“A big part (of the investment) will also go to marketing and product development to broaden our offer,” says Daniel Melkersson, CEO and co-founder of PinMeTo to 8till5.

PinMeTo is a tool that allows businesses, retailers and franchises to have up-to-date and consistent data across all social media platforms, such as Google and Facebook. In other words, it lets them be on the digital map for their customers. Since they released their service in late 2015, the Malmö-based company has continued to grow their customer base, which stands today at 32 companies and 4 500 stores all over the world.

“This year, the goal is to get over 100 customers and 16 000 stores” says Daniel Melkersson.

With the planned investment round, PinMeTo also aims increase their number of employees, which had already tripled in the last year, and grow globally. They established an office in Stockholm during the year and this investment round is intended to set up another office in London, according to Melkersson.

This investment would add up to the 8.5 million SEK (€ 0.9M) in external capital that they previously raised through entrepreneur Lars Wingefors and D-ax. In 2016, PinMeTo expects their sales to reach over € 0.8M.

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Ideon Science Park stands today as one of the leading centers of innovation, technology and entrepreneurship across Scandinavia and Europe. Located in northeastern Lund, Ideon has witnessed and fostered the growth of leading companies for over 30 years. Throughout, it has also developed as an organization, evolving from an office space into a span of initiatives, collaborations and meeting points for innovation, education and business.

DEVELOPING AN IDEA

The origin of Ideon Science Park traces back to the early 80’s. The main idea was to take advantage of the knowledge provided by Lund University to create companies. As a joint venture between academia, industry and the municipality, Ideon first opened its doors to 5 companies in 1983. Thereafter, the park grew substantially, adding up offices and labs to reach 100 companies within just 5 years. 

Throughout its over 30 years of history, more than 900 companies have operated at Ideon and over 600 companies, such as Axis, Anoto, Exensor and BioInvent, have developed there with an impressive 95% survival rate. Ideon Science Park is currently home to more than 350 companies employing over 2 700 persons. Leading companies in the fields of mobile communications, ICT, Life Science and Cleantech run their operations from here.

“Our strength is cross-innovation, to be an environment where people that do not normally meet, do so,” says Rickard Mosell about Ideon’s role (8till5).

A DRIVING FORCE

Ideon’s goal is to be the meeting place for visionaries, entrepreneurs and investors alike. This vision is supported upon three main initiatives which drive its activities: Ideon Meeting, Ideon Open and Ideon Innovation. Helping to innovate, to connect and to develop, respectively, each of these initiatives benefit companies and individuals when it comes to mutual competence exchange.

“Ideon Meeting is the spine that forms the strong informal network which is crucial for a successful science park… it can host everything from two people having a short brainstorming session to big seminars or fairs with hundreds of attendants,” says Liza Nydén, Operations Manager at Ideon Meeting.

Ideon Meeting is the point of contact for any company, organization or potential partner interested in the region’s research and business. Year round, many events are organized by Ideon Meeting, as well as conferences and study visits for international delegations.  Ideon Open is an open innovation framework provides businesses guidance on how to implement innovation in their day-to-day activities. The main in-house incubator is Ideon Innovation, which by collaborating with different organizations and investors, it provides necessary support and guidance to develop business ideas.

“With experienced business coaches and a wide collaboration throughout the innovation system, Ideon Innovation gives the best support possible,” – Liza Nydén.

OUTLOOK

In recent months, a hot topic has been the future of the science park as plans move forward to take Ideon to a bigger level. The idea is to bring together several neighbouring spaces (Mobile Heights Center, Edison Park and Medicon Village), which already host small to large companies, under the name of Ideon. Even though this new Ideon venture has already appointed an operations manager to lead this expansion, the outcome and success of this venture is yet to be seen.

If everything falls into place, the new Ideon would then become Europe’s biggest science park housing over 500 companies and 10 000 employees. In this way, Ideon’s name would spread even more in the international scene as it continues to push forward the region’s innovation and development.

