Dear friends,
Please find below our March newsletter, in its usual format. We’ve had unsettling world news these past couple of weeks. First and foremost our thoughts are with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people who face a terrible and unbelievable situation. Here are some organizations that you can support and donate to:
⬥ "Come Back Alive" is the largest military aid fund in Ukraine: Donation page, Official site
⬥ Monobank: Donate to the special account of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to raise funds for Ukraine's Army through Monobank.
⬥ Nova Ukraine: Provides humanitarian aid to vulnerable groups and individuals in Ukraine
⬥ United help Ukraine: Provides medical supplies to injured soldiers and supports widows.
⬥ Ukrainian Armed Forces
From our part, the Wellstreet team is helping through the support that we can provide to our portfolio companies that have any connection to disturbed areas. Our portfolio has also done what they can to help. Here are a few of their initiatives.
⬥ The crisis in Ukraine is close to heart for DanAds as they have over 100 employees there. They are taking steps to support them and other citizens. 💙💛
⬥ Talking about difficult times with children is not an easy task. Hyber has a partnership with Rädda Barn - Save the Children Sweden - and they shared an expert’s tips on dealing with this situation. 🚸
⬥ Skillbreak is offering a workshop for people to learn to produce pottery and help Ukraine at the same time. By booking the workshop "Dreja för Ukraine" with the ceramicist Marine Nuzzo, attendees will contribute to UNHCR's support. It is already fully booked, but you can read more about it here. 🙋
📰 Welcome to the Wellstreet Journal, our monthly update. The world is going through uneasy days, but we were glad to see how the news of the Wellstreet Fintech Fund I first close was well received in the industry! We hope you enjoy reading about it and further details that we share here. We also hope that you’re able to keep all your teams, friends, and loved ones safe wherever they are.
🔔 Earlier this month, we announced the first close of the Wellstreet Fintech Fund I! 💸 The goal is to come to a final close of 400M SEK to invest in early-stage fintech innovators. This new investment fund is led by executives from top Nordic banks and fintechs, including Avanza, Collector, Handelsbanken, Swedbank, Northmill, Resurs and Klarna. It seeks to invest and support B2B and infrastructure players driving efficiency throughout the ecosystem. The fund manager is Armando Coppola, who has a background from Avanza and Nordnet, among other relevant companies.
We look forward to bridging new fintechs and legacy banks with so much-needed conversations and supporting the path to successful businesses. Read more about the Fintech Fund announcement here and see news about its development further down.
🔔Last week, our partner Google for Startups started their Sales Academy with European companies, and we are pleased to see that so many of the startups partaking in this edition are under our wings. Well done to all our startups who got accepted - Texelio, Pixerymedia, Maintract and Esgaia! 📚
🔔 Three weeks of Business Bootcamp! That’s what the Shift initiative provides for the entrepreneurs who applied to their challenge. Education is also a great way to incentivize entrepreneurship, other than competition. Since they had so many applications this year, this bootcamp brings significant support to all startups, not only those who win the challenge. Big thanks to BLING Startup and Breakit for putting this whole initiative together. 🙌 The first session was a workshop conducted by our partner and fund manager, Jessica Rameau on how to put together a strong pitch deck. 🙏
🔔 Wellstreet completes six years! 🎉
A small investment company seeking to give hands-on support to investees - it’s what Mikael Wintzell and Sïmon Saneback had in mind when they started Wellstreet six years ago. Fast forward to today, and we can see quite a more extensive operation, but still with the same objective at heart. It feels incredibly satisfying to see such growth: two funds, a great reliable team, two offices, two great support programs, over 40 companies invested and a handful of exits.
🥂Cheers to many more years! 🎂
Portfolio News
🦿 Congratulations to the Anatomic Studios team for being nominated for “Creative Business” - Kreativa Näringar - by the Malmö Näringslivsgala. We couldn’t agree more!
⚠️ A company must pay attention to the world around them and be able to change marketing material in real-time. DanAds highlighted this example of an Applebee’s tone-deaf ad placement during CNN’s Ukrainian crisis cover.
🎧 Gamifiera’s latest customer is Skruvat and their CEO recounts their experience with such an efficient customer retention solution. Wilhelm Sporrong, Gamifiera's founder and CEO, also talks about the benefits of implementing gamification to sales strategy in the E-commerce Success podcast. And, since their latest round at the end of 2021, they’ve been implementing new features and growing the team. How creative are you when introducing new hires?!
🛥️ X Shore’s Eelex 8000 made it to the top10 of the 2021 reader’s choice awards of Power and Motoryacht magazine. That’s quite the feat, especially considering it was the only electric one to make it!
Welcome, Ola Laurin!
It’s a pleasure to welcome PayEx CEO Ola Laurin as a member of the Wellstreet Fintech Board! 🧐 Ola joins us not only as someone who has spent two decades in the big banking structure but also bringing expertise from the payments industry. In the context of our recently announced fintech fund, Ola’s point of view will mean a stronger and more diverse approach to analyze the industry and prioritize dealflow and partnerships. He says that “the big banks will be the major purchasers of smaller Fintech companies in the future, but also they will play the role of investors when these companies achieve growth.” Now he is sitting in the crossroads with the ability to participate in the conversation and link both sides.🔗
Read more about Ola and his contributions to the Fintech Board here on our website.
Portfolio News
🤝 Congratulations to Esgaia (the first investment we made through the Fintech Fund) on closing Genesis Investment Management as a new customer. NordISP had a short interview with our fund manager Armando Coppola and Rickard Nilsson, Director for Strategy & Growth for Esgaia, catching up on what this partnership means and how much the startup has grown in the last few months.
⬥ 2021 was a record year for female exits in Europe, according to Sifted. 💪
⬥ Among other aspects, Swedish impact companies are the ones that attract the most venture capital in Europe. That’s what the Sweden Tech Ecosystem, a joint initiative from Startup Sweden and Dealroom, disclosed in this report. 💚
⬥ Do you agree that fraud is the next big challenge that neobanks will face? 🤔
Help our companies grow their fantastic teams and get in touch if you know anyone who could be a great fit for any of these roles. 💻
⬥ Do you know anyone very good at linguistics and translations? Consider this Project Manager position at Textual focused on Translations/Quality Assurance.
⬥ Consider joining Winston, the office dog, and the Brink Commerce team, as several positions are open.
⬥ The lineup of new jobs at X Shore seems never-ending!
⬥ Ocast is looking for a Customer Success Manager.
⬥ Gamifiera is on the lookout for a Graphic Illustrator and a Full Stack Engineer.
⬥ ICIW also has many open positions. Check them out
We end this edition wishing our female readers an inspiring and encouraging International Women’s month. 👯♀️💃
Please reach out to us at contact@wellstreet.vc with your thoughts and comments, we’d love to hear from you and answer your questions about this or previous issues!
