Last week (May 2023), 14 of Europe’s leading universities and top startup hubs, met in the Bavarian Alps to participate in the world’s first Rise Europe Summit. The purpose was to discuss how the conditions for Europe’s startups could be improved. The meeting has resulted in a powerful alliance of international actors who share a common vision of how innovations “made in Europe” should succeed on the global market. The initiator of the meeting was Germany’s leading center for innovation and entrepreneurship, UnternehmerTUM.

Crises require European collaboration

– Crisis like the climate crisis require more European cooperation. The current geopolitical and economic uncertainty also reinforces the need for an alliance that backs tomorrow’s European innovation companies. These companies are the one solving major societal challenges, secures jobs and ensures continued prosperity, says Pär Hedberg, CEO of Sting.

This collaboration represents a significant milestone in Europe’s startup ecosystem, as it will combine the individual local ecosystems into one – in order to contribute to faster and better solutions to major societal challenges. The group is now joining forces to firstly improve the environment for entrepreneurs in Europe Together with industry, family offices, policy makers and investors Rise Europe will fostering a vibrant entrepreneurial culture and nurturing the next generation of innovative companies.

Network for a more sustainable entrepreneurship

Rise Europe agreed on publishing an annual list of Europe’s most meaningful startups and on accelerating those promising European teams with all their individual networks and support mechanisms for quicker scaling. Additionally, Rise Europe plans to arrange matchmaking events between start-ups, corporates and investors on a European level and a format specifically to increase female entrepreneurship by matching female co-founders across countries.

– With Rise Europe we got a new force that can contribute to solving global challenges and shape a European understanding of the importance of sustainable entrepreneurship. I am very happy and proud that Sting is part of this very strong European alliance, says Pär Hedberg, CEO of Sting.

About Rise Europe

• Rise Europe was founded in May 2023 and is an alliance of leading universities and startup hubs in Europe.
• The alliance consists of: Aalto University, Agoranov, Beta-i, Campus Founders, DLD, DTU Skylab, École Polytechnique, ETH AI CENTER, ETH Zurich, HighTechXL, IE University, Imperial College London, INiTS, KTH Innovation, EnSpire Oxford at Oxford University, Sting, TalTech, Tangent at Trinity College Dublin, UnternehmerTUM and Vento.
• Members are from: Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Great Britain.
• Next Rise Europe Summit: April 2024 in Madrid.

Stockholm, 17 May 2023: 

UTIlizer AB (UTI-lizer), a Swedish HealthTech company in point-of-need diagnostics, has raised just over 7 million SEK to commercialize its unique urinary tract infection (UTI) product for decentralizing UTI testing! The investors include ALMI Invest, together with life science angel investors and the Propel Capital. 

UTIs are painful, affect 150 million people globally¹ and are the 2nd most common prescription for antibiotics. Today’s UTI tests need experienced users and costly equipment and therefore take a long time to result. Therefore, clinicians often start treatment without test results because the patient is in pain. As a result, antibiotic treatment is inappropriate which leads to the development of antibiotic resistance (one of the biggest threats to human health according to WHO²).

“Thanks to the support of our investors, UTI-lizer can commercialize an innovative and rapid point-of-need test for urinary tract infections, thus meeting the needs of both patients and the healthcare system. The company’s expertise in life sciences, combined with a wide network and entrepreneurial spirit, will be invaluable to advancing the solution. Our first product is a game-changer in managing UTIs and the first one in a series of other applications.” says Sofia Bertling, CEO at UTI-lizer.

The funding will finance a scaled production process, support a multicenter clinical study for IVDR/CE certification and accelerate marketing efforts. To accomplish these objectives, the team will expand by hiring a production manager and a marketing professional. 

“UTI-lizer’s products have the potential to provide a significantly faster, cheaper and more accurate diagnosis of suspected bacterial infections, e.g. urinary tract infections, by enabling the miniaturized culture of bacteria at healthcare centers, and eventually at home. The need for this is large and global, and the product is scalable, so we see enormous potential in the company”, says Gustav Notander, Investment Manager at Almi Invest.

For more information, please contact:
Sofia Bertling, CEO
Phone: +46 (0)708 977577
Email: sofia.bertling@utilizer.se

About UTI-lizer

UTIlizer AB is a Swedish Healthech company in point-of-need diagnostics, founded in 2021 as a spin-off from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. UTI-lizer has miniaturized culture-based bacterial detection in a dipstick format. Their first product is a test for diagnosing urinary tract infections (UTIs) detecting and quantifying bacteria in urine at the clinically relevant range. This can be done without costly laboratory instruments and the result can be read using a mobile phone camera. The major advantage of this diagnostic test is that it enables an untrained operator to detect urinary tract infections at the point of need. Using the same technology, UTI-lizer is also developing antibiotic susceptibility tests (AST) focused on markets with a high prevalence of antibiotic resistance.

Talia brings a wealth of experience to the role, having started several successful tech companies and worked as a private investor and research commercialization expert. For the past few years, he has also served as a business coach at Sting and as interim CEO for Mindler. Talia’s journey with Sting began in 2004 when his first startup, Nanologica, received its first external funding from Sting and its CEO at the time, Pär Hedberg.