Are you an investor, an entrepreneur, a company looking for office space, or maybe just curious about the scene in the region? If you are, you probably know of Ideon already; if not, you should definitely book a visit soon.

In the second part of this story, an inside look into the incubators, startups and organizations that make Ideon one of the go-to places for entrepreneurs.

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“NextStep is a fantastic example of how we create a starting ground for the future development of the region,” says Bengt-Arne Molin, responsible for NextStep Program, to 8till5.

The recent layoffs within Sony Mobile Communications in Lund resulted in more than 500 people having to find new opportunities. NextStep Startup Program is an initiative by Sony Mobile to support those of them interested in developing a business idea as a next step in their careers . By bringing together experience from the region’s innovation ecosystem, the participants received access to training, networking and coaching. Over 30 startups in diverse areas, such as hardware, health, fashiontech, food and education, were part of this program during 6 months.

On March 3rd, selected startups had the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a panel consisting of well-established entrepreneurs and angel investors in the region. Among the attendants, there were incubator representatives from the region, as well as executives from Sony, among whom was Hiroki Totoki, CEO of Sony Mobile Communications.

“If we get the resources we need, we will have a prototype during the year. Next year we hope to be out in the market,” says Magnus Kåreby, co-founder of Katam, a startup developing mobile tools for industrial measurements, which took the 1st place in NextStep Startup Program competition.

OutSmart and StudyBee received the 2nd and 3rd place in the competition, while other five startups received a special recognition in different categories. The prizes for these startups were in the form of business mentorships, development trips and participation in incubators, which will help them take on their next challenges.

Eleven additional startups are expected to leave the program in summer. For more information on the emerging startups go to NextStep’s website.

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The company, which develops a software platform for product information management, had a profitable 2015 with sales of 92M SEK (€ 9.7M) almost doubling the turnover of the previous year. Also last year, it had one of the largest financing rounds among tech companies in Skåne, as the venture capital company Verdane went in with 80M SEK (€ 8.5M).

InRiver has already several offices across Europe and now looks forward to growing their USA branch. To move forward with this expansion, they have brought in Jim MacIntyre, an american entrepreneur and investor with a background in several tech companies in USA.

“USA is extremely important for us. We will grow with about 25 people there during the year,” says InRiver’s founder and CEO, Niclas Mollin, about company’s plans in USA.

InRiver offers a platform with which any business can produce and manage product information such as movies, text and images across different sales channels. In this way, it helps retailers and businesses to get a better overview of their product offer online. As of today, the Malmö-based company has 62 employees and over 200 clients, which includes both Swedish and international companies such as Lindex, Stadium, Converse, BMW and Volvo.

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Serenity is an alarm, “an intelligent guardian”, which prevents others from taking or opening your bag. The company, founded in September 2015, prepares to launch its Kickstarter campaign on February 2nd at 18.00 (GMT +1). The goal is to get 40,000 USD (~€ 37k) to cover the initial costs of production. Previously they had also investment from LU Innovation System and Leapfrogs  to develop its prototype.

“Why do we have to worry about our belongings, shouldn’t we just know they are safe?” – the question that served as a stepping point for Serenity.

Andrew Lentz, founder of Serenity, came up with the idea and then started the company with fellow students from Lund University. Their multinational team was soon supported by the local entrepreneur scene and grew with experienced individuals in design and engineering. The device, which is similar to a USB stick, is attached to the bag’s zipper. It can recognize its owner and connect to mobiles or wearables through an app and Bluetooth connectivity. In this way, the owner gets notifications in case the bag is stolen or left behind.

“We want to develop smart solutions for other things, like musical instruments, wallets and computers. We are also looking at opportunities to sew up the product in the bag,” said Andrew Lentz to 8till5 on future plans.

For more information about Serenity’s Kickstarter launch party, go here.

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“Pär’s experiences in growing companies and in leading people fit Notified’s present situation perfectly,” says Kristopher Stenkula, founder and former CEO of Notified.

