Ytterby mine, just outside Waxholm in the Stockholm archipelago, was used during the Cold War as a fuel depot by the Swedish military. Most of the mine shaft was filled with propellant, like a giant oil tank. When the political tensions subsided, the mine was decommissioned as a military gas station and instead became the subject of environmental cleanup. Still today, Ytterby mine is in need of cleanup.

The reason is that oil-based environmental toxins are almost impossible to get rid of in a sustainable way. Today’s methods either involve burning the oils, which leads to increased carbon dioxide emissions – something we definitely want to avoid with today’s rampant climate situation. Or, they are put in landfill while waiting for new methods to be developed – leading to unnecessary costs and disruption of sensitive ecosystems and human health.

At MycoMine, which develops biological methods for handling environmental toxins, they decided to find a solution to the problem.

“We wanted to develop a method where oils are broken down in a sustainable way and can be returned to the natural cycles – back to the carbon cycle. We wanted to avoid the oils being converted and released as greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at all costs. That’s why we took inspiration from nature’s finest decomposers, namely fungi, and developed a green technology where the environmentally hazardous oils are turned into environmentally friendly biomass,” said CEO and one of the founders, Magnus Ivarsson.

In MycoMine’s newly established treatment plant MycoCube out in Ytterby, the fungi do the work. They break down the oils and convert them into biomass – a completely natural end product that can be recycled in a sustainable way, back to nature. No additional additives are necessary, only the fungi’s own abilities are optimized in the system.

“The Swedish Fortifications Agency, which owns and manages the Ytterby mine, hopes that this method will become an important complement to other remediation methods.For many years, we have worked with traditional remediation in Ytterby mine. For us, it is interesting and valuable to support and follow this sustainable project, which is now moving from basic research to application. The method speeds up the natural processes, and we hope for positive results that can be of great benefit both in Ytterby mine, elsewhere in our property portfolio, and for society at large,” said Gunnar Edlund, specialist at the Swedish Fortifications Agency.

The need is great in industry, municipalities and administration. Hundreds of millions of tons of oil-based pollution are in landfills waiting to be processed. And every year the volumes increase at an alarming rate. Magnus Ivarsson summarizes:

“The countries of the world have jointly decided that by 2050 our planet will be fossil-free, which means an end to the use of fossil fuels. We at MycoMine believe that the environmental debt built up by man through the use of fossil fuels in the last 150 years should, by then, also be paid. Therefore, we are now looking for new partners in the form of both customers and investors so that we have the opportunity to scale up our business and grow as a company.”

For further information:

www.mycomine.se

email: info@mycomine.se

tel: 070-2428687

Stockholm is one of Europe’s most vibrant startup cities, and Sweden a front-runner in climate tech with thousands of climate startups and unicorns such as Northvolt and Polarium. Sting has been a key driving force in building Stockholm’s world-class startup eco-system, and climate tech and deeptech have been strategic focus areas for Sting for many years.

Thanks to the funding from ERDF, Sting will be able to take its Climate Action ambitions to the next level. In Sting’s new Climate Action initiative, 100 Swedish climate startups will over the coming four years, get the best imaginable support to help turn their innovations into scalable businesses and accelerate their climate impact.

Already being the accelerator in Sweden working with the largest number of climate startups, Sting will now double its capacity to 25 companies per year. Sting has recently brought on board two new business coaches specialized in energy, carbon capture, and mobility and has a highly experienced team of five dedicated climate tech business coaches ready to support new startup teams.

“Sting is one of the accelerators in the world with the longest experience from incubating and accelerating climate tech and deeptech startups. We started in 2002, and over the years we have supported hundreds of climate startups such as Midsummer, Sellpy, Karma, Ignitia, Surfcleaner, Airmee and Worldfavor,” said Karin Ruiz, Deputy CEO and Climate Action Lead at Sting.

“At Sting we strongly believe in the power of innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship to bring solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. We are thankful for the ERUF funding and support from our strategic partners that will enable us to accelerate many more Swedish climate startups,” concluded Karin.

Sting’s Climate Action initiative is well aligned with the Climate Route Map 2050 of the Stockholm region, reinforcing Stockholm’s position as the Impact Capital of the World and supporting the region’s green transition. As part of the Climate Action initiative, Sting will take the lead in mobilizing the resources of Stockholm’s startup ecosystem to offer the most extensive and qualified support for climate entrepreneurs and innovators to commercialize their innovations. Strategic partners supporting Sting include KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University, RISE, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, the City of Stockholm, and Region Stockholm.

