Standout News #12 - Nordic Tech, Deals and Trends

Standout News #12 - The Newsletter from Standout Capital

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Standout News is a quarterly(ish) newsletter from Standout Capital about tech deals, trends and posts from our blog. New subscribers can subscribe to the newsletter here.

Latest from Standout

We visited one of the most vibrant tech scenes in the Nordics, and explored an ecosystem ranging from digital companies to Aqua Tech, in Nordic Tech Hot Spot: Trondheim

Standout was on location at Slush, the largest tech event in the Nordics, and we report from Helsinki, in Nothing Normal Ever Changed a Damn Thing - Hey Weirdos, Step In

Standout Capital's portfolio company Exsitec acquires business intelligence expert EGBS Consulting, based in Uppsala, to increase its offering and accelerate growth.

Tech deals in the Nordics

Deals in fintech, ecommerce, gaming & gambling, enterprise software and ad tech - and in emerging digital industries: retail tech, book tech, med tech, music and AI.

Fintech, banking on digital - SEB Venture invested SEK 10 million in Capacito, digital operational financing firm. SEB, Nordea, Nordnet, ABN Amro, Creades och Sunstone invest SEK 129 million in banking app Tink. Finland’s Sampo is buying 20% of online trader Saxo Bank for €265 million. Paydrive, the data-driven car insurer, got SEK 30 million from NFT Ventures and norwegian insurance giant Gjensidige. Nordic Capital acquired 70% of Mfex, the online fund marketplace platform.

Ecommerce, acquired growth - Bygghemma acquired white-goods online retailer Vitvaruexperten for SEK 35 million, while also buying WeGot, a home furnishing retailer. EQT-owned zoo chain Musti Group acquired animal food e-tailer Animail. Danish media house Egmont became the100% owner of kitchen goods online retailer Bagaren & Kocken. Online beauty products retailer Lyko is planning an IPO and Ahlsell, the Nordic installation materials distributor, will acquire Proffsmagasinet. Altor bought a minority stake in RevolutionRace, a direct-to-consumer online retailer of fancy leisure pants.

Gaming & gambling, new IPOs- Angry Birds maker Rovio listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. Word quiz company Mag Interactive (Ruzzle) acquired FEO Media (Quizkampen) and is planning an IPO. Global Gaming, the operator behind Ninja Casino, listedon Nasdaq Stockholm. Industrifonden led an $2.1 million investment in VR games studio Fast Travel Games.

Enterprise software, international deals- Oxx led a $12m USD round in Apica, a website performance testing software. Perforce Software (US) acquired Hansoft, enterprise planning tools. Vismaacquireddata room tool Admincontrol and also bought digital identification software Svensk e-identitet. Trintech (US) acquired Norway’s Adra, a SaaS for financial controls. Denmark’s GRO Capital and Kirk Kapital became majority owners of Tacton Systems, a Swedish product configuration tool. Litorina and Zobito acquired a majority of Sweden’s Digpro (geographic IT-systems).

Ad Tech, heavy traffic- Swedish online marketing data-automation SaaS Funnelr aised $10 million from Balderton Capital, Industrifonden and Zobito. Globally growing Catena (online traffic to gambling sites) announced a €4.6 million acquisition of a Japanese gambling affiliate. Tradedoubler acquired Metapic, a product platform connecting bloggers.

Retail Tech, a new experience - Zeta Display acquires LiveQube, a Norwegian company for music streaming in stores. Northzone leads $14.5 million investment in HappyOrNot, a Finnish company offering a “smiley” feedback system for retail stores. Vertiseit, a provider of digital signage in retail stores acquired DISE, a global platform for delivering video content. In a bold move, retail giant IKEA acquired TaskRabbit, an on-demand services platform company. TouchTech, a company offering interactive digital in-store solutions, listed on AktieTorget.

Book Tech, interesting reads- Storytel, the Swedish audiobook streaming company, is continuing its international journey with acquisitions in Turkey,Iceland,Bulgaria, while launching in Spain, India and Italy. Lix, a Danish startup, raised $5.4 million from Danish investors to create a “Spotify for textbooks”. Publit, the Swedish book publishing platform, gets SEK 18 million in new capital. Book publisher Natur & Kultur acquired Digilär, a producer of digital education material.

Med Tech, healthy capital- Natural Cycles gets $30 million for its EU-certified “digital contraception” led by EQT Ventures. E-health company Doctrin brings in SEK 23 million from healthcare group Capio and social investor Norrsken Foundation.

Music Tech, soundbites- EQT Mid Market invests for 40% in Epidemic sound, a “white-label” music producer, while Spotify acquires online music studio Soundtrap.

AI, smart money- EQT Ventures invests SEK 50 million in AI-powered e-health company Aifloo. Helsinki-based The Curious AI Company raised almost $4 million from Balderton. Sweden’s iZettle got €30 million from the European Investment Bank to explore AI for small businesses.

Technology trends and research

Wallenberg Foundation donated SEK 1.6 billion to AI and quantum research. Wow!

Atomico and Slush released their annual report State of European Tech 2017

A busy year analysed in the slide deck European FinTech Trends 2017

Deloitte presented their annual list of Sweden’s 50 fastest growing tech companies

Coindesk released their Q3 Bitcoin and Blockchain Industry Report

Jobs requiring AI skills, and other stats in the AI Index 2017 Report

Nordea’s customers in Sweden, Finland and Denmark can now use Apple Pay

Wishing you all joyful holidays! Standout contributes to Stadsmissionen.