By Daniel Levi
It’s commonly known that Silicon Valley, San Francisco is the world’s tech capital. It almost feels like it’s spawning billionaire companies left and right. However, few people know that Stockholm is second only to Silicon Valley in terms of unicorns – startups valued at above $1 billion – per capita.
Although, Stockholm is known worldwide as the hometown of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish scientist and engineer famous for his invention of dynamite and an explosive device called a blasting cap. He was also the founder of the Nobel Prizes.
But Stockholm has been considered a Unicorn factory for the last 1-2 decades. A unicorn is a startup company valued at over $1 billion. According to data, Stockholm has the most unicorns per capita, with its relatively small population of fewer than one million people.
Stockholm is also the home of some of the world’s largest gaming startups. Just last month, Stockholm unveiled the world’s biggest gaming center. The casino industry is also big in Sweden, with casino sites and casino software developers starting their journey in Stockholm. If you are interested in iGaming and want to find legal sports betting app in Indiana, check out Unibet as a good starting.
This article will discuss some of the unicorns based in Stockholm and how these companies have blown up in valuation, shaping Stockholm into a Silicon Valley lite.
Stockholm Based Unicorns That we all know today
Stockholm is the source of many companies with humble starts that today have grown into giant unicorns with billions and billions in valuation. You are guaranteed to hear about many of these companies, and you are likely using at least one of them daily. Let’s list some of the biggest and most famous Stockholm sourced unicorns.
Candy Crush
This is unexpected, but the Stockholm-based company King is behind the prolific mobile game Candy Crush Saga. Candy Crush became popular as people started playing it on Facebook and their phones in 2012.
Candy Crush was one of the first games to figure out how to utilize the freemium model effectively. As a result, it became one of the first freemium applications to surpass $1 billion in revenue. In 2016, the company King was acquired by Activision Blizzard for a whopping $5.9 billion.
Skype
The voice-over IP service, Skype, was launched in 2003. The digital call service quickly gained traction from lots of users, and in only two years, eBay decided to make an acquisition of the company for a huge sum, $2.5 billion. Skype tried different things but was unsuccessful; eBay realized that they had overvalued the company.
They later sold the company to private investors for $1.4 billion less than they bought it. As years progressed, the company started focusing on video calls and expanding into new markets. It was later acquired again, this time by Microsoft, for a staggering $8.5 billion.
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Spotify
Today almost everyone knows about and even uses Spotify. The company was founded in 2006. The company started small and progressively began to launch its services abroad, and it quickly gained traction as people enjoyed the opportunity to stream music hassle-free.
The company received extensive funding, which up to date is $2.1 billion. The company went public in April of 2018, and the company was valued at $28.7 billion. The current valuation is $43.18 billion.
Concluding Remarks
One can conclude that Stockholm, Sweden certainly is the next Silicon Valley with its vast Unicorns and impressive tech companies. This is only a long list of billion-dollar companies based in Stockholm. Some honorable mentions are Klarna (payment provider), Mojang Studios (Minecraft video game), and Evolution Gaming (Casino gaming solution).