“I am thrilled to be taking over as the CEO of Sting,” says Talia. “Sting has been instrumental in supporting the growth of Stockholm-based startups for over 20 years, and I am honored to have the opportunity to give back to the community that has given me so much. It comes as no surprise to me that Sting was named the Best Accelerator in the World in 2021.”

Sting has a significant impact on the local economy, turning out 30+ new growth companies every year and raising €128 million in private capital in 2022 alone. Its 270 active companies had €495 million in revenue and employed 3,200 people in the same year. Sting also operates Propel Capital, the largest private pre-seed investor in the Nordics, backed by experienced business angels. Some of the successful companies backed by Sting include Yubico, Sellpy, Airmee, Surfcleaner, Midsummer, Mendi, and Volumental.

“I am immensely proud of the work we have done at Sting,” says Staffan Ingvarsson, Chairman of Sting and CEO of Stockholm Business Region. Krim Talia is the perfect fit for this role, and I look forward to working with him to continue supporting the growth of startups in Stockholm and the Nordics.”

In his new role, Talia will build on Sting’s success and focus on supporting the growth of startups in Stockholm and the Nordics. “Sting has actively developed several key components of the startup ecosystem in Stockholm and Sweden, and I am excited to continue this work with the brilliant team at Sting,” he says.

Overall, Sting’s impact on the startup community in Stockholm and the Nordics is significant, and Talia’s appointment as CEO signals a new chapter in its ongoing success story.

About Sting: 

Sting is a nonprofit organization and an independent ecosystem for tech startups, serving as the leading incubator and accelerator in the Nordics. The Electrum Foundation, a public-private foundation, owns 91% of Sting, with the remaining 9% held by KTH Holding. As a founder-centric player, Sting always prioritizes what’s best for startups. Since 2002, Sting has supported over 400 promising startups based in Stockholm, actively contributing to the development of the local and Swedish startup ecosystem for more than 20 years. Sting has been recognized as the Best Accelerator in the world by the Global Startup Awards, and it is the go-to place for startups in Stockholm seeking to grow and succeed. To learn more about Sting, visit www.sting.co.

Klimato, a leading carbon management software company for the food industry, has raised €4.2 million to continue its international expansion, helping the global food industry decrease their CO2 emissions. Klimato enables food service providers, restaurants, and food producers, such as Sodexo, Hilton, and Violife, to measure, report, and reduce carbon emissions from food. Klimato’s proprietary cloud-based platform is used by over 500 food businesses in 12 countries and has helped them decrease their CO2 emissions by an average of 23% in 2022. The financing round was led by Global Cleantech Capital (GCC) with participation from existing investor Almi Invest GreenTech.

Klimato has developed a proprietary cloud-based software platform that helps food service providers, restaurants, and food producers measure, report, and reduce their carbon footprint. Using research-based data, the software automates the carbon accounting process, making it faster, easier, and more accurate. It also provides a comprehensive dashboard that allows users to track their emissions and identify actions to reduce them. Klimato has grown rapidly since launching in 2018, helping to reduce the carbon footprint of some of the world’s largest food service providers such as Sodexo and Levy (part of Compass Group), hotels like Hilton and Marriott, restaurants as KFC and Bastard Burgers, and food producers like Unilever’s subsidiary Violife, the largest plant-based food company in the world. Today, Klimato is used by 500 food businesses in 12 countries on three continents.

CO2 emissions from food constitute about one third of global emissions. Klimato’s solution makes these emissions transparent to chefs, purchasing managers, and consumers – through user-friendly tools that are used in recipe creation and procurement, and Klimato’s climate label with the carbon footprint per dish. Through inspiring chefs and nudging guests in the restaurants, the average emission per dish on Klimato’s platform decreased by 23% in 2022, from 1.1 kg CO2e to 0.8 kg CO2e. 57% of all the dishes that Klimato’s customers served in 2022 were climate friendly (0.5 kg CO2e or below), compared to the global average of 1.7 kg CO2e.

The investment of € 4.2 million will accelerate Klimato’s growth – both with existing customers and into new markets, such as Germany, France, and the US – aiming to become the worldwide market leader for sustainability services in the food sector. Klimato will also expand its product offering with more sustainability indicators. The financing round was led by Global Cleantech Capital (GCC), a Netherlands-based investor in growth-stage companies focused on sustainability and clean technology, with continued participation from Almi Invest Greentech and other existing shareholders.

“We are impressed by Klimato’s strong growth, the successful start of the international expansion, and their commitment to sustainability,” said Emil Mahjoub, Investment Manager at GCC. “Klimato helps the food industry make data-driven decisions about carbon emissions, and is already a business-critical partner to leading organizations such as Sodexo, Compass Group, and Violife across the Nordics, the UK, and beyond. We are excited to collaborate with the management team and existing investors to help realize Klimato’s ambitious global growth plans.”

“Klimato has the potential to drive the food sector in a sustainable direction at a large scale. Since our first investment in Klimato in 2021, we have been impressed by the yearly impact we have seen for Klimato’s customers, last year an average decrease in CO2 emissions per dish by 23 percent. We are thrilled that our investment will allow Klimato to expand further and help the food industry with a faster transition,” said Karin Edström, Investment Manager, Almi Invest GreenTech.

