Unemployment has been on the rise in Sweden since the COVID-19 pandemic! According to a report, the unemployment rate reached 9.2% as of September 2020, from 6% in the same period last year.
Restart the future
In a bid to create jobs and growth, fourteen of Sweden’s leading companies have come together to build 1000 new companies in the next couple of years, under the ‘Restart the Future‘ initiative.
Founded by Antler, this one-year initiative has the backing of 13 partner companies: Ericsson, Carnegie, Stena, Nordea, Amazon Web Services, Max Matthiessen, ARC, Ramboll, Lannebo Fonder, Werlabs, Mavenir, Mondial, and Baker McKenzie.
“We are standing in front of a huge opportunity. Now more than ever, we need to back innovative and creative entrepreneurs to build companies and to create new jobs. Encouraging entrepreneurship will help us build an even more robust economy. Sweden is full of innovative and creative entrepreneurs. With the right support, investment, and encouragement, these entrepreneurs can build world-leading businesses,” says Livia Moore, Associate Partner at Antler.
The initiative’s work falls into three categories:
The Launch Academy
The fully digital entrepreneurship school called the Launch Academy consists of a five-week online academy, on how to identify and validate a problem and solution, build a strong founding team, create an MVP and go-to-market strategy, analyse the business model, and raise capital.
The Academy will include masterclasses, fireside chats with founders such as Daniel Kjellén (CEO/founder Tink), and digital meetups. The next academy starts on January 12, 2021.
- Application opens – November 16
- Seats – unlimited
- The course begins – January 11
Who can join: Anyone who wants to learn the ropes of building companies – students as well as professionals.
Idea Competition
It’s a competition for founders with business ideas that impact positively on the world. A jury consisting of representatives from the partner companies will select 10 winners. It will be launching in Spring 2021.
The winners will be offered strategic one-on-one coaching by leaders such as Linnea Kornehed, co-founder Einride, Hjalmar Winbladh, serial entrepreneur, Anna König Jerlmyr, mayor of Stockholm, and Ash Pournouri, founder of Brilliant Minds, as well as by domain experts within the partner companies.
Scale Up Support
Existing startups can apply for ‘Scale up Support’ to scale. In this case, founders get coaching from experienced advisors, experts, and founders through the Restart the Future network.
Throughout the entire year, masterclasses and panel discussions will be opened up to the general public in an effort to share business insights and know-how from the network broadly.
Restart the Future is also collaborating with 30 organisations such as Stockholm.AI, :Part, European Space Agency, och Geek Girl Meetup who support the mission and will engage their members in the initiative.
Salman Taj, Interim Head of Ericsson ONE, says that “In today’s fast-changing, digital world, disruption is the norm and those who innovate constantly will succeed. At Ericsson ONE, we are betting on the entrepreneurial spirit to make real innovation happen. Our mission is to create game-changers by unlocking intrapreneurs and innovators, shaping the future together. We believe the next big innovation or new business will come from our entrepreneurial employees and we are here to support them and provide them a platform to excel.”
Main image credits: Restart the Future