Climate areas that Sting is particularly interested in are renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy systems and storage, carbon capture and its usage and storage, mobility and green transports, sustainable cities and buildings, circular economy and resource efficiency, sustainable food and agriculture, new materials and reduced waste.

For questions or to engage with Sting’s Climate Action initiative contact:

Pär Hedberg, CEO of Sting, par.hedberg@sting.co, +46-70-8550318

Karin Ruiz, Deputy CEO of Sting and Climate Action Lead, karin.ruiz@sting.co, +46-70-6457804

Linda Krondahl, Project Manager for Sting’s Climate Action project, linda.krondahl@sting.co, +46-70-7949280

About Sting (Stockholm Innovation & Growth)

Announced The World’s Best Incubator/Accelerator in 2021, Sting helps entrepreneurs develop their business ideas into successful international growth companies with world-class business development support, recruitment, funding and networking. Sting has helped over 370 startups since 2002, 70 percent of which still continue to develop and grow.

Together, all Sting companies have a turnover of more than SEK 3.8 billion and they have combined created well over 3,400 jobs. The Sting companies have received more than SEK 9.9 billion in private capital.

Sting is also an active developer of the ecosystem in Sweden and co-founder of initiatives such as SUP46, THINGS, Ignite Sweden, Sweden Sustaintech Venture Day, Luminar Ventures and Propel Capital.

Sting alumni include: Yubico, Sellpy, Airmee, Surfcleaner, Midsummer, Worldfavor, Skrym and Karma, among others.

Propel Capital, Sweden’s most active private seed investor within tech, connected to the accelerator Sting, has appointed Emanuel Andersson as our new CEO.  

Emanuel has several years of experience as an investor, most recently from Almi Invest Greentech where he worked with a portfolio of over 30 climate-impact companies. 

Since 2014, when Propel Capital was initiated, Propel Capital has invested in over 175 companies primarily in sustaintech, healthtech, deeptech, and digital innovation. The investors tied to Propel are 100 of Sweden’s most experienced business angels, carefully selected to be a good fit with the startups and with the potential to support them long term. The latest version, Propel VI, closed this summer on 30MSEK with 25 old and new angels. 

“I am really looking forward to getting this unique opportunity to work with such well-renowned investors. The Propel angels is a diverse group of young and old, men and women, with different backgrounds but with one thing in common: they are active investors, passionate about our portfolio and the big, societal challenges of today,” said Emanuel Andersson, CEO of Propel Capital.   

Emanuel takes over the CEO role at a time when major societal challenges characterize the investor climate. 

”We must provide the companies that invent tomorrow, with the proper tools in order to make a difference. Sting stands with one leg in the research field and the other in business, which is a rather unique position. The benefit of Sting and Propel Capital is more obvious than ever. In addition, the geek side of me looks forward to diving into all the data we have collected over the years. The size of Propel means that we sit on a huge amount of exciting information that we can use to draw conclusions and become even sharper,” said Emanuel Andersson, CEO of Propel Capital. 

In the new role, Emanuel will use his investor and operational expertise to manage Propel Capital, find companies with promising potential, and help equip those companies with the tools needed to succeed in the market and further contribute to societal transformation. 

”Propel Capital works like an engine, bringing together business angels and startups in Stockholm. We have already financed 175 companies thus far and will finance many more in the years to come. The wheels continue to turn in the Swedish tech world. We are thrilled to have Emanuel Andersson as the new CEO. He has the drive and the right background to lift Propel Capital to the next level,” said Niclas Lilja, chairman of Propel Capital. 

About Propel Capital 

Propel Capital is an investment company linked to Sting. Propel Capital is Sweden’s most active private seed investor. Propel Capital benefits from Sting’s selection process and the portfolio companies benefit from Sting’s support in areas such as business development, coaching, and recruitment. 

Propel Capital exclusively invests in Sting companies. Startups in the Sting Accelerate program are offered investments and a selection of the Sting Incubate companies receive an investment in time upon evaluation. The investment amount is SEK 500,000. 

The current Propel Capital, Propel Capital VI, is managing SEK 30 million from about 40 of Sweden’s top business angels and from Saminvest. State-owned Saminvest has invested in Propel Capital IV, V and VI. 