“We are delighted to welcome GCC as a new investor and the for the continued support from Almi Invest Greentech,” said Anton Unger, CEO and co-founder of Klimato. “Their support will enable us to further develop our technology and accelerate our growth. This investment will help us strengthen our market position and achieve our mission of reducing the climate impact of food. We will expand globally with our existing and new customers, while continuing to develop our product to become the worldwide market leader for sustainability services in the food sector”

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About Klimato
Klimato provides a user-friendly tool that helps food professionals and consumers access and understand sustainability data. Among the customers there are food service providers like Sodexo and Levy (part of Compass Group), hotels like Hilton and Marriott, restaurants like Bastard Burgers and KFC and food producers like Violife. Klimato is used by around 500 food businesses in 12 countries.

For more information, please visit www.klimato.co and follow us on Linkedin Instagram and Facebook.

About Global Cleantech Capital
Global Cleantech Capital is a growth equity firm based in Amsterdam, investing to scale exceptional companies into new market leaders in the clean energy, mobility, smart cities, and fintech sectors in Europe and North America. Investing over USD 900 million, the GCC team has a track record of delivering attractive returns paired with ESG impact. GCC is domiciled in the Netherlands and registered with the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM).

For more information, please visit our website at www.gccfund.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Almi Invest
Almi Invest is Sweden’s most active investor in startups. We make investments throughout the country via 8 regional venture capital companies and one national venture capital company within GreenTech. Almi Invest manages approximately SEK 3.5 billion and has invested in approximately 660 startups since its inception. Our best holdings have been acquired by, among others, Google, Microsoft, Qlik and Apple or listed on various stock exchanges. Almi Invest is a venture capital company within the Almi Group and part-financed by the EU structural funds.

For more information, please visit our website at https://www.almi.se/almi-invest/ and follow us on LinkedIn Facebook and Twitter.

Sting’s latest initiative to nurture future entrepreneurs and attract talent to Stockholm is now being launched: Sting Startup Academy.

“The idea behind Sting has always been to contribute to the development of Stockholm as a leading startup hub and create a world-class community for tech companies wanting to grow and make a difference. With Sting Startup Academy, we continue to do just that, by helping entrepreneurs in the making get started with their ideas,” says Pär Hedberg, CEO and founder of Sting.

Sting Startup Academy, a collaboration between learning platform and Sting alumni company Learnster, is aimed at individuals who are curious about the startup scene, perhaps have an idea and entrepreneurial dream, or are interested in working for a tech startup. 

The fundamental value of the course is Sting’s combined experience from having helped over 400 startups develop into sustainable growth companies while highlighting the Nordic way of building a business.

“In the Nordics and in Sweden, we have a slightly different approach to building companies than in many other parts of the world. That is something we want to highlight in Startup Academy and take advantage of as a strong brand in a tech nation whilst sharing our collective experience. We also see this as an opportunity to reach a broader spectrum nationally and internationally,” proceeds Pär Hedberg.

In the Sting Startup Academy, the user is guided by the Sting coaches and well-known profiles such as Jessica Schultz, Partner at Northzone and co-founder of Hello Fresh, Magnus Nilsson, Investor and co-founder of iZettle, and Lisa Ericsson, head of KTH Innovation. 

In 5 hours, you get a thorough overview of topics such as ‘how to test your business idea’, ‘how to get your first customer’, ‘how to build a winning team’, ‘how to succeed in sales’, and ‘how to finance its startup’.

“We are immensely proud that Sting chose Learnster’s learning platform to deliver such a unique project of value. At Learnster we are passionate about sharing knowledge and entrepreneurship. As our own startup journey began at Sting, we can relate to Startup Academy’s target group. Sting’s support for young companies is immeasurable. Therefore, it feels especially good to now get to give back. To come full circle, so to speak,” says Mikael Larsson, CEO at Learnster.

About Learnster 

The vision of Learnster is a world where everyone can learn something new every day. Their contribution to creating that world is by finding new ways to transform information into knowledge. Learnster develops tomorrow’s LMS (learning platform) for growing organizations aspiring to achieve maximum development in minimum time. With the help of Learnster’s innovative technology, new opportunities for communication and information sharing are created for the entire organization.

Learnster has been named Top 20 LMS in the World 2023, Platinum Pick 2021 (FindAnLMS), and nominated for Swedish SaaS Company of the Year 2020 (Breakite). With an NPS of 76, today Learnster has thousands of users in 30 different countries and is available in 13 different languages.

About Sting (Stockholm Innovation & Growth) 

Named the world’s best incubator/accelerator in 2021, Sting helps entrepreneurs go from business ideas into successful international growth companies with world-class business development support, recruitment, funding, and networking. Sting has helped over 400 startups since 2002, 70 percent of which continue to develop and grow today.

Altogether, Sting companies have a turnover of more than SEK 3.8 billion and they have created over 3,400 jobs. The Sting companies have together attracted more than SEK 9.9 billion in private capital.

Furthermore, Sting is 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.

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.