“Techarena isn’t my event – it’s Sweden’s.”

From a small cinema in Båstad with more people on stage than in the audience, to Strawberry Arena with over 10,000 participants. In just ten years, Omid Ekhlasi and the team behind Techarena have built Scandinavia's largest tech conference – but in his mind, the compass is still set on the same thing as on day one: creating real value for entrepreneurs.

"The inner compass is probably exactly the same now as it was then," says Omid when we meet ahead of the 2026 edition of Techarena. The question he always asks himself is: is this worth it for the companies? If the answer is no, we don't do it.

From research labs to a Nordic arena

The idea for Techarena was born when Omid was working in a corporate group specializing in commercializing research-based companies, long before the term "startup ecosystem" was an established concept.

We observed how incredibly challenging it was to establish research-based companies. They made progress and developed the technology, but it was very difficult to attract customers, secure capital, and recruit the right people.

The first event in Båstad in 2014 was, as he himself describes it, not a success. