Tillvaxtverket is the Swedish government agency responsible for promoting economic growth and entrepreneurship across Sweden's regions. The agency administers a range of programs supporting startups and SMEs, including grants for innovation projects, regional venture capital funds (through the Swedish regional co-investment funds), and programs focused on internationalization and digital transformation.
Tillvaxtverket also manages EU structural funds in Sweden, channeling significant European investment into regional innovation ecosystems. For startups, the agency is particularly relevant through its support of incubator networks, its coordination of the Swedish national innovation strategy, and its programs helping entrepreneurs in less urbanized regions access capital, mentorship, and market opportunities beyond Stockholm.
Stockholm, Sweden
Support Organization
/sweden/support-organization/tillvaxtverket-swedish-agency-for-economic-and-regional-growth
Government-backed investor and Sweden's most active seed fund with regional coverage. Almi Invest is an incubator based in Stockholm, Sweden. The programme supports early-stage ventures in Generalist, ICT, Life Sciences.
Founded 2016. Seed fund focused on overlooked founders and underserved markets. BackingMinds is an incubator based in Stockholm, Sweden. The programme supports early-stage ventures in Generalist, Consumer, Enterprise.
Brickanta is building an AI-native operating layer for early-stage commercial construction planning. The platform interprets drawings, code constraints, and cost data to automate bid analysis and estimation, reducing procurement risk and planning overhead for project owners and contractors.
Founded in 2003, Creandum is a top-tier Nordic early-stage VC based in Stockholm with offices in Berlin and San Francisco. The firm manages over EUR 1B and invests EUR 1-10M at seed and Series A in consumer internet, fintech, gaming, and SaaS. Creandum was the first institutional investor in Spotify and has also backed Klarna, Trade Republic, Depop, and Vivino. The team focuses on ambitious European founders building category-defining companies with global reach.
Creandum is a Nordic venture capital firm known for early bets in category-defining European tech companies. It led Better Stack's Series A financing in January 2024 and also has Bolt in its portfolio.
Daniel Ek is the co-founder and CEO of Spotify, the world's largest music streaming platform, which he launched in 2006 and took public on the NYSE in 2018. Outside Spotify, Ek is an active angel investor and a key figure in Stockholm's thriving tech ecosystem. Through his personal investments and Prima Materia, his private investment firm, Ek backs early-stage European startups across healthcare, AI, defense tech, and consumer technology. He invested EUR 100M into Prima Materia to support moonshot companies working on some of Europe's hardest problems. Ek has also backed several Nordic startups directly as an angel, and his presence in the ecosystem has helped attract global attention and talent to Sweden's startup scene. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful European tech founders of his generation.
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