The press release highlights Lagerström’s experience as well as Notified’s steady growth and its intentions to take the company to the next level. Pär Lagerström worked for 6 years at Mynewsdesk, during which he contributed to grow the PR company from 30 to 150 employees. Former Notified’s CEO, Kristopher Stenkula, will continue to work in the company focusing mainly on business development and having an active role in the board.

“Notified is in an exciting phase and I see great potential for further growth, both in Sweden and internationally. We see clearly that our services for more professional support tools for investment in social media are increasingly in demand,” says Pär Lagerström.

Notified, founded in 2010, is a service for professional listening and analysis of social media. During 2015, they not only increased considerably its customer base, but also updated its platform. As part of this, they launched new analysis features for social media as well as an app. Recently they also released Sparkle, a new platform which allows companies to use available content in social media for their own marketing activities.

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“We see that we can help car dealers become more digital and help them transform their stock more rapidly by combining online sales with traditional car sales,” says Jetnor Shatri, founder and CEO of FörmedlarBil.

The company launched in mid-2014 as an internet-based platform for car owners interested in selling their vehicles. Through förmedlarbil.se, car owners can advertise their cars and compare, at no cost, bids from registered car dealers.

In this way, according to this review, the seller can get a good price for their car without having to personally visit every car dealer in the area. In addition to the partnership with Aggregate Media, FörmedlarBil will soon launch a new service for people interested in buying new or used cars.

“Buying a car can be time consuming and difficult for the consumer. We want to stand on the buyer’s side and ensure that everyone can make a good car deal,” says Shatri about their soon-to-launch service.

In this new service, the car dealers compete for you as a potential customer and a personal broker from FörmedlarBil negotiates further the price with the dealers. A financial and insurance plan to acquire the car is then given to the interested buyer. Shatri pointed out that the dealers are positive about the service as he expects to mediate 2 500 deals during 2016.

“It is possible to negotiate with the car dealers, you just have to know how to negotiate and we are experts at that.” — Jetnor Shatri.

In addition to this investment, FörmedlarBil will get an additional € 100k (1M SEK) from Almilån. The company, which consists of four people today, expects to hire between six to ten car brokers per year in the following years. The goal is to launch the service internationally in 2018 or 2019 focusing on emerging markets.

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“We get involved in an early stage in products and companies we believe in, as hands­-on co-­founders. We work together with the entrepreneurs to solve common startup challenges,” says Lars Widmark, CEO of Menmo.

Djäkne’s goal is to attract current and future entrepreneurs that want to work with innovation and startups. Its focus lies on services and products that challenge the current state of art by using new technology. With an open co-working space and dedicated offices at Djäknegatan in Malmö, it aims to develop a parallel entrepreneurship among the in-house companies. Widmark points out that, unlike incubators, they use their own capital and work operationally as part of the company’ team.

“We are not a VC. We are not an incubator or accelerator. We are a startup studio where we invest our own capital in startups and use our experience and network to grow them into successful companies,” says Widmark.

Since their founding in 2004, Menmo has a successful track record growing over 30 companies such as Mobenga, which had a large exit in 2011 when they were bought by british Playtech. More recently seven sport websites within Menmo were bought by the listed company Traveas to create the largest sports network in Sweden, Everysport Media Group. Other rising startups within the studio are United Robots, involved in robot journalism, as well as HittaHem, Youcruit and Friendbase.

“Djäkne Startup Studio becomes a platform that attracts interesting projects and good people, which in turn creates a new wave of startups.” – Lars Widmark to 8till5.

The team behind the startup studio hopes that this name change will push forward their business as they continue to start and build companies in the region. For more information go to djakne.co.

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“The goal is to connect the hardware scene and the best way to do so is by meeting other people and companies who are experts in the region,” said Joel Larsson, managing director for Fast Track Malmö and one of the organizers behind the event.

