From Ericsson to Automotive Giants

It all began with Ericsson, whose Lund-based mobile platform division was later acquired by Intel. When Intel closed its Lund office in 2016, a group of skilled engineers faced uncertainty. Instead of starting a consultancy, they approached Volvo Cars, which lead to the creation of a new R&D unit in Lund. Today, Volvo employs nearly 400 people in the city, focusing on software for electric and autonomous vehicles.

“We knew our expertise was in demand, and we weren’t particularly eager to start a consulting firm. So we took a meeting with Volvo and explained what we could do. It was quite unique because there was no company, no product – just 40 people with broad expertise,”

says Henrik Svensson, Site Manager at Volvo Cars in Lund, to Rapidus

A Magnet for Global Players

Lund’s talent pool and research ecosystem have drawn major players since then. Bosch now has almost 200 employees in Lund, developing autonomous driving and connected infotainment systems. Nvidia and Continental Automotive established offices at Ideon Science Park, focusing on car tech innovation. Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies (RVT) recently acquired Iternio, a Lund-based startup behind the route-planning tool A Better Route Planner, with plans to expand their team to 50+ in the next year.

“We’re not only expanding our existing trip-planning functions but also adding new areas of work. Today, we’re about 20 people in Lund, and in a year, we aim to be at least 50,”

says Bo Lincoln, who leads RVT’s Lund initiative, to Rapidus

A thriving ecosystem of startups and established companies is taking shape in the region, with a center in Lund. Startups and companies like Zenseact (Volvo’s self-driving software unit), Acconeer, Remotive Labs, Setrab, Terranet and Koenigsegg pushing boundaries in autonomous driving, electrification, and smart mobility.

The region has a world-class research, especially with Lund University. There is a strong tradition of collaboration between academia and industry.

“|A]ll the key ingredients for software-defined vehicles: proximity to groundbreaking research and a highly educated workforce; a strong tradition of entrepreneurship and collaboration between academia and industry; proximity to other high-tech companies, which creates synergies and attracts investment; and a high quality of life that makes it easy to attract and retain talent,”

says Florian Marcard, who leads Bosch R&D Lund in the article

Photo by News Oresund, CC-BY license

The post How Lund Became a Hotspot for Automotive Tech appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Based in Lund, Terranet delivers a patented software technology that enables intelligent machine-to-machine communication and streaming of data, for sending audio, image and data – regardless of any mobile network or other hot-spot dependent networks. Among other things, this technology can be used to distribute movies and music in areas that lack connectivity or to allow vehicles and machines to communicate with each other. The company’s clients include global microchip companies, mobile operators and multimedia distribution companies, as well as OEM suppliers in the automotive and manufacturing industries.

First North is Nasdaq’s European growth market, designed for small and growing companies. Using a less extensive rulebook than the main market, the First North market provides companies more room to focus on their business and development while still taking advantage of all the positive aspects of being a listed company.

Share capital value of SEK 211 million

TerraNet’s stock was traded for SEK 16.8, almost 29% above the subscription price of SEK 13. This subscription price gave the company a share capital value of SEK 211 million, which was heavily oversubscribed in May and provided the company with approximately SEK 100 million before issue costs.

The listing issue has been over SEK 300 million. Among the investors are already existing ones such Dan Olofsson (Danir AB), Qlik founder Måns Hultman and Knutsson Holdings AB.  There are also external investors, such as Ålandsbanken, which invests SEK 10 million through two funds, the industrialist Sverker Martin-Lööf and the author and criminologist Leif Persson.

According to the prospectus, before the trading, Terranet’s largest owner was Danir AB with 11.1% of the share capital and 11.2 percent of the votes, then Håkan Thysell with 5.4% of the capital, followed by Måns Hultman with 4.6%.

Pär-Olof Johannesson, CEO of TerraNet, is now looking forward to the future of the company even more:

“We are very happy and proud with the great interest that has been shown in TerraNet during the IPO and listing process, both from our existing and new shareholders. We believe that the listing will have a positive impact on our customer and partner relations. We will now focus on our growth strategy with continued technology development and market expansion to deliver value to our shareholders.”

The post Nasdaq welcomes TerraNet to First North Premier appeared first on Øresund Startups.