Embla was trained from scratch and is small enough to run on an iPhone. It was trained on 1.5 trillion tokens using the Gefion supercomputer, in Denmark’s largest AI training project to date. In Sevren’s own tests, it delivers a better combination of speed and quality than comparable models from Google, IBM, and Liquid AI, says CEO Mads Aarup Pedersen.

Because it can run directly on a phone, the data stays on the phone. No questions or documents are sent to a data centre, and the model even works in flight mode.

“We have built something that can live on a phone, which no one else has managed to do with the same quality and the same speed. We see that as something unique,”

Mads Aarup Pedersen told Finans on the release

The company announced that Embla runs on a phone, private, offline and free per request. It reported that At 4 bits Embla averages 57.4 on BFCL, IFBench, AA-Omniscience, GPQA and MATH-500 and answers in 1.77 s end to end on an iPhone 18 Pro. In their measurements, the models that scored higher took at least twice as long on the same phone.

For Europe, Not Just Denmark

For the CEO, the launch gets to the heart of why Sevren was started: AI is used by everyone but built by very few.

“AI is used by everyone, but built by very few. We want more European businesses and researchers to be able to build, adapt and control their own AI. That means developing efficient models that do more with less computing power, and making them available for others to build on,”

commented Mads Aarup Pedersen

Embla’s weights are now available on Hugging Face, where anyone can download the model, run it on their own hardware, and check Sevren’s numbers.

The release is a major milestone for the Sevren team, but more is already under way:

“…we are already working on something bigger. Training has already exceeded 102 billlion tokens.”

Mads Aarup Pedersen shared

Sevren recently announced a partnership with DCAI, giving it access to Gefion, Denmark’s sovereign AI supercomputer, including NVIDIA DGX B300 systems powered by Blackwell Ultra GPUs. The team was live on the infrastructure less than a week after signing the agreement. Now the first release of that work is happening.

Read the entire post here: Sevren Releases Embla, Its Most Efficient AI Model That Runs on a Phone

Most angels show you their winners. Here is what happened to every euro I have invested in startups. The chart below covers the 55 startups I backed before I moved to Andorra in 2024. It is only my own money, and the shares I still own are marked conservatively.

Yes, I know “conservative” is also the word founders put in their decks, right above the hockey stick. The difference is that my method is printed in Appendix B in my upcoming book.

So far, every €1 I invested has become €4.18. €2.95 of that is cash in the bank. The rest is still on paper. But only 17 cents of every euro went into the five companies that ended up carrying everything, and those 17 cents became €3.03. 74 cents went into companies that are still running, and so far they have turned it into €1.14, mostly on paper. The last 9 cents went into companies that died and returned almost nothing.

This is the power law. The best single investment in a portfolio often returns more than all the others combined.

It is also why you need a much larger portfolio than you think. If your portfolio follows the same shape as mine, roughly one in ten of your investments will become a carrier, the kind of exit that pays for everything else. In that simple model, five investments give you a 59 percent risk of catching zero carriers. Even with ten investments, the risk is still 35 percent. Invest in fifty, and it drops to half a percent.

Most new angels do the opposite. They find a founder they love and put most of their money into one or a few startups. That is financial suicide. So my advice is boring: build a big portfolio, slowly. You cannot know in advance which five will turn out to be the carriers. The only decision you control is to own enough different tickets, before any of them becomes obvious.

The usual counterargument is conviction: real investors only back the few companies they truly believe in. I disagree. Every company I have ever backed was going to be the next big thing, at least on the day I invested. In reality, that rarely happens.

Conviction is why you write the check. It is not a reason to write fewer of them.

Editors note: Nicolaj is about to release his book, “The Burden of Being Right“, which builds on his lessons from being an European business angel. We highlight insights from it here, and advise anyone who invests in startups or thinks about investing to buy it. Because it is really filled with insights. And an almost unbearable amount of hubris, based on facts.

Read the entire post here: Nicolaj Højer Nielsen: The Numbers on Real Returns from My Investments as a Business Angels

Read the entire post here: Upcoming Events for Startups, Investors, and Tech in the Region: November and December 2026

The acquisition brings together complementary technologies, expertise, and products across Twoday’s Nordic Digital Identity Management portfolio. Meo will sit alongside existing Twoday solutions such as Addo Sign, Signom, and Ciceron, expanding the company’s capabilities across digital signing, digital forms, identity verification, and compliance, making it easier for businesses to access the technologies they need through one software partner.

“The acquisition represents a fantastic opportunity for Meo. With Twoday behind us, we gain a whole new level of resources and a platform that can help us realise our ambitions. We will have the opportunity to further develop our solutions, reach new customers and, importantly, bring Meo to a much broader market. We are genuinely excited about what lies ahead,”

said Christian Visti, CEO of Meo.

