Over the last ten years, Sweden has gone from being known as home to IKEA, Volvo, and Ericsson to becoming one of Europe's most recognized startup ecosystems. The startup industry in Sweden is fostering a culture of bold entrepreneurship, advancing technologies, and supporting impact-driven initiatives in response to the extraordinary challenges the world is facing.

In 2023, Sweden raised an incredible €4.7 billion in venture capital. With almost 75% of the funds invested in impact businesses, Sweden became the leader of Europe's impact-driven entrepreneurial movement. The top startups in Sweden have doubled in value, giving rise to 41 unicorn businesses, including Spotify, Klarna, and Northvolt.

Even though it plays a smaller role than the major players, it's ranked second for impact companies and third for deep tech investment in Europe. So fasten your seatbelts, for the land of the midnight sun might be the birthplace of the next big thing! Below are 15 promising Swedish startups to look out for in 2024.

1. Cloover

Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Stockholm, Stockholm County
Size: 11-50
Founders: Jodok Betschart and Peder Broms

Cloover is a Swedish startup that wants to provide its residents with renewable energy. It is constructing an ecosystem to unite the home renewable energy sector and advance Europe's drive toward net-zero emissions. Cloover can streamline operations along the whole value chain of renewable energy sources by integrating software, financing, and energy management. It can enhance business processes for manufacturers, installers, energy suppliers, and end users.

Cloover also provides plug-and-play embedded finance solutions to sustainable home improvement enterprises, resulting in improved customer value, smooth sales processes, and increased revenue. The seed funding round for Cloover, which included a combination of loan and equity financing, brought in $121.4 million in 2024.

2. Syre

Year Founded: 2023
HQ: Stockholm, Stockholm County
Size: 11-50
Founders: Dennis Nobelius

Syre is a textile impact firm founded in 2023 by Vargas and H&M Group to target hyper-scale textile-to-textile recycling, starting with polyester. It aims to decarbonize the textile industry and reduce waste. Syre's textile-to-textile recycling method yields circular polyester with a sustainability performance comparable to virgin polyester.

Syre was able to acquire the patented technology that forms the basis of its textile-to-textile recycling solution completely. Swedish startups like Syre show that it is possible to convert post-consumer trash into circular polyester very energy-efficiently.

Syre managed to raise $100 million in Series A funding in 2024. The business plans to use the money to build its first two Giga-scale textile-to-textile recycling plants and the first factory in the United States, which is scheduled to open later this year.

3. H2 Green Steel

Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Stockholm
Size: 51-200
Founders: Henrik Henriksson

H2 Green Steel is running one of the biggest global campaigns to reduce climate change. It was created in 2020 to decarbonize industries that are difficult to abate. For starters, H2 Green Steel produces steel that emits up to 95% less CO2 than steel produced in blast furnaces that burn coke. Its first plant is being built in Boden, Sweden's northern region, to integrate green hydrogen and green iron production.

H2 Green Steel has secured over $10.9 billion to leverage innovative technologies to improve production processes, reduce costs, and increase the overall quality of the green steel produced in 2024. Swedish startups like H2 Green Steel want to develop a strong supply chain for green hydrogen and other necessary raw materials for sustainable production.

4. Aira

Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Stockholm
Size: 201-500
Founders: Martin Lewerth

Aira is among the Swedish startups that want to encourage decarbonization. It wants to lower domestic energy costs and reduce dependency on imported natural gas. Aira's clean energy-tech solution, which incorporates air-source heat pumps, can help consumers replace gas boilers and save up to 40% on heating expenditures and 75% (or 100% with fossil-free energy) on CO2 emissions. By focusing on sustainability and cost-efficiency, Aira is driving the adoption of eco-friendly home energy systems across Europe.

In addition to investing in R&D and technology, Aira intends to diversify its clean energy-tech portfolio, create affordable payment options, increase its market share in Italy, Germany, and the UK, and start producing heat pumps in Poland. Aira secured $466.6 billion in a Series B financing round in 2024, which will help it expedite the electrification of residential heating in Europe.

5. QA.tech

Year Founded: 2023
HQ: Stockholm
Size: 2-10
Founders: Daniel Mauno Pettersson, Patrick Lef, Marcus Carloni, and Vilhelm von Ehrenheim

QA.tech is developing an AI-powered, self-governing quality assurance tester to automatically test software programs and identify possible problems. It is one of the Swedish startups that's trying to surpass traditional testing methods.

Conventional QA testing was typically carried out either by rigid automated tests that need much technical work to maintain or by laborious and time-consuming manual testing. By automatically determining what has to be tested and carrying out test cases, QA.tech's technology mimics the actions of a human QA tester.

Users can test important features like shopping carts, login processes, search, and more. The tool offers thorough reporting on test results, debug information, and suggested courses of action. QA.tech raised $4.3 million in its seed round in 2024. The additional funding will help the eleven-person team grow and advance product development.

