We look at the changing scene in Sweden and the Baltics.
Actually (to answer this briefly) – no it’s not. It is simply changing. And it is changing a LOT. What that means is – new areas of influence are coming up, and you would not see them coming. And recognised IT and industrial growth areas – are falling away. We are going to explain what is going UP – and where is going DOWN.
Surprisingly, going DOWN big time, are those companies close to Denmark and the Oresund Bridge, in Malmo and Lund. What we have found is – apart from some multinationals in the Ideon Industrial Park – those IT companies both in Copenhagen and Skane in Sweden, simply do not have the finance – OR the entrepreneurship to go outside the box, and develop their markets in ways that either make sense, or do anything at all. We have noticed a growing arrogance, and this makes it hard for incoming companies to achieve collaboration.
Staying the SAME – like the hardy perennial at the bottom of your garden – is the Stockholm area. Always positive. With hotel rooms averaging £200.00 per night, and the Trade Fair venues at Kista and South Stockholm always popular, deals particularly within public centre around the NOFI circle of Kommuns, always make sense and they are the driver for the rest of Sweden.
Now we get interesting. Under the radar, the GOTEBORG area is coming UP on the inside. With a host of very proactive start-ups financed and mentored by such organisations as Chalmers Ventures – and also the Hackathon run by Johannes Tveitan – this area offers an originality and acceptance that to succeed, things have to be different. And they are.
Charitable ventures such as AbbTruly, for example, are symptomatic of a new breed where business and community can develop together.
Sahlgrenska Hospital is more open than its bigger sister Karolinska just outside Stockholm. And flights into Gothenburg are a better gateway to he southern half of Sweden than the dreaded CPH gateway where trains in and out of Sweden are systemically late.
Also on the UP – are the start-ups in Estonia. It used to be Latvia that had the choice of VC Finance – but companies in Tallinn have shown that you don’t need finance, you just need a good idea and diligence. We see the birthplace of Skype continuing to be the driver of good new ideas – and also a base for offshore IT development. Far cheaper than its cousins in Finland just across the water.
