Startup Tour

On Dec. 8 in Stockholm, Di Digital Startup Tour ended with a winner: medtech company Amra. The Startup Tour, which was held in October and November in five Swedish cities, gave 35 companies the chance to pitch their ideas to ultimately win SEK 1 million in advertising from Bonnier, among other prizes.

“It’s our search for the next Swedish unicorn,” says Jonas Leijonhuvud, reporter for Di Digital and co-host of the events. “We visited Umeå, Linköping, Göteborg, Malmö and Stockholm so that young startups could pitch their business ideas to a heavyweight jury of Sweden’s top venture capital firms. It’s a mix of Shark Tank and Idol – for the tech sector.”

Over a hundred companies applied and of the 35 who ended up pitching – seven in each locale – five made it to the final on Dec. 8 in Stockholm.

The aim of the initiative is to support Dagens industri’s goal to be the most important forum for the tech sector. The editorial journalism of digital.di.se, the popular podcast Digitalpodden along with the business daily newspaper Dagens industri are key elements in meeting the goal. “Just as important are our events, including the Startup Tour as a flagship and our open, user-generated database Nordic Tech List, which brings together founders, investors and companies within the Swedish startup scene.

The response to the Startup Tour has been fantastic, says Leijonhuvud, with over a thousand in total people coming to watch the pitches, which has even generated a lot of news and material for the Digitalpodden postcast. “We’ve gotten to know a lot of startup companies, venture capital companies and gotten closer to the tech world in Umeå, Linköping, Göteborg and Malmö,” he says. “In addition, we’ve managed to make a profit already in the first year thanks to our enthusiastic partners. We’ll be growing and plan to be bigger next year, with more events and an even bigger Startup Tour!”

You can see the event here (the video is in English).