HOW A CITY WITH A POPULATION OF 200,000 HAS MADE A GLOBAL IMPACT ON THE WORLD S TECHNOLOGY SECTOR

Transcription

1 HOW A CITY WITH A POPULATION OF 200,000 HAS MADE A GLOBAL IMPACT ON THE WORLD S TECHNOLOGY SECTOR

2 01 INTRODUCTION Neil S W Murray Founding Editor of The Nordic Web When I was first approached to write this, I honestly wondered how a city with just 200,000 inhabitants would have enough history and potential for us to produce a report on it. However, the more I began to research Uppsala s story, the more I was blown away by how it has played a pivotal role in so many of Sweden s biggest tech successes. Not only that, but when we look deeper at the investment figures, interest and capital is beginning to really increase recently. This provides Uppsala not only with an incredible past, but a bright future as well. It was fascinating to dig deeper into the Uppsala story and it is my pleasure to present our findings in this report.

3 02 FOREWORD Jason Dainter Founder of Uppstart and BASE10 Most of those within Sweden, and many internationally already know of Uppsala, with its population of around 200,000, as a strong academic hub. However, many may not realise that an unusual and disproportionate number of founders that have later produced billion dollar unicorn companies valued at over 1 billion USD have grown up in, been educated in, or started their companies in Uppsala. As the fastest growing city in Sweden, and since Uppsala is transitioning from a smaller academic city to a larger global player. The findings in this report give a promising view of Uppsala s status as a technology startup hub within the coming decade.

4 03 PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN UPPSALA IS INCREASING 20+ $ 40M+ Investments between Invested between The rate of investment doubled in Nearly 1 in 3 investment rounds in 2016 contained an International investor 3 Investments with $ 10M+

5 04 UPPSALA HAS HAD A HAND IN MANY OF SWEDEN S BIGGEST TECH SUCCESSES Founder grew up in Uppsala Founder went to University in Uppsala Founder went to University in Uppsala Founder went to University in Uppsala Started in Uppsala Based in Uppsala Based in Uppsala Based in Uppsala

6 05The Number of Investments per Year THE NUMBER OF INVESTMENTS IN 2016 DOUBLED The number of investments in 2016 has accelerated, with as many investments last year as 2014 and 2015 combined Year: Year: 2015 Year: of the investments in 2016 were in Q4, meaning that 30% of the investments during the last three years have occurred in the last three months, demonstrating that the interest is increasing right now The Number of Investments by Round Size Undisclosed <0.5M 0.5-1M 1-3M 3-5M 5-10M 10-20M There s a strong early-stage pipeline, demonstrating a young, but promising ecosystem. Despite a gap in funding at $3-10 million, there has been 3 $10 million+ rounds, showing that Uppsala companies do have the ability to raise the larger later rounds.

7 06Investments per Vertical UPPSALA IS ATTRACTING THE INTEREST OF INTERNATIONAL INVESTORS Gaming EdTech Social and Communication IoT Energy BioTech Deep Tech Gaming, Edtech and Social and Communications are the most backed verticals in Uppsala. However, with seven different verticals attracting more than one investment, it s clear that the startups and talent in Uppsala is quite diverse. Investment Rounds with a minimum of 1 International Investor 80% 20% International Non-International 1 in 5 investment rounds included at least one International (outside of the Nordics) investor. In 2016, 1 in 3 investments had at least one International investor, demonstrating that International interest in Uppsala is still increasing.

8 07 CARL HOLMQUIST Co-founder and CEO of Freespee What role has Uppsala played in your success? I didn t even live in Uppsala when we started Freespee, but my co-founder did. The first hires, developers, all came through my co-founders network of highly skilled developers. As a result, Uppsala became the city for our office, and we never came to regret it. I moved here with my family almost immediately after we started Freespee and the pool of talented and loyal developers is incredible. We have built a rock star engineering team, now with developers also moving to our team in Uppsala from all over the world. We have no reason to build our engineering team anywhere else than Uppsala. It s an amazing town for building world class software. What are the advantages of being based in Uppsala? We can recruit senior developers, team members that have families, that find the life equation challenging in Stockholm, with commuting time, time to take the kids to activities...everything takes time, that takes no time in Uppsala. It s the startup city for mothers and fathers. What is the one thing that could be improved in the Uppsala tech scene? We could become better in making sure the students at the most prominent University in Sweden knows there is a startup scene in Uppsala. We have recruited team members who studied in Uppsala, went to Stockholm to work for izettle & Klarna as they were not aware of the startup scene in Uppsala.