6. Telness Tech

Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Stockholm
Size: 51-200
Founders: Martina Klingvall

Telness Tech helps cloud-based mobile operators (MVNOs) and other telecom firms to introduce fully digital, user-centric solutions that optimize customer happiness and save operating expenses. It enables telecom businesses to cut expenses by up to 80%, reduce marketing time to two months, and boost customer satisfaction by a factor of three. Its user-friendly platform allows customers to manage their mobile services entirely online. This includes everything from signing up and choosing a plan to handling customer support, all through their app or website.

Telness Tech raised over 13.5 million euros in bridge funding amidst a quick international expansion. Its two biggest owners, Industrifonden and Viltor (JCE Group), are the source of the investment. Telness Tech plans to use its recent funding to expand its operations internationally and upscale its product offerings. This involves investing heavily in enhancing their Automated Digital Telco (ADT) platform.

7. Dema

Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Stockholm
Size: 11-50
Founders: Henrik Hoffman, Marcus Tagesson, and David Feldell

Dema is one of the Swedish startups that provides innovative predictive analytics for upcoming icons in e-commerce. Future-focused forecasts and game-changing insights will drive numerous e-commerce enterprises in the right direction. No matter the difficulty or intricacy of the technology, Dema has created a platform that never skimps on providing an accurate performance-based solution. It offers metrics that are actually valuable to the company and not random numbers.

After a seed round, Dema.ai has managed to raise €11 million to help e-commerce enterprises grow profitably. The investment was led by J12 Ventures, Daphni, and a group of prominent angel investors. This investment aims to bolster Dema.ai's capacity to provide real-time, actionable insights for small to medium-sized e-commerce and direct-to-consumer brands.

8. eComID

Year Founded: 2023
HQ: Fiskargatan 8, Stockholm
Size: 11-50
Founders: Oscar Rundqvist

eComID was founded by a group of engineers and former digital leaders in retail. eComID is committed to changing the returns environment through collaboration. After noticing a rise in product returns, the team decided to bring retailers together to support ecologically responsible and more conscientious online buying.

Retailers can minimize needless returns by encouraging educated purchases with the help of eComID's technology. eCom encourages responsible shopping habits and incentivizes customers to adopt sustainable activities. More than a million consumers have used eComID every day since it launched in November 2023.

With the successful completion of an oversubscribed €2.8 million pre-seed round, eComID says that it is now leading the way in enabling retailers to reduce product returns with its state-of-the-art AI-powered platform. The capital round was headed by CapitalT and supported by strategic angel investors. The funding infusion will enable eComID to extend its invitation-only solution to a wider variety of brands and improve platform capabilities.

9. Moralis

Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Stockholm
Size: 51-200
Founders: Ivan Liljeqvist and Filip Martinsson

Moralis wants to simplify Web3 project development for all developers. The Web3 sector has experienced a surge in interest during the past 12 months. However, there are still several obstacles to access and market for developers in traditional Web3 development. This is resolved by Moralis, which provides developers with a solid backend infrastructure that can be accessed with a minimal amount of code.

Ivan Liljeqvist stated that Web3 promotes the use of the internet by eliminating the need for the big tech middlemen that we currently use. Because Moralis is cross-chain compatible, Web3 developers can create applications on the most widely used blockchains. It's evident that more individuals than ever desire to develop on blockchains other than Ethereum.

With the help of the Series A fundraising round, Swedish startups like Moralis will expedite the development of new products. It will improve the user experience overall and assist in growing the platform to accommodate more and larger clients. With the completion of its $53.4 million Series A investment round, Moralis can now officially declare its closing.

10. Influencio

Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Stockholm
Size: 201-500
Founders: Danjal Kanani

Influencio is a bidirectional marketplace that caters to both businesses and influencers. Its goal is to help the creator economy become more formal by providing a place for influencers and artists to connect professionally and highlight the business side of their SoMe accounts.

Influencio's core principles are decentralization and power redistribution to the people, as well as regaining content sharing from web 2.0 giants. Influencio is a web 3.0 network that creates communities around brands and messages through rewards for cryptocurrency tokens and content sharing.

Creators and influencers are frequently not given credit for their work, and secondly, businesses wish they had more information about the influencers they choose to deal with. Influencio provides a platform for influencers and artists to showcase their professionalism and business acumen. Their Influencio profiles serve as the media kit that larger corporations frequently seek. The marketplace speeds up careers by enabling creators and influencers to apply for or be hired for campaigns. Influencio managed to bag an undisclosed amount of seed money from two investors.

11. Majority

Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Stockholm
Size: 51-200
Founders: Magnus Larsson

Majority is one of the Swedish startups that provides financial services. It is specifically designed to cater to the unique needs of migrant communities. It offers culturally tailored features and services to provide a more personalized banking experience. One of the standout aspects of Majority is its focus on providing discounts at local businesses and other community-specific benefits that resonate with its users.