Beyond the Legal Sector

While Meo has built its position in the Danish legal sector, where requirements for customer due diligence and anti-money laundering procedures are particularly important, the need for reliable KYC and AML solutions extends much further. Financial institutions, insurance and pension providers, accounting firms, and other regulated businesses face increasing demands when it comes to identifying customers, verifying identities, and documenting compliance.

“Meo is an excellent fit with our existing products for digital signing, digital forms and identity verification. We see significant potential in combining our solutions and expertise to create a stronger and more comprehensive platform for our customers. At the same time, we see a great opportunity to help Meo expand beyond its strong foothold in the legal sector and reach new customer segments. Growing demand for KYC and AML solutions is not limited to Denmark; it is also driven by increasing regulatory requirements at EU level. This creates exciting opportunities to bring Meo’s solutions to additional European markets,”

said Jesper Drustrup, COO of Twoday Products and responsible for Digital Identity Management.

By combining Meo’s specialised capabilities with Twoday’s existing portfolio, Twoday sees opportunities to support more industries and customer segments across the Nordic region and, over time, additional European markets.

“Joining Twoday is undoubtedly a massive strength for us, allowing Meo to accelerate our development and gain a back office we could only have dreamed of,”

said Christian Visti

The acquisition also marks a milestone in Twoday Products’ growth strategy, as the first step in a new product strategy with more acquisitions potentially to come.

“This acquisition marks the first step in our new product strategy, and hopefully the first of many to come. With CVC behind us, we have a strong long-term partner that shares our ambition to develop and grow Twoday Products through both organic growth and strategic acquisitions. We see great potential in Meo and look forward to supporting Christian Visti and his team in taking the business to the next level,”

said Christian Lanng Nielsen, CEO of Twoday Products.

Read the entire post here: Twoday Acquires Meo to Strengthen Its Digital Identity Portfolio

Watersprint develops and sells systems for water disinfection using UVC LED light, which knocks out bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms in water. The company was founded in 2013, has ten employees, and is led by CEO André Carlsson.

Impact Loop reports that the share issue, dated 10 November, values the company at roughly €20 million (around SEK 230 million), and dilutes existing owners by a bit over 15 percent. In March, the company raised just over € 2 million at a valuation of around €18 million, with the capital intended primarily to continue its international expansion and strengthen its presence in priority markets, including the US.

In total, Watersprint has raised around €21 million, according to Impact Loop’s database. In January 2025, the company bought the assets of the bankrupt Canadian company Acuva Technologies for around €2 million, establishing operations in Vancouver and rehiring several former Acuva employees.

The company recently also entered a collaboration with Hydrofors, becoming the supplier of UV disinfection to its emergency water tanks.

You can read more over at Impact Loop: https://impactloop.se/artikel/vattenbolaget-watersprint-fyller-pa-kassan-igen-tar-in-35-miljoner?cb=success

Read the entire post here: Watersprint Raises €3 Million in Its Second Round This Year

Instead of traditional charging posts, the technology is integrated directly into the curb. The chargers are built so that a car can reverse up onto them, offering a more space-efficient and discreet solution that blends into the urban environment while providing the same charging functionality. Leo Schneede of the city’s traffic unit notes that the chargers take up less space and give a more pleasant streetscape than traditional charging posts.

“We like being early. New charging technology only becomes real when someone dares to run it on an actual street, with real drivers and real weather, and that is the role we take here together with the City of Helsingborg.”

said August Mazetti, Business Development, LaddaTillsammans

Two 22 kW charging points are now in operation, and the interest has been noticeable, with lots of media attention.

The one-year pilot will now show whether the chargers can withstand the Swedish climate. The chargers, which are heated for the winter, face everything from heavy rainfall to snow clearance, road maintenance, and freezing temperatures. 

Read the entire post here: Swedens First Curb-Integrated EV Chargers Now Live with LaddaTillsammans

The list, which this year spans everything from AI and quantum computing to green chemistry and defence tech, includes two companies from Lund, one from Malmö, and one from Helsingborg.

Staer: The Veterans’ Third Startup

Malmö-based Staer is led by Jan Erik Solem, who has already built two companies sold to American tech giants. With his previous company Mapillary, which built crowdsourced maps and was later sold to Meta / Facebook, he was on the list as far back as 2016.

Staer uses cameras already installed on forklifts and robots moving through warehouses to build 3D maps updated in real time, answering questions about shelf utilisation, product location, and accident risks. The company, founded in 2025 and with 12 employees, has raised around €7.7 million (SEK 88 million), from investors including LDV Capital and Pale Blue Dot. In the long term, Solem sees uses in construction, agriculture, and healthcare.