9 08 SWEDEN S MOST ICONIC ENTREPRENEURS SPENT THEIR FORMATIVE YEARS IN UPPSALA Niklas Zennström Skype, Atomico I was very fortunate to spend my teenage years in Uppsala, as well as studying at the University of Uppsala. Studying Engineering Physics there gave me the platform to understand how transformative technology could be, it stimulated my curiosity. It was certainly during my years studying there that I decided I wanted to someday start a technology company. Niklas Adalberth Co-founder of Klarna I met my co-founder Sebastian in junior high school in Uppsala where I was born and without that meeting Klarna wouldn t exist today

10 09 PATRIC PALM CEO and Founder of Hansoft What role has Uppsala played in your success? My fellow co-founders and I come from here. Also, the cluster of game developers here have been very important for Hansoft and Favro. What are the advantages of being based in Uppsala? Firstly, Uppsala is a very efficient City to run a business in. Everything is in walking distance, still it is big enough to have a great talent pool. Secondly, the very close proximity to Arlanda, Sweden s main airport is amazing when doing international business. What is the one thing that could be improved in the Uppsala tech scene? Uppsala needs to better promote all of the world leading tech companies that are actually here. It is a much stronger tech hub than people understand in Sweden and abroad. Also, if there were faster, nicer trains 24/7 between Uppsala and Stockholm, Uppsala could be the nicest part for life and work in the Stockholm-Uppsala region.

11 10 CO-WORKING SPACES AND EVENTS Co-working Spaces: BASE10 Capsule Guerilla Office Drivhuset Plan4 Träkoja Uppsala Makerspace base10.se lifeatcapsule.com guerillaoffice.com/uppsala drivhuset.se/uppsala ihus.nu/plan4 trakoja.com uppsalamakerspace.se Events: Uppstart Startup Grind Uppsala Hackathon Uppsala Tech Meetup Uppsala.JS Startup Coffee Birdie Guerilla Office uppstart.com startupgrind.com/uppsala uppsalahackathon.com meetup.com/uppsala-tech-meetup meetup.com/uppsalajs meetup.com/startup-coffee-uppsala birdie.org guerillaoffice.com/uppsala Programmes / Support Networks: Connect Uppsala Uppsala Innovation Centre Uppsala Tech Community Drivhuset connectsverige.se uic.se uppsalatech.slack.com drivhuset.se/uppsala

12 11 UP AND COMING STARTUPS TO WATCH Favro is an online collaboration tool that adapts to how you work Moggie is a cat care system that improves cat ownership experience across the globe WeHype allows you to reach the gaming community through influencers SoftRobot helps people develop better habits through software that reacts to interaction and learns from experience Info Ping is a smart way to reach out with important information to groups of recipients, with push notifications and SMS Unibap is a supplier of world class, safety critical vision processing solutions and rapidly moving into intelligent visual perception solutions

13 12 WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR UPPSALA? Following the same growth projections, 2017 will see 20+ investments in Uppsala tech startups, as much as the three previous years combined. This growth will be supported by the launch of BASE10 and the increase in community activities such as Startup Grind and Uppstart. With an influx of pre-seed and seed investments over the last 12 months, we will begin to see seed and series A investments happening, providing Uppsala with a strong pipeline of promising companies. Uppsala will continue to attract the interest of International and non-swedish investors, as deals will become more competitive in Stockholm, leading investors to look elsewhere. Uppsala is perfectly positioned to take advantage of this. With a deep tech heritage, Uppsala will continue to be a shopping ground for bigger International companies to acquire strong technical talent The universities will continue to play a strong role in producing the next generation of exceptional Swedish entrepreneurs

14 13 WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR UPPSALA? Nataliya Stoyanovych Co-founder and CEO at Moggie Carl Holmquist Co-founder and CEO of Freespee Uppsala has been changing fast since we started Moggie here just 1 year ago. We ve seen a noticeable increase in community platforms such as events and co-working spaces, and this is helping to form a solid community around all the tech talent already based in the city. The future looks great. We need to understand what we are good at as a city. Where we have our roots. I believe it is in deep tech, in enabling technologies. ecommerce is for Stockholm, London, Paris. Enabling technology is developed in University cities like Uppsala, Cambridge, Boston. Patric Palm CEO and Founder of Hansoft The potential to be a world leading tech hub. if the Stockholm communications get better, the area close to the station gets exploited for business, and the ties to Knivsta as Uppsala s most important sleeper satellite improves then it can get there.

15 14 Uppsala Johan Rosén Strategic Advisor Enterprise Development, City of Uppsala as a city is going through some major changes. We re on the brink of becoming something more than a University centered hub for refining talent and educating the spearhead workforce of tomorrow. As a super fast growing part of the Stockholm business region we are stepping up and stepping in. Our connections with the innovative hotspots of the world is outstanding. Not only through the scientific research community but through local enterprises and startups as well. Our critical mass of entrepreneurs coming from the academia, turning research into products and services, is starting to have a real and massive impact. Right now Uppsala is the main supplier of critical tech talent to Stockholm. But there are plenty of them staying, cherishing their bonds to those building start-ups just 38 minutes away in the capital, and the same goes for those who left. This fuses the Stockholm-Uppsala tech communities into one merged tech metropole. In a world trying to figure out its way, we in Uppsala, as a tech City, see ourselves as a constant. A provider of knowledge, innovation and added value. In a world experiencing exponential technological advances we see ourselves as an adaptive force. A provider of smart solutions, multi talented people and breakthrough technologies. Our journey has just begun.

16 Photo: Francisco Anzola thenordicweb.com