How Sweden built one of Europe’s hottest startup ecosystems

瑞典是如何打造出欧洲最热门的创业生态系统之一的

Sweden is perhaps one of the world’s hottest tech hubs right now. It has long been home to Spotify and Klarna, but this latest wave of companies — from legal AI startup Legora to vibe-coding tool company Lovable — has left everyone wondering what’s going on in one of the world’s happiest countries. 瑞典目前或许是全球最热门的科技中心之一。长期以来，这里一直是 Spotify 和 Klarna 的大本营，但最近涌现的一批新公司——从法律 AI 初创公司 Legora 到“氛围编程”（vibe-coding）工具公司 Lovable——让所有人都好奇，这个世界上最幸福的国家到底发生了什么。

Sophia Bendz, a general partner at Cherry Ventures, stopped by Equity to break down the latest in Stockholm’s startup ecosystem. Her answer for why the country has produced so many buzzy startups: Being a founder is actually cool. When she worked at Spotify years ago, the cool thing was to become a banker or go into consulting. “Now, I think a lot of people optimize for creating stuff and optimizing for both sort of freedom and probably wealth.” Cherry Ventures 的普通合伙人 Sophia Bendz 做客 Equity 播客，剖析了斯德哥尔摩创业生态系统的最新动态。对于为何该国能涌现出如此多热门初创公司，她的回答是：成为一名创始人现在真的很酷。多年前她在 Spotify 工作时，最酷的事情是成为银行家或进入咨询行业。“现在，我认为很多人更倾向于创造事物，并追求某种程度上的自由和财富。”

This year, the startup ecosystem has raised $2.8 billion in funding, according to Dealroom, and is projected to hit at least $5 billion. Last year, the ecosystem raised $3.2 billion. Nothing has quite matched the $8.5 billion raised in 2021 — a reflection of the hot venture market that later cooled and is now, per the data, starting to heat back up again. Other big emerging names from the ecosystem include Neko Health and autonomous freight company Einride. 根据 Dealroom 的数据，今年该创业生态系统已筹集了 28 亿美元资金，预计全年将至少达到 50 亿美元。去年，该生态系统筹集了 32 亿美元。虽然目前还没有哪一年的融资额能赶上 2021 年的 85 亿美元——那反映了当时火热的风险投资市场，随后市场经历了降温，但根据数据，现在正开始重新升温。该生态系统中其他新兴的知名企业还包括 Neko Health 和自动驾驶货运公司 Einride。

Bendz said that the latest wave of startups in Stockholm is benefiting from the first generation of entrepreneurs, who are providing resources and mentorship to the latest generation — or, in some cases, becoming repeat founders themselves (Spotify founder Daniel Ek, for instance, is also the founder of Neko Health). Bendz 表示，斯德哥尔摩最新的一波初创公司正受益于第一代创业者，他们为新一代创业者提供了资源和指导，或者在某些情况下，他们自己成为了连续创业者（例如，Spotify 创始人 Daniel Ek 同时也是 Neko Health 的创始人）。

“I think we also see a lot of people now kind of leaving Lovable because they also see these opportunities for companies that can be built with that technology,” she said about how this generation could inspire the next. “People that have worked at Lovable and Legora seem to be very entrepreneurial-driven and keen to start their own companies.” “我认为我们现在也看到很多人离开 Lovable，因为他们看到了利用该技术构建新公司的机会，”她在谈到这一代人如何激励下一代时说道。“在 Lovable 和 Legora 工作过的人似乎非常有创业动力，并且渴望创办自己的公司。”

Unsurprisingly, American investors have taken note. Bendz said more and more American investors have been flying in to meet with founders and hand out term sheets. “It’s just a testament to that we have a lot of great building companies here,” she said. “It’s a sign that we’re doing something right.” 不出所料，美国投资者已经注意到了这一点。Bendz 说，越来越多的美国投资者飞往瑞典与创始人会面并提供投资意向书。“这证明了我们这里有很多伟大的初创公司，”她说。“这标志着我们正在做正确的事情。”