SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Corinne Ekman, Mikael Nagy and Joacim Kanstedt, Gernandt & Danielsson Advokatbyrå KB
1. Trends 1.1 VC Market
heat pumps at its core business, raised a EUR243 million Series B round. Qvantum Energi, a company focusing on developing and manufacturing sustainable heat and cool - ing solutions, raised a EUR108 million Series C round. Heart Aerospace, a hybrid-electric airplane maker with an aim toward sustain - able regional air travel, secured USD107 mil - lion in its Series B round. In early 2025, Neko Health, a preventative healthcare technology company co-founded by Daniel Ek (Spotify), closed a USD260 million Series B round, and evroc, which is creating a sovereign hyper - scale cloud and AI infrastructure, closed a USD55 million Series A round, marking it one of Europe’s largest Series A financing rounds in the tech sector. These deals reflect deep - ening conviction in climate and health-orient - ed technologies, but also continued support for the tech sector. • Exits: Exit activity remained subdued on the Swedish venture capital market in 2024. A few exits occurred but nothing comparable to landmark exits in previous years. In 2024, Mastercard’s acquisition of fintech start-up Minna Technologies (at unclosed value) as well as Norvestor’s (a Nordic private equity fund) acquisition of Wint at a value of EUR44 million are two of several exits so far. • IPOs: While the Swedish IPO market has recovered from the all-time lows during 2022 and 2023, the market has not experienced any significant listing by venture capital- backed companies in the last 12 months, except for Cinclus Pharma and GreenMerc in June 2024, as well as Yubico’s de-SPAC listing in 2023 and subsequent uplisting to the main market at Nasdaq Stockholm in 2024 (without any new shares issued). One of the most hyped IPOs of a Swedish venture capital-backed company during 2025, is the IPO of the Swedish fintech company Klarna in
Sweden, long recognised as the Nordic region’s most active and mature venture capital eco - system, experienced a slow start in 2024 and a decline in funding by nearly 50% compared to 2023. Deal activity remains significantly below record levels seen in 2021–2022 (according to PitchBook data). However, signs of stabilisation and recovery began to emerge in the second half of 2024 and is continuing into 2025. • Fundraising: The fundraising market has remained active and investor confidence in the Swedish ecosystem is visible through several successful fund closes in 2024. Norr - sken VC Fund II (co-founded by Klarna co- founder Niklas Adalberth) closed at EUR320 million, making it the largest early-stage generalist impact fund in Europe. Creandum VII, one of the region’s most established early-stage investors, closed at EUR500 mil - lion, placing it amongst the top ten fundrais - ings in Europe in 2024. These dry powder reserves are expected to fuel early-stage activity across Sweden in 2025 and beyond, especially in purpose-driven tech. • Financing: Despite the general slowdown, a number of noteworthy financing rounds took place on the Swedish market in 2024. Stegra (formerly H2 Green Steel), a company aimed at revolutionising the “hard-to-abate industry” (starting with steel) by producing green hydro - gen and green iron to replace fossil fuels like coal and natural gas in the production pro - cess, raised EUR4.5 billion in equity and debt as well as received state aid of SEK1.2 billion (amounting to approximately EUR105 million at the time), making it one of Europe’s largest- ever climate tech financings. Aira, a provider of clean energy-tech solutions with intelligent
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