Standout News #14. Nordic tech, trends and deals

Standout News #14 - 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

As people take control over their health and tech players offer new products and services, we explore the trend in Healthcare as a Consumer Application

We are very pleased to have announced our first investment in Norway, as Neptune Software raised €7.5 million by partnering with Standout Capital

In Finland, we support another software company to grow internationally, announcing Standout Capital invests in Miradore, the Finnish Device Security Company

Tech deals in the Nordics

Notable recent Nordic tech deals in healthcare, fintech, IT infrastructure, software, retail, media, AI - and more delivery services. Healthcare heydays - Swedish online doctor KRYraised $66 million led by Index Ventures, ahead of launch in UK and France. Meanwhile, retail group ICA invests SEK 335 million in digital clinic MinDoktor, and adds their chain of physical clinics, Minutklinikerna. Malmö-based Joint Academy, that offers a digital program to treat osteoarthritis, raised $7 millionled by Alfvén & Didriksson. And not forgetting our animal friends, Creandum has led a €5.1 million round in FirstVet, veterinary services via video.

Paying for fintech - US online payment pioneer PayPal acquired Swedish retail payment company iZettle for $2.2 billion. Swedbank invested €3 million in Meniga, a software for white-label personalized digital banking. Zmarta, a personal finance and utilities marketplace, acquired InsPlanet, an online insurance broker listed on FirstNorth, for SEK 175 million. Meanwhile, Kinnevik led an $60 million investment round in banking app Monese, and Nasdaq has made an $190 cash offer to acquire Cinnober, a provider of exchange, clearing and trading technology.

Putting money in the clouds - EQT acquired hosting company Candidator and merged it with DGC to form a new group for managed IT services provider, and Candidator then acquired Alliero Services, an IT Partner. Danish VIA Equity invested in GleSYS, a hosting company for e-commerce offering IT infrastructure as a service, and also invested inAdvania, a Nordic IT operations company. Norwegian FSN Capital invested in Office-IT Partner, Zetup and Dicom to become the majority owner in a new group for IT infrastructure and cloud services. Axcel acquires mass hosting providers Loopia and Active 24 from Visma. TeleComputing acquired IT and cloud services companies LanTeam, 99X and Excanto to offer hybrid solutions. Orange bought managed service provider Basefarm to support its strategy in the enterprise sector.

Hard cash in software - Palette Software (financial process automation), acquired Swedish SaaS invoice automation specialist Centsoft. Sovos, a US-based tax software company, acquired Stockholm-based TrustWeaver, software for archiving electronic documents. Adelis invested in Danish Orderstyrning, an order management platform, and became the new majority owner in Hantverksdata, business systems for craftsmen and builders in the Nordics. Ubisecure, a Helsinki-based identity & access management platform, raised growth capital from UK-based Octopus Ventures. Navetti, Sweden-based price optimization solutions, was acquired by Vendavo (US). Oden Technologies, providing manufacturing data analytics, has closed $10 million in a round led by Atomico. Nordic Capital acquiredMacrobond, a provider of macroeconomic analytical solutions. Insight Venture Partners bought content management platform Episerver (started in Stockholm now based in California) for $1.1 billion. EQT Ventures invested €23.4 million in BIMobject, a global IT company digitising the construction industry. Procuritas acquired a majority stake in Netcontrol, systems for real-time monitoring of utility networks. Standout Capital invested €7.5 million in Norwegian Neptune Software, a low-code development platform for enterprise applications and also invested in Miradore, a Finnish device security platform.

Spending on retail and media - FSN Capital invested in global sneakers retailer Sneakersnstuff, and Babyshop raised SEK 165 million. Recruitment firm StepStone, an Axel Springer company, acquired Universum, the Swedish employer branding specialist, while Egmont-owned Nordisk Film invested in Star Stable (digital horses). And finally, Telia Company acquired Bonnier Broadcasting, including brands TV4, C More and Finnish MTV, from Bonnier AB for SEK 9.2 billion.

Artificial deals - Wallenberg-controlled investment company FAM has invested €11 millionin Peltarion, a software platform that lets companies use AI to improve their business. Blackwood Seven, a Copenhagen-based provider of real-time AI powered media planning software, announced securing an investment round of €16.8 million. And Verdane invests SEK 150 million in Inovia, a Swedish AI consulting and solutions provider.

New capital, delivered - Copenhagen-based food delivery service Simple Feast announced that it has raised $12 million funding led by Balderton. Kinnevik invested SEK 80 million for a 20% stake in Stockholm-based home delivery company Budbee.

Technology trends and research

Ericsson Mobility Report: Now 5.5 billion global mobile broadband subscriptions

The Nordic countries agree vision to be the most integrated 5G region in the world

Mary Meeker released har annual and legendary Internet Trends 2018 Report

Ride-share is hot. In the shadow of Uber, Lyft has now made 1 billion rides