Five Sting companies awarded second innovative startups grant from Vinnova

Photo: Anna Holmquist, CEO and Founder, Gazzine, and Daniel Sundman, CTO, Gazzine.

Sting alumni companies Gazzine, Datia, iPercept, Skrym and Pliance have been awarded SEK 900,000 each in step two of Vinnova’s Innovative Startups program.

The Innovative Startups step 2 grant is given to Swedish companies with strong potential to drive sustainable growth in a global market by offering an innovative product or service.

With the second round of funding - which is only available for companies who’ve completed projects in step one - these startups will ramp up their operations and business development to attract more financiers, customers and partners.

Gazzine, a platform that connects readers with high-quality journalism in a whole new way, will use this second round of funding to adapt the platform for an international launch.

Anna Holmquist, CEO and Founder, Gazzine, says: “An important part of Gazzine’s vision is to launch the site in other markets and this grant makes it possible to do that sooner.”

Recent Sting alumni Skrym, who eliminate unnecessary air in e-commerce packaging will also use the grant to help them reach their business goals.

Jakob Nordfeldt, part of the founding team at Skrym, says: “Having the continued support of Vinnova is a big win for our whole team. In an increasingly crowded startup landscape where everyone talks about ‘revolutionizing’ and ‘transforming’, it’s a seal of quality and a sign of approval that we’re actually doing something that is new and good for the planet. Knowing that any grant from Vinnova is essentially taxpayer-funded, our team is really invested in making sure we deliver on our goals."

Vinnova hired experts with relevant expertise to assess the applications for funding. These companies were considered to have the greatest potential, and were in need of further financing to help them continue the business development that took place during step one.

“"Receiving this grant from Vinnova shows the importance of the work we are doing to help combat financial crime. With this funding, we can speed up our plans to add AML transaction monitoring to our suite of anti-money laundering products”, says Siam Choudhury, Co-Founder and CEO of Pliance, which helps companies automate their anti-money laundering processes.

IPercept Technology, which enables plug and play automation for machine diagnostics, were also among those awarded.

Károly Szipka, Founder and CEO, IPercept, says: “The grant is coming at exactly the right time and will help us accelerate growth by building our team. This will enable us to say yes to more customer projects and take the next steps toward new customer segments on an international scale. We are proud and grateful to receive this support from Vinnova and Swedish taxpayers.”

Juan Manuel Serruya, Co-Founder and CEO of Datia - a platform that helps people find investment opportunities that have a positive impact on the planet - says the company will use the funding to help asset managers satisfy the growing demands from both regulators and customers.

“We are very grateful for Vinnova’s continued support, and this grant validates our work in the sustainable finance space. We’ll use the funding to accelerate our development of data collection, reporting and analytics for asset managers across Europe,” added Juan.

Vinnova is a government agency that helps build Sweden’s innovation capacity and stimulate sustainable growth and enabling companies that make a difference. Their work is based on the global sustainability development goals of the 2030 Agenda adopted by the United Nations.