Top 13: These world-famous tech biggies are from Sweden

Sweden is a country with many incubators and accelerators motivating the ambitious entrepreneurs and budding tech startups. It is not new to the startup innovation as it is home to several unicorns and tech giants like Spotify and Skype.

As per Savills Tech Cities, research carried out by Savills, a London-based real-estate firm, several European cities are contributing to the global tech ecosystem. And, Stockholm, Sweden is one of the top European cities that is a birthplace for several tech unicorns. As per Insead’s 2018 Global Cities Talent Competitiveness Index, Stockholm is the second best city in the world in attracting global talent.

Having detailed the highlights of Sweden and its role in the tech startup ecosystem, here we have come up with a list of tech brands that have their roots in Sweden.

Spotify

Founders – Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon

Funding raised – €1.4 billion

Spotify is a popular music streaming service founded in 2006 in Stockholm. The company has expanded its presence spanning across several global countries. It has reached a milestone over 15 billion hours of content on its platform. And, its user base of premium subscribers reached 96 million late last year.

Klarna

Founders – Niklas Adalberth, Sebastian Siemiatkowski and Victor Jacobsson

Funding raised – €288 million

Founded in 2005, Klarna is a global tech bank providing online financial services such as debt collection, online storefronts, credit payments and more. This Swedish fintech firm separates buying from paying and lets buyers pay for the goods after receiving them. Also, it offers a safe after delivery payment solution.

Ericsson

Founders – Lars Magnus Ericsson

Founded in 1876, Ericsson is one of the first tech companies in the world. It is a multinational networking and telecommunications company based in Stockholm. It operates in around 180 countries and has thousands of granted patents. It has been making devices for decades.

Truecaller

Founders – Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam

Funding raised – €90.8 million

Trueccaller founded in 2009 is one of the most popular caller ID and call-blocking apps. It paves way for a smaller mobile environment and lets you connect only with those you want and when you want. One of the primary functions of this app is to identify who is calling you and keep unwanted spammers at bay.

EA Digital Illusions

Founders – Olof Gustafsson, Markus Nyström, Fredrik Liliegren and Andreas Axelsson

Digital Illusions was founded in 1992 as a video game developer. It was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2006. Now, it is known as DICE and is behind the Battlefield series of games.

iZettle

Founders – Jacob de Geer and Magnus Nilsson

Funding raised – €204 million

Established in 2010, iZettle is a fintech startup producing a mobile app and a card reader. It allows businesses to accept payments on their phone. It supports chip technology and requires users to enter a PIN for additional security.

NA-KD

Founders – Jarno Vanhatapio

Funding raised – €68.3 million

Founded in 2015, NA-KD is an online direct-to-consumer fashion brand meant for women. It targets millennials with stylish and affordable clothes. An online global marketplace that brings the best fashion and accessories from all over the world.

Tink

Founders – Daniel Kjellén and Fredrik Hedberg

Funding raised – €100 million

Tink, established in 2012 offers an app letting people get an idea of how they spend from their bank account. It is a consumer-centric finance app. With the bank account aggregation feature, Tink provides underlying technology to financial institutions and banks that look forward to open banking.

Detectify

Founders – Fredrik Nordberg Almroth and Rickard Carlsson

Funding raised – €7.5 million

Detectify founded in 2013 offers a website security tool that deploys automation to scan websites for any vulnerability. It helps developers stay secure with this service. The top-ranked security researchers will submit possible vulnerabilities. Every time they identify a vulnerability on a customer website, they get paid.

Magine

Founders – Erik Wikstrom and Mattias Hjelmstedt

Funding raised – €54.1 million

Founded in 2011, Magine was acquired by Film2Home in 2015. It is a cloud-based TV operator offering live, recorded and time-shifted TV across devices. Its patent-pending cloud-based technology eliminates the issues faced by users due to complicating set up of TV and fragmented user experience.

Wrapp

Founders – Aage Reerslev, Andreas Ehn, Aurore Belfrage, Carl Fritjofsson, Hjalmar Winbladh, Leo Giertz, Magnus Hult

Funding raised – €34.3 million

Founded in 2011, Wrapp was acquired by Meniga, an Icelandic fintech company in January this year but the exact amount remains undisclosed. Wrapp is a Stockholm-based reward platform. Following the acquisition, the platform has been merged with a similar offering of Meniga. And, the Wrapp CEO Aage Reerslev joined Meniga as the VP of Rewards.

Tictail

Founders – Birk Nilson, Carl Waldekranz, Kaj Drobin and Siavash Ghorbani

Funding raised – €29.4 million

Launched in 2012, Tictail is a social shopping website for online shoppers to explore emerging designers around the world. The platform is a DIY e-commerce tool focused on strong community integration, the simplicity of use, attractive and customizable design.

King

Founders – Riccardo Zacconi, Toby Rowland, Melvyn Morris, Thomas Hartwig, Sebastian Knutsson, Lars Markgren and Patrik Stymne

Funding raised – €76.4 million

King was founded in 2003 and is the company behind some of the most popular casual video games. Notably, Candy Crush is the biggest hit of King. It has many other popular games and apps as well.

Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.

Also read,

https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/there-are-the-5-most-successful-crowdfunding-campaigns-on-the-most-active-funding-platform-in-uk/