Klang: Open Swedish AI Speech Recognition From Helsingborg

Helsingborg-based Klang has built an AI platform to transcribe, summarise, and evaluate conversations, with customers in the public sector, insurance, and law, industries with tough demands on data security and GDPR compliance.

Recently, the company released Pianissimo, an open AI model for Swedish speech recognition that can process over an hour of audio in a second. It is important that there is a Swedish AI model with open weights that anyone can download and use locally, says AI lead Mattias Fält. In September, Klang raised about €1.3 million (SEK 15 million), to expand abroad, and is already present in Japan, with launches planned in the Nordics, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

Saveggy: Edible Plastic Replacement From Lund

Lund-based Saveggy has developed an edible protection for fruit and vegetables, a micrometre-thin layer based only on rapeseed and oat oil, replacing the plastic around cucumbers. In autumn 2025, the technology was tested together with ICA and Odlarna.se: 167,000 cucumbers were sold with the protection in over 250 stores, with shelf life at least as good as plastic-wrapped cucumbers, according to ICA.

If all Swedish-grown cucumbers received the protection, up to 130 tonnes of plastic per year could be avoided, according to the company’s calculations. Saveggy, founded in 2019 with nine employees, has raised approximately €3.5 million (SEK 40 million), and is now developing the technology for bananas, zucchini, and paprika.

“I am very proud and happy to be part of Saveggy’s great team.”

said Ola Heffler, CEO Saveggy.

NFA Forestry Automation: AI for the Forest, Also From Lund

Lund’s second entry, NFA Forestry Automation, uses cameras and sensors on forest machines to build a picture of the forest around a harvester, helping the driver decide which trees to thin and which to keep, optimised for growth, carbon uptake, or biodiversity.

Third time on the list, the company has delivered to customers in Australia, New Zealand, and the Baltics, extended pilot tests in the US, and raised €4.2 million (SEK 48 million), from investors including Wallenberg Investments, Sveaskog, and Södra. The company estimates that helping drivers make the right timber decisions could save hundreds of millions per year in Swedish forestry alone.

Read the entire post here: Four Øresund Startups Make This Year’s 33-Listan

The scheme was designed to give startups liquidity for innovation by paying out the tax value of their research and development deficits, at a stage when they often spend heavily on development but have yet to win customers or revenue. But years ago, the Danish Tax Agency changed its practice for what counts as innovation, and since then Danish startups have lived with uncertainty and repayment claims. Software development is often not recognised as innovation, even though in practice it is, and cases are frequently assessed without the necessary technological insight, according to the campaign.

“We used the money on exactly what the scheme was supposed to support: development and growth. Now we face a demand to pay back millions,”

said Allan Mørch, founder and CEO of AskCody, one of the cases highlighted by the campaign.

The consequences are that hundreds of Danish software companies are stuck in limbo, investments are lost, hiring is paused, and people are fired, while long and costly audits drain startups and are met with repayment claims even when they have acted in good faith.

“Skattekreditordningen would contribute to innovation. In practice, it is now helping to undermine it,”

said Matias Møl Dalsgaard, co-founder and CEO of GoMore, another one of the cases highlighted by the campaign.

Broad Agreement, But No Action

The problem has been raised repeatedly by startups, auditors, and industry associations, and there is broad agreement across the ecosystem that the Tax Agency’s interpretation does not reflect the realities of modern software development. In the 2024 Entrepreneurship Package, Iværksætterpakken, it was politically decided to examine whether the rules for what counts as research and development are up to date.

“There is already a political agreement to review the rules. If Denmark is serious about its ambition to make it easier to start and scale innovative companies, fixing this should be a no-brainer,”

said campaign lead Alexander Tolstrup.

But more than two years later, there is still no solution, no clear answers, and no timeline. The working group expected to present its findings in 2025 has still not delivered. Meanwhile, the Tax Agency continues its audits and demands for repayment, and in several cases involving software development, the National Tax Tribunal, Landsskatteretten, has overturned the agency’s assessments, without it leading to changes in practice.

“The worst part is almost that even when companies win against the Danish Tax Agency, they may have lost several years of development along the way,”

said Esben Gadsbøll, chairman of Danske Tech Startups.

He points to the case of Eikonice, where Jørgen Bødkers lost many years of scaling the business. 

“We won the case. But we lost four years in which SKAT effectively made it impossible for us to develop our company,”

said Jørgen Bødker, CEO of Eikonice.

One Paragraph Is Enough

The campaign proposes what it calls a simple, cheap, and effective solution: a new paragraph in the law defining what counts as innovation for startups, based on the OECD’s Oslo Manual. That would let founders plan, investments flow, and R&D stay in Denmark, while giving the Tax Agency the tool it needs to assess cases fairly.

