The next generation of successful Swedish startups is already at the starting gates
Sweden offers startups an ideal breeding ground. This is demonstrated in the high concentration of internationally successful startups like Spotify, Klarna, Soundcloud or King.Now the next generation of companies should follow that could go far.
Spotify, Klarna, Soundcloud or King: Right behind Silicon Valley, the concentration of unicorns – startups with a valuation of more than one billion dollars – is highest in Sweden. However, in Sweden there are 20 startups for 1000 employees, compared to just five in the USA. The Scandinavian country presents itself as particularly innovative and entrepreneur-friendly. The government also promotes in particular the cooperation of various startups with universities or larger companies.
Of the successful Swedish startups, many are relying on digital business models. Of these, particularly Spotify has a ubiquitous presence today. With more than five billion euros in revenue, nearly 100 million paying customers, and close to 3700 employees, the music streaming provider is no longer anything close to a small business. Additional Swedish success stories are Spotify-competitor, Soundcloud, the payment service provider, Klarna, and the app developer, King, producer of the well-known mobile game “Candy Crush”.
The roots of the thriving Swedish digital economy go back to the first half of the 90s when Sweden was recovering from a serious banking crisis. At that time, the government implemented several entrepreneur-friendly reform measures. Thus, for example, the corporation taxes were lowered, smaller businesses were disburdened, and the market was further opened for foreign businesses. In addition to these rather ordinary measures, however, tax incentives were also introduced for the purchase of computers and investments were made at an early stage in the expansion of fast internet connections. As a result, Swedish companies were given a clear temporal advantage in this ground-breaking technology – and this at a time when the internet just began to spread.
The economic environment, flat organisational structures, and informal corporate culture strengthen the Swedish entrepreneurship and the cooperation between small and large businesses, from which innovation can emerge. An additional, but important reason for the entrepreneur-friendliness of Sweden is found in the open, technology-oriented, and collaborative mentality of the Swedes. This mentality is lived out in so-called science parks, where companies, startups, universities, and communities come together. 400 businesses are already working with 7000 companies in these talent pools. With abundant support from the government and universities, the next generation of successful Swedish startups is intended to emerge here. There is no lack of exciting ideas at these locations, although only a few businesses will likely go far. Some of the potential candidates are, for example, CorPower Ocean, Epishine, Northvolt or Agricam.
CorPower Ocean
The Stockholm-based startup plans to gain energy with the help of waves. The operating principle can be compared to the pumping principle of the human heart. For this, the company is working on a prototype of a buoy of a considerable size. As a highly effective wave power plant, it is intended to significantly enhance the energy generation and movement of an incoming wave and convert it into energy. The project is still in the test phase. The vision of CorPower Ocean is to have buoy parks based on the current offshore wind farms. However, the interest of large energy producers must still be awoken for this.
Epishine
Storing energy from the sun is the idea of Epishine. Unlike existing concepts, however, the energy of a solar plant is not intended to be transferred to battery storage, but rather to a strip reminiscent of an old, wide film strip. This involves OLED cells arranged in a series, which are used in smart phones and TVs. The completely organic strips are intended to be printed with a machine, which is based on an old newspaper printing press. In a first step, Epishine wants to replace batteries from devices, such as smart phones, with OLED strips. These could be found, for example, on the back of a device and even be use artificial light in the office or bedroom for charging the smart phone. As additional, future usage options, Epishine has talked about the coating of roof tiles, windows, or even sails.
Northvolt
Conversely, Northvolt relies on batteries. Europe’s largest battery cell plant is being developed in the northern Swedish city of Skellefteå. CEO, founder, and Ex-Tesla manager, Peter Carlsson, needs 1.6 billion euros by the middle of the year for the first phase of construction. “It looks promising that we will successfully finish the round in later spring or early summer”, said Carlsson. The factory should have an annual capacity of 16 gigawatt hours. “With that, we would be able to produce batteries for 250,000 to 300,000 electric cars each year. For this capacity, we are almost fully booked with orders from customers, with which we finalised agreements”, stated Carlsson. Northvolt expects that there will be at least 10 mega battery factories in Europe in 2030, and hopes that perhaps three of these will be from Northvolt. Due to the fact that several Asian battery manufacturers, such as LG, Samsung, CATL or SK Innovation are surging onto the European market, the “European Battery Union” was also founded, which Northvolt will lead together with VW.
Agricam
Ellinor Eineren from Startup Agricam is dedicated to fighting mastitis. This is the term for a frequently occurring disorder in dairy cows, in which the udder becomes inflamed. The only treatment is the administration of antibiotics, which acts negatively on the animal itself, as well as on the meat and the milk. For the affected farmers, mastitis frequently leads to sales declines and in the worst case, even the loss of the animals. Agricam has now developed a thermal imaging camera that is able to detect the disease four days prior to the outbreak. For this, the camera is mounted in the stable at a location where the cows frequently walk by. By means of an additional, implanted chip, data can be gathered about them and data deviations can be recognised. Thus, the sickness levels of the cows can be reduced from 23% to 6%.
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