The Swedish tech scene had a golden year in 2017

2017 was another strong year for the Swedish tech scene with more than S1,2 billion invested into 442 companies. Excluding Spotify's huge debt financing last year ($1 bn) nearly twice the capital was invested into Swedish startups comparing 2017 numbers to the investments made in 2016. The share of foreign investment lagged behind 2016. UK money surpassed US to claim the top foreign investor spot. In total, Swedish startups engaged 570 different investors.

Helped by the emergent tech industry in Malmö; new accelerators like Norrsken House and Stockholm Fintech Hub; and new monster VC funds from Atomico and EQT, Sweden is likely going to continue dominating European tech for a long time to come.

Here are some further highlights of Swedish tech in 2017, according to Industrifonden:

International investor participation decreased. Despite growing round sizes, the share of participation from international investors dipped this year. Part of the explanation is more active domestic investors, even beyond Series A. UK investors were the most bullish foreign ones and claimed the top spot for the first time, racing past their American peers.

Of course, the US does play an outsize part in Swedish tech through regular startup acquisitions by its tech giants, like Facebook and Amazon.

UK investors surpassed US ones to claim the top spot for the first time.

Industrifonden

Domestic investors continue to dominate funding rounds – also in growth rounds. Following a number of successful local tech exits and IPOs, Swedish investors stayed bullish and kept pouring money into startups. Angels and VCs – many of them previous founders – are Sweden’s pride compared to the rest of the Nordics and remain the country's most active investors.

In 2017, corporate VCs emerged as active startup investors as they grew their share by 60% compared to last year.

Industrifonden

Corporates and corporate VCs now account for 11% of investment volume. In 2017 corporate investors increased their share by nearly 60% compared to 2016 by participating in more than 10% of all funding rounds. Corporates in finance and media were the most active as they sought for ways to renew their conservative industries.

FinTech remained hottest sector, while SaaS claimed the runner up position. Led by iZettle and Klarna, Stockholm's fintech scene remains attractive to investors, despite a slight cooldown in the past two years. Emerging trends in Swedish fintech are crowdfunding, mortgages, pensions and other personal finance applications. The sector claimed 13% of investments, while SaaS stood for 11%.

Find the original article produced by Nordic Business Insider here.

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