The campaign calls on policymakers to act now in three steps: set a clear and binding timeline for clarifying the rules, stop the accrual of interest and create more proportionality and better repayment options in ongoing cases where companies have acted in good faith, and create a legal basis that recognises genuine, innovative software development.

To succeed, the campaign calls on the startup community to stand together, sharing their own cases, or contacting campaign lead Alexander Tolstrup. 

You can find the campaign here: https://faadetnufikset.dk/

Read the entire post here: New Campaign Demands Denmark Fix the Tax Credit Scheme for Startups

Min Doktor was founded in Malmö in 2013 and was the first digital primary care provider in Sweden. But the pioneer has been overtaken by its Stockholm competitor: last year, Min Doktor had a turn over of €35 million, with a bottom-line profit of €1 million, while Kry had a turn-over of €218 million, although still at a loss. Min Doktor has raised a total of around €105 million in venture capital over the years.

“Min Doktor and Kry have each been driven by the desire to make good healthcare more accessible. It has become clear how well our visions of the healthcare of the future align, and together we have greater strength to realise them. By combining our competence, experience, technology, and infrastructure, we can continue to develop Swedish healthcare and make a difference for more patients,”

said Jonas Vig, CEO of Min Doktor.

From First Mover to Part of a Larger Whole

Min Doktor was the company that proved patients would see a doctor digitally, years before the pandemic made it mainstream. But being first did not translate into being biggest. Kry, founded in 2015, expanded aggressively from digital consultations into physical primary care, specialist care, and occupational health, becoming one of Europe’s largest healthcare providers, while Min Doktor remained the smaller, profitable player.

“We’ve spent years tackling many of the same challenges from different directions, with a shared belief that healthcare can be better and more accessible. Now we get to work on that together. I’m incredibly proud of the Min Doktor team and everything we’re building, from digital healthcare and primary care centers, to vaccination clinics across Sweden,”

said Jonas Vig

With the acquisition, Min Doktor becomes part of a Swedish network of more than 150 physical healthcare locations.

“Together, we’re building something much more powerful than a collection of clinics or a healthcare app: an integrated healthcare infrastructure that can deliver the right care, in the right place, at a lower cost,”

said Kry founder Johannes Schildt.

In connection with the transaction, Apotek Hjärtat and Kry have also signed a collaboration agreement, and Apotek Hjärtat will also join as shareholder of Kry, together with EQT, and Swedbank Robur.

“The new collaboration with a market-leading partner gives us the opportunity to build on our health offering and develop it with both existing and new solutions,”

said Monika Magnusson, CEO of Apotek Hjärtat.

Read the entire post here: Min Doktor Acquired by Kry as the Malmö Digital Healthcare Pioneer Sells to Its Stockholm Rival

The two companies have signed a binding agreement under which Telia acquires Telavox’s Nordic customer base, covering 24,000 company customers and 325,000 end users in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. The deal covers almost all of Telavox’s end customer market, with only small operations in the Benelux countries remaining. In total, 180 Telavox employees will change employers to Telia.

“We further strengthen our leading position in the Nordic business market by welcoming a new large customer base and a competent team to Telia, while increasing the pace of simplification of our operations. By bringing our services together in powerful, unified platforms, we can become more efficient, increase the pace of innovation and growth, and deliver even better communication solutions to our business customers throughout the Nordics,”

said Patrik Hofbauer, CEO at Telia

According to Telia, the acquired customer base generates 1.1 billion kronor, roughly €96 million, in annual revenue and approximately €26 million in EBITDA.

From Student Startup to Billion-Kronor Deal

Telavox was founded in the early 2000s by Viktor Karlsson and Fredrik Hedberg. Rapidus reports that during his military service at the Swedish Armed Forces radio agency, Fredrik came into contact with an early cloud-based phone switchboard, a technology that at the time only large organisations could afford. Together with Viktor, he dropped out of his studies in Lund and started Telavox.

In the 2010s, Telavox broadened its offering from a pure phone switchboard to a complete cloud-based communication platform, bringing mobile telephony, chat, video meetings, and contact centres together in one service. In 2024, the company turned over just over 1.5 billion kronor, approximately €130 million, with a loss of roughly €6 million. Revenue has declined since a peak in 2022.

“The partnership makes it possible for us to invest even more in AI, AI agent-based customer experiences, and self-service, while our services reach many more companies,”

said Viktor Karlsson.

Telavox will continue as an independent company, developing and selling the proprietary communication system that the end customers use. Telia, in turn, will buy a licence for the system and offer it to all its business customers.

Read the entire post here: Telia Buys Telavox’s Nordic Customer Base for €330 Million