EVENT

To start the evening, James Halliburton, co-founder and CEO of design studio Topp, talked about the capabilities and strengths of the region. He was then followed by two successful stories from each side of the Öresund. Hannes Hallén and Karolina Friberg, from Malmö’s Minut, shared their story emphasizing the value of Kickstarter campaigns and production in China. Jesper Vind, from Copenhagen’s Future Electric, talked about how they started their electrical motorcycle with off-the-shelf parts and how discouraging comments motivated them to disrupt the automotive industry. Attendees also got introduced to EON’s Agile accelerator, which intends to develop business ideas using their competence from the energy sector.

“Around us are the building blocks in the region and that is the challenge, not to be satisfied with how amazing this is, but push beyond our borders, our existing ambitions, to something even bigger,” shared Topp’s James Haliburton in his presentation.

In between and after presentations, a noteworthy buzz took over while people connected, shared and showcased their products. The diversity of hardware companies was impressive, from startups with ideas or working prototypes up to largely established companies. Everyone had something to contribute. Educational robots, connected sensing devices, smart connected bags and nano quadcopters were just some of the impressive products at display.

Another common thread throughout the evening was the fact that starting a hardware company is not as complicated and costly anymore. This was pointed out by Marcus Eliasson from Bitcraze who put emphasis on the availability of development boards or demo kits for as low as €10, as well as design tools such as KiCad, which are very useful in early testing and prototyping stages. The need for truly usable and sustainable hardware was further addressed by Vanja Plicanic Samuelsson from Sony.

REACTIONS

The organizers of Hardware Connected received very positive feedback on the event. Entrepreneur and investor Hampus Jakobsson, who moderated the presentations, thought it was amazing to have a meetup between the really large companies and the startups.

“When it comes to hardware, we are on the forefront of the world but not everyone knows it because we don’t say it enough so this is us screaming: come and look at all the amazing things we have,” said Linda Malmgren, head of communications at Mobile Heights, about this event.

Along the same lines, Joel Larsson highlighted the fact that it is easier to hire people here than in other startup hubs like Stockholm, Berlin or New York. According to him, the region’s competence from large companies, together with the broad talent pool from universities, provide a perfect place to build your startup.

“People forget easily that large technology and manufacturing companies have been here for a long time and, combined with the software knowledge, there is no reason why the region cannot be a global hub for hardware development.” – James Haliburton.

The organizers look forward to build on this for future developments in Sweden and across Northern Europe. The interest, competence and technology are certainly in place.

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“Demo Day is about more than just pitches from our startups. It is also an opportunity to gather the startup world and learn from each other,” says Johannes Ivarsson, Accelerator Manager at Think Accelerate.

The event gathered around 30 business angels and representatives from venture capital firms. Four top Nordic investors participated in a panel discussion where they explained important aspects they look for when investing in a company.

“When we invest in the early stages, the team is the focus. A good team can get almost any business whatsoever to fly and a bad team can fail even with the best business idea,” says Ekaterina Gianelli from the Finnish venture capital company, Inventure.

Sofia, YOU++, Cirons, LeanLaw, Upbis and Quickbutik are the six startups in the accelerator’s autumn batch which presented their business ideas. Daniel Eklöf and his team at LeanLaw, a legal support service for e-commerce businesses, are seeking an investment of 400 000 dollars (around € 380k) to recruit developers and finance the next one and a half years. The situation is similar for the other startups soon “graduating” from the accelerator as they look forward to continue their growth and development.

“We would be very happy if we could get into an investment that helps us run the company for the next six months and hire more people in Skåne,” says Jonas Jonasson, founder of Cirons, an innovative Resource Intelligence (RI) system.

Both Eklöf and Jonasson expressed their satisfaction with their experience in the accelerator, as well as with the mentors and advisers they got to meet. So far this year, over 40 companies have been part of THINK’s programs and have received a total of 1.2 million dollars in external capital. THINK, formerly an incubator, was reorganized last April into an accelerator to speed up the development process for startups and is already accepting applications for their 2016 spring batch.

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