Lund University has been operating its holding company since 1997. Twenty years later, there are still previous and current portfolio companies with no revenues. Accounts of every third company have exceeded more than SEK 500,000 (ca. € 52,000) as net income according to the latest financial statements. Only 10%  of previous and current portfolios have shown earnings. A set of portfolios have either been canceled or went bankrupt.

The culminating companies are dominated by companies that are still, wholly or partially, dependent on venture capital. There are still high-profile companies with good investment outcomes in the Öresund region, such as Fieldly, BoMill, BioInvent, SolVoltaics and Glo.

“Generally speaking, many of our projects are far from the market. They need a lot of venture capital. GLO is a clear example, as the company has received more than one SEK billion (ca. € 1,200 000) , most recently from Google, which means that it is on track. But they have no black figures yet, “says Lund University Innovation Director Linus Wiebe.

In recent years, LU Holding, though, managed to attract over SEK 50 million (ca. € 5200 000) on its investment activities, primarily by selling shares in portfolio companies, above all those that chose to go to the stock market at an early stage. Expectedly, there will be a double-digit amount for the acquisition of Mistbase by the British company ARM.

This is in comparison with the SEK 1.5  (ca. € 156 000) million that the future Malmö University’s new holding company shall get from the state, if the government’s proposal goes through.

“It will be a challenge to build up an investment business with such a small capital base. And it takes time, as well, says Linus Wiebe.

He points out, however, that there are also other points with a holding company, in particular, that the university can enter into joint ventures in various collaborative projects or pursue activities related to research and education in a corporate form.

Recently, the LU Holding became an important player in the eco-system of Skåne region. This year, it supported researches proposed by the university. The main goal of the university is not to make money, but to help the research-based companies that can contribute to the social development. LU Holding is a combination between academic work and business.

Researching is the base of LU Holding work, and the bulk of LU Holding investments exists in nano-tech, IT and medicine, i.e. scalable sectors that enabled the company to profit tenth of millions SEK in the recent years; such figures that Malmö University with its holding company dreams of.

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Neither party shared the details of transaction, but in April last year Mistbase took in 4 million SEK (400 000 euro) investment from Johan Qviberg Qiunary, Minc’s former CEO Marten Öbrink, Body Trace-founder Andy Ketskes and business angel Anders Berglund. Then the company was valued at 20 million SEK (2 million euro). According to DiDigital, the investment seems to have given a return of 6-8 times. Reportedly, the deal landed somewhere between 120 and 150 million SEK (12-15 million euro).

“I have no comment on the purchase price, but note that this is our best investment to date,” – shared to DiDigital Linus Wiebe, Director of Innovation at Lund University Holding AB, who until the deal owned about 10 percent of the company.

The deal means that ARM takes over the Mist Base technology and personnel. ARM has an ambition to create a design center in wireless communications in Lund. The team behind the Mistbase has around 15 employees, but will grow in the coming years.

“The deal makes it clear that Scania has a vision to become a world leader in the internet of things. In many deals, when acquired, technology and expertise and moved to California, for example, but in this case the expansion of team and technology continues on spot,” – said Linus Wiebe.

The purchase of the Mistbase is ARM’s second takeover in Skåne. In 2008 ARM acquired Logipard, a subsidiary of Anoto who worked with video technology. Since then ARM has built up a strong presence in the region and has about 100 employees in Lund.

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“We focus on a solution for a standard that will be in the middle or end of 2016 and which involves an expansion of the existing system 4G LTE.” says Michal Stala, CEO of Mistbase, to 8till5.

The idea is that Mistbase works as a connection between larger system.

“We aim at those who want to get into the IoT market, but don’t already have an communication solution, will be interested in ours and integrate it into their products” Michal continues

Mistbase was formally established in mid-summer by Michal Stala and Magnus Midholt. Michal Stala has a background in ST-Ericsson and Ericsson and Magnus Midholt has a background of Sony Mobile. Michal is also a Ph.D. student at the Faculty of Engineering in Electrical and Information Technology. He conducts research on future wireless communications and business idea based on his research on data communication in mobile 4G networks.

“It is a spin-off of my research that Magnus and I have discussed back and forth during the spring how to take it further.” says Michal

Their aim is to have a demonstratable product out in February or March next year, and then look further at commercialisation.

How large the investment was has not been disclosed.

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