• Embracer (Karlstad, video game holding company) acquires French board games publisher Asmodee from private equity firm PAI Partners in a deal valued at €2.75B ($3.11B) (English).
   
• Spotify (Stockholm, audio streaming service) acquired Whooshkaa, an Australia-based platform for hosting, managing, distributing, promoting, monetizing and measuring podcasts. Terms were not disclosed (English, Swedish).
   
• Mat.se (Gothenburg, online grocery store) is being sold by its owner Axfood to competitor Mathem for SEK688M (€67M, $75M), paid in newly issued Mathem shares (English, Swedish).
   
• Fishbrain (Stockholm, "world's most popular fishing app") acquires US-based fishing regulations app Fish Rules. The price was not disclosed (Swedish, machine translation).
   
• Exeger (Stockholm, manufacturer of flexible solar cells made to power gadgets) acquired Dutch semiconductor startup Intivation. Terms were not disclosed (English).
   
• Checkin.com (Stockholm, provider of registration flow solutions for online services) acquires Estonian AI image analysis company datacorp, for €4.15M ($4.5M) in a mix of shares and cash (English).

Financing rounds

• GreenIron (Stockholm, technology for reducing the climate footprint of the world’s metal, mining and manufacturing industries): SEK100M (€10M, $11M) in a funding round led by FAM, with participation from Almi Invest GreenTech (Swedish, machine translation).
   
• Storykit (Stockholm, video creation platform): $10M in a funding round led by Expedition (English, Swedish / Breakit paywall).
   
• Besedo (Stockholm, provider of products and services for content security and moderation, to online marketplaces): SEK45M ($4.5M, $5M) from Spiltan and NEA Partners (English, Swedish).
   
• Favro (Uppsala, collaborative planning app for SaaS and live games companies): $4.3M in a seed round led by Practica Capital, with participation from Scale Capital and existing investors (English, Swedish / Breakit paywall).
   
• ImagineCare (Stockholm, provider of a digital health self-monitoring solution): SEK30.5M (€3M, $3.4M) from Concejo and angel investors (English, Swedish).
   
• Cling Systems (Stockholm, developer of a collection and trading platform for recycling of large batteries): $2.3M in a funding round led by Trucks VC and First Venture (English, Swedish).
   
• Gruppsol (Stockholm, solar cell company): SEK20M (€2M, $2.2) from angel investors (Swedish / DI Digital paywall).
   
• JustInCase (Stockholm, digital life insurance provider): SEK15M (€1.5M, $1.6M) from Spiltan (English, Swedish).
   
• Picture This (Stockholm, upcoming NFT-based photography marketplace): $1.6M from True Global Ventures 4 Plus (English, Swedish).
   
• Dibz (Stockholm, queue-management platform for housing): SEK6.6M (€640K, $720K) from angel investors (English, Swedish).
   
• Beet (Stockholm, platform for people who want to eat healthy and climate friendly): SEK6M (€600K, $660K) from angel investors (Swedish, machine translation).
   
• Swedish investment firm Kinnevik invests $23M in German autonomous driving startup Vay (English).
   
• Swedish VC firm Creandum co-led a $4.5M pre-seed round raised by German B2B "buy now, pay later" startup Topi (English).

• Opibus, Swedish-Kenyan developer of electric mobility technology for the African market, enters a strategic partnership with Uber to promote EV adoption across the continent (English, Swedish).
   
• Swedish digital mailbox service Kivra hit the milestone of 5 million registered users (60 % of the adult population). Numbers were recently boosted thanks to the digital vaccination certificate (Swedish, machine translation).
   
• Juni, the Gothenburg-based banking platform for e-commerce and online marketing companies, is Europe's fastest-growing fintech of 2021 based on number of new employees (English).
   
• Quinyx, Stockholm-based provider of workforce management solutions, will provide AI-based scheduling for the 18,000 employees of PostNord, the Nordic’s largest logistics and postal company, in a deal "worth at least $5M" (English).
   
• Spotify is launching a five-star rating system for podcasts (English).
   
• Oracle opens first Nordic cloud region in Stockholm (English).
   
• Change of plans: For 2022, the City of Stockholm will give permits to all 8 current on-demand e-scooter operators after all - but each capped at only 1,500 scooters (Swedish, machine translation).
   
• Forbes' "Midas List Europe 2021", which ranks the 25 "top VC investors in Europe, Israel and the Middle East", includes a few Swedes (English).

• US VC giant General Catalyst has opened an office in Europe (English).
   
• Benedict Evans' yearly presentation exploring macro and strategic trends in the tech industry (English).
   
• We're currently in the "fifth SaaS correction" (English).
   
• Sweden's Computer Security Incident Response Team CERT-SE, published an extraordinary warning about the zero-day vulnerability Log4Shell, urging all organizations to patch their systems (Swedish).
   
• Sweden’s arson goat represents the true spirit of Christmas (English).

End note

Swedish Tech Weekly will now take a holiday break. The next issue will most likely be published on Sunday, January 2 (for Early Access subscribers) / Monday, January 3 for all other subscribers. Happy holidays, and see you all in 2022!

By the way, seeing this tweet made me very happy!



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Take care!

Martin
@swedishtechwkly