Currently, Majority supports seven distinct migrant communities, and there are plans to expand this support to another five or six communities in the coming months. Majority's approach not only helps in making financial services more accessible but also strengthens the connection between migrants and their local communities. It has bagged a total of $113.3 million in its recent funding round in 2022.

12. Volta Trucks

Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Stockholm
Size: 51-200
Founders: Carl-Magnus Norden and Kjell Waloen

Volta Trucks is one of the Swedish startups that manufactures full-electric commercial vehicles. It focuses on developing and producing sustainable trucks designed to reduce environmental impact and improve urban logistics. Its flagship vehicle, the Volta Zero, is a 16-tonne fully electric truck intended for urban delivery, featuring an innovative design that prioritizes safety and sustainability.

Volta Zero aims to eliminate an estimated 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 by 2025, contributing significantly to environmental conservation and sustainable urban transport​. With an emphasis on facilitating fleet operators' smooth transition to electric vehicles, Volta Trucks offers all-inclusive solutions, including infrastructure for vehicle charging, servicing, and maintenance assistance to guarantee operational efficiency. Volta Zero has raised $390.9 million from its most recent round in 2024.

13. Heart Aerospace

Year Founded: 2018
HQ: Gothenburg
Size: 51-200
Founders: Anders Forslund and Klara Andreasson

Heart Aerospace is a manufacturer of hybrid-electric aircraft. Its goal is very clear: to democratize and decarbonize aviation travel. In addition to reducing emissions and creating a sustainable future, it wants to provide aviation accessibility for as many people as possible worldwide.

Electric planes can expand the market for efficient and convenient regional travel, which is now limited by the challenge of turning a profit over the long term. Heart Aerospace wants to take electrification to new heights, support its clients as they grow their companies, and provide the traveling public with an incredible and long-lasting service.

Heart Aerospace recently revealed that it has secured $107 million in Series B funding in 2024, marking yet another noteworthy advancement in the direction of environmentally friendly regional aviation. With this fresh round, Heart Aerospace has raised $147.2 million in funding overall since its founding.

14. Alba Health

Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Stockholm County
Size: 2-10
Founders: Eleonora Cavani

Alba Health was founded to promote gut health in the early years of life by addressing common childhood symptoms like colic and sleep disruption, as well as chronic conditions like asthma, allergies, obesity, and diabetes in later life. Alba Health has partnered with the Health and Early Life Microbiota cohort at the University of Helsinki as part of its commitment to investing in solid scientific foundations. During the six years that the HELMi trial monitored 1,000 children, almost 50,000 data points on health and lifestyle outcomes were gathered.

Alba Health is one of the Swedish startups that is looking for a healthy future for its residents. It wants to discard gut problems from the early life of a child so that he/she can lead a happy and healthy life. Alba Health has managed to gather $2.5 million in 2023 to promote good gut health in all corners of the world.

15. Bits Technology

Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Jarlsgatan 27, Stockholm
Size: 11-50
Founders: Jonatan Klintberg, Robin Lantz, and Fredrik Eriksson

Bits Technology's platform offers a low-code solution that automates and orchestrates the management of various infrastructure providers essential for FinTech products. This approach aims to reduce the complexity and time associated with integrating these services, thereby speeding up product development and time-to-market for fintech companies globally.

By using Bits' platform, fintech companies can streamline their development processes, shorten time-to-market, and quickly scale their products. This efficiency allows them to focus more on creating innovative financial services that meet customer needs. Founded by individuals with a deep background in fintech and tech giants like AWS and Apple, Bits Technology brings a wealth of experience and understanding of the challenges faced by fintechs. This expertise is reflected in their platform's design, which prioritizes user-friendly interfaces and effective integration management.

Bits Technology recently raised €5 million in a financing round in 2022 to understand how fintech companies build their products. It will focus on simplifying and accelerating the integration of infrastructure providers for fintechs through their platform.

FAQs

What are the strongest industries in Sweden?

Sweden's strongest industries include technology and ICT with companies like Spotify and Ericsson. Swedish startups focus on advanced manufacturing particularly in automotive, healthcare and life sciences. Renewable energy industries are also common.

What is the average investment in the startup industry in Sweden?

Early-stage startup investments in Sweden typically range from €500,000 to €2 million, while later-stage funding can exceed €10 million. Swedish startups managed to gather €4.7 billion of venture capital investment in 2023.

How many startups are there in Sweden?

Sweden hosts approximately 2,000 active startups in 2024, spanning sectors such as technology, health, fintech, and sustainability, contributing to a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem supported by favorable conditions for innovation and growth.

How fast is the startup industry growing in Sweden?

Sweden's startup industry is expanding steadily because of favorable government regulations, easy access to qualified staff, and a vibrant entrepreneurial culture. The industry is growing as evidenced by the increased number of startups and investment activity. In 2023, Swedish startups generated 138k jobs worldwide, of which 79k were created in Sweden. 95 percent of jobs in the area are generated by startups outside unicorns and top enterprises.