As uncertainty, ambiguity, and complexity increase in the world, everyone needs to be part of the leadership function to create meaningful results. But developing everyone in an organization through traditional leadership programs is normally an expensive and demanding process, in general not personalized for each individual or context as such.

V3VO has therefore developed Growloop, a digital leadership coach and trainer, a clever app so that everyone in a team or an organization can develop their self-leadership and leadership. This is in collaboration with others regardless of existing knowledge or leadership maturity. All to a fraction of traditional leadership programs or consultancies costs. Growloop is today being used to support leadership development in fast-paced organizations to further increase the speed of their growth journey in creating more meaningful results, faster. In several international organizations with high ambitions such as Resultify, Peltarion, and Drama Queen, Growloop has in a short time become appreciated leadership support for many of their co-workers. Recently it has been rated 4 out of 5 by co-workers in Forex, the market leader in the Nordics for travel currency exchange.

Given the challenges and opportunities we have as individuals, organizations, and the world, we need the keys to how we can thrive and grow sustainably and even regenerative. To create and reach more meaningful results together. With the new resources, we can now further equip Growloop with more growth power, new learning experiences, and AI features. At the same time we can invest in supporting growth journeys in many more European organizations. A big win for everyone, says Johan Landgren, CEO, and co-founder.

About
Growloop arises from the collaboration between leadership consultants, entrepreneurs, and investors with ambition and willingness to democratize leadership development! The driving force is the realization that with the support of digitalization and AI, what has been reserved for a few can become available to everyone. During a couple of years, several prototypes and collaborations were tested before Growloop was developed in 2021. Growloop is a product from the company V3VO – Vertical Evolution AB.V3VO is backed by 9 shareholders. The majority of owners are Co-founders and global leadership consultants Mattias Seger (CPTO) and Monica Edgren. The entrepreneur Johan Landgren is the CEO and also Co-founder. Hans Isoz, Ideabits, Jenny Rosenkrantz, Karl Wassgren, Mimmi Brandberg, Rebecka Eriksson and Sting, are all shareholders and mission friends.

Sting is now welcoming two new coaches with several years in the green transport – clean energy segment: Boel Swartling and Thomas Öström.

Boel Swartling is the founder of Charge Amps AB, initiator of Sweden Sustaintech Venture Day, and board member of four green-tech businesses:

Green Mobility, Charge Amps, MineStorage, and CCC (carbon capture company).

Additionally, Boel has been on the board of Propel 4 and 5, naturally giving her a great understanding of both founders and investors.

“I’m thrilled to be part of Sting and the coach-team, getting to mentor the next generation of successful entrepreneurs within the sustain-tech field.  I am very much looking forward to sharing my experience and network I have gained while working with Charge Amps, SSVD, and as an investor.

Other than sustainable transport solutions, I am passionate about building companies and teams, and hope that my expertise and experience as a CEO and business consultant will be beneficial to the startups at Sting,” said Boel Swartling.

Thomas Öström is a serial investor, entrepreneur, and board member who amongst many other accomplishments, founded Nasdaq-listed Climeon. 2018 Thomas was named ‘Swede of the year, Innovation’ and 2019 received an honorary doctorate in technology at Luleå Technical University. Thomas primary interest is in challenges around climate change and clean energy solutions.

“There are plenty of startups out there who can contribute to finding the solution to our challenges around climate change. However, to actually make a difference you need tools in order to excel and scale.

I am looking forward to helping these startups utilize their potential and maximize the opportunities to make a difference, through Sting,” said Thomas Öström.

With businesses like Midsummer, Cortus Energy, Cacharge, Enerpoly, Cling Systems, Evolar, Sellpy, Worldfavor, Klimato, Beleco, Surfcleaner , Skrym och Airmee in the portfolio, Sting has over the years had an immense interest in the development within the sustain-tech community. With this new addition to the coach-squad, Sting can offer a support team of talent and expertise to startups focused on solving challenges within this segment.

“At Sting, we are convinced that innovative startups play a crucial role in fighting climate change.  Adding more resources to our team is an attempt to help continue, encourage, and support more Climate Action businesses in the making. 

Clean energy and mobility are two crucial areas for us to focus on, in order to achieve our goal to limit the CO2e-emission in half by 2030.

By welcoming Boel and Thomas onboard the coach-team at Sting, we are now even better equipped than before, to accelerate startups within this specific segment,” said Karin Ruiz, Sustaintech Lead, business coach, and Deputy CEO at Sting.