sources: harvesting
public information, user-submitted data verified by
Dealroom, data engineering. All data is verified andcurated with an extensive manual process.

While many startups founded in Sweden relocate
beyond their borders, most maintainbusiness-critical ties to their homelands.

When startups are successful, they develop intoscaleups (>50 people), grownups (>500 people) andresult in big companies. Only companies foundedsince 1990 are included in this report.

What is a startup?

What is a unicorn?
Unicorns are (former) startups that reached US€ 1B
valuation or exit at one point in time.

What is a Unicorn?

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Source:Dealroom.co

The data on which this report builds is available via
app.dealroom.co. For more info please visit
dealroom.co or contact support@dealroom.co.
Data for this report was taken in December 2023.

Venture Capital, Investors
European investors includes the entire European
continent, the UK and Russia, but excludes Turkey
and Sweden.
Investment are referred to by their round labels suchas Seed, Series A, B, C, … late stage, and growthequity. VC investments exclude debt, non-equity
funding, lending capital and grants.

In order to take this reality into account, the firstchapter of this report includes both Sweden-based
startups, which maintain their main center ofbusiness (HQ) in their country of origin, andSweden-founded startups, which relocated their HQoutside of the Sweden.
Following chapters (VC investment numbers) only
include companies currently HQ in Sweden.

Glossary.

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Source:What is an impact startup?

What is a Deep Tech startup?

A startup company that addresses one or more of the UN
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the core of its
business. Our litmus test: If you remove the impact you also
remove the business.
Within the context of the EU Sustainable Finance package, thereport focuses on companies and products with“environmental objectives”, as in Article 9 in the EU
Sustainable Finance Regulation, and those that significantly
contribute to a sustainability objective in the EU taxonomy.

Deep Tech includes startups working on innovativetechnologies that are closely linked to the frontiers of scienceand engineering. These companies inherently take on risk
relating to the feasibility of their technologies (R&D risk), as
well as the risk in proving market demand for the productwhich has likely not been seen before in the market(Product/Market fit risk). Deep Tech startups often start with anextended R&D phase, have a higher share of technical staﬀ andinvolve hardware and/or IP.

More on Impact
by Dealroom.co

More on Deep Tech
by Dealroom.co

Dealroom.cp

Dive Deeper in Central
Nordics Tech withdealroom.co/reports

Sweden Tech 2021 report

Nordics Impact startups 2023

Nordics Startups Employment 2023

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