EIFO's €134M defence guarantee, Katarina Berg stepping down as Spotify's CHRO + Tromsø's AI scandal.
*TGI(m)F. edition 138 i’m kay, and this is your 360º-view of the nordic startup ecosystem. covering culture + growth on a weekly basis, delivered to your screen for easy reading every sunday 💌
notices
‣ After the Beep Episode 2 is out now. listen here!
‣ It’s Aries season, and so for easter + my 30th birthday (!) i will be taking a small break — mondayfriday will not be coming out on the 6th + 13th of April.
🥛 mondayfriday news drop 💌 feedback
nordic pov
‣ Denmark
Viggo, the ride-hailing company, is acquired by shared mobility platform, Bolt.
Ento, the company helping organisations increase energy efficiency, is the only Nordic startup to make it into COWI’s Co-Creator program.
SagaLabs are the Grand Prize Winners of the (last ever) National Startup Competition hosted by Venture Cup. Audience Choice Award went to SPKTRA.
All Gravy, the all-in-one employee app, raises €2.7 million co-led by Scale Capital and Moonfire Ventures.
Space Denmark announces a new partnership with Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute.
The EdTech company helping schools manage pupil attendance, Attender ApS, has raised €268.000 from Keystones and EIFO.
Louise Herping Ellegaard invests in A Working Theory, the clothing brand focusing on “timeless and classic” shirts and blouses for women.
Contribute or discover companies via Amalie Ravn’s LinkedIn post asking for female-founded brands she can support.
Lakrids by Bülow experienced it’s highest-ever financial performance, with annual revenues up 18% to €50 million in 2024.
Tempty Foods, launch their alternative meat products in alma marked (their first retail launch).
Kurt Ebbe Knudsen joins biotech company, Norfalk, as their latest Head of Finance.
EIFO announces a new investment guarantee of €134 million (DKK 1 billion) for investments in Ukrainian defence companies.
Sofie Käll joins the Footprint Firm as their latest Chief Investment Officer.
‣ Sweden
Tandem Health, the healthtech company offering clinician copilots, signs a an agreement with the Nordic region's largest private healthcare provider, Capio.
Christoph Zinsser joins Paebbl as their VP of Finance (prev. with Stegra).
Polarium ranks #31 on the TIME’s Top GreenTech Companies 2025 - the highest ranking of the Nordic companies.
After 12 years with Spotify, Katarina Berg, will be stepping down as their Chief Human Resources Officer.
Swedish founded fintech company, Mimo, announces a €7.9 million round led by Project A & with continued support from Northzone, Seedcamp + more.
PayZlip, the software platform for payroll management, secures €650.000 in funding through a mix of new equity and non-dilutive loans.
CHTECH-Sweden, the company developing exhaust air heat pumps for energy recovery in apartment buildings, raises funding from Almi Invest, HEQ and more.
Rerun, the startup building open-source visualisation engine for streams of multimodal data, raises €15.7 million in seed funding led by Point Nine.
Incore Invest raises €25 million for Incore Invest II to boost high-potential SaaS, embedded finance, and FinTech growth in Europe.
Altris, a sodium-ion battery company, has raised strategic funding and entered a collaboration agreement with Volvo Cars Tech Fund.
Paliscope, the company supporting law enforcement and intelligence, raises €1.4 million from Starbright Invest.
‣ Iceland
Heima, the household management platform, raises a €980k funding round led by Frumtak Ventures.
Read about Ingunn Eiriksdottir’s (Platform Manager at Crowberry Capital) journey: “Model, entrepreneur, investor: "I don't think I'm done yet!".
‣ Norway
Norwegian-Swedish biotech company, Tribune Therapeutics, raises €37 million in Series A funding led by LifeArc Ventures.
Fokus, the all-in-one club management platform, partners with their first club in the Superliga.
Proptech company, HILI, is expanding into the Danish market, allowing homeowners to unlock capital tied up in real-estate by selling shares of their property.
Tørn, the company providing a marketplace for surplus building materials, has shut down it’s operations.
SportAI was the winner of the inaugural RacquetX 2025 Startup Pitch Competition in Miami.
Norwegian founded Crisp, the AI-driven supply chain data platform, has acquired the American forecasting tool, Shelf Engine - a company backed by high-profile angel investors and VCs.
See the 40 participants for the Spring cohort of the Gründeracademy program.
‣ Finland
Bought, startup making secondhand fashion sales easier, raises a €1.4 million pre-seed round from Lifeline Ventures, Wave Ventures + series of angels.
Veera Siivonen, the Co.founder and CCO of Saidot, is appointed to Vincit’s Board of Directors.
Clock&Cloud, the AI-powered geopolitical intelligence platform, raises a €1.5 million pre-seed round led by Ugly Duckling Ventures.
ProductSense, the AI-native Product Management software, raises a €1.5 million pre-seed round led by Peak.
Fiber optic network operator, Valoo, raises €200 million in funding from NIBC Bank, SEB & more.
Solar Foods’ protein, Solein, is used in a new line of ice cream launched in Singapore by the Japanese food giant, Ajinomoto.
continue for the extended-version: discovery, jobs, events, resources + spotlights.
‣ extra, extra!
listen to Thorbjørn Rønje and Jonathan Riemann Feilberg from Bifrost Studios talk micro private equity and why they’re ‘bullish’ on it.
Read: “With the Backlash to DEI, Where Do We Go From Here?" - Dr. Poornima Luthra
Fredrik Haga, the co-founder of norwegian unicorn, Dune: “I recommend all Norwegian startups I invest in and advise to stay as far away as possible from the state funding system”
Magnus Hambleton’s list of newsletters he reads covering the Baltic + Nordic region including: Swedish Tech Weekly, Tech Philomaths + more.
Forbes covers the 90 Day Finn Program, “The Happiest Country In The World Is Seeking Innovators”
☼ spotlight
Read about the “first major AI scandal in the Norwegian public sector”. The Tromsø municipality admitted to having used AI to write an important proposal for a new school structure, which ended up including a series of fabricated quotes and sources. TV 2 article on it here.
job board
☺︎ SAGA Space Architects are hiring a Software Developer.
☺︎ Neko Health are hiring a Visual Designer.
☺︎ Beredskapslyftet is helping Northvolt employees find new employment opportunities in Sweden before the summer. Read more here.
dates and action points
→ STUDIO 63 Sessions, April 9th. Hosted by Bobbie & Beastie, Lab08 and Ugly Duckling Ventures.
→ Danish Defense Tech Meetup, March 31st, 15:30 - 18:00.
→ Get your tickets to SMIL 2025, the latest startup event to land in Denmark. Aarhus, May 22nd 2025.
Thank you for tuning in! i’m always on the hunt for newsworthy content to bring to the mondayfriday audience. and, if you ask me, the best place is from the community itself. so, please drop your updates above and fill me in on any startup related news in the nordics. additionally, please leave me some feedback so i can keep improving ✨
yours weekly,
kay
* thank god it's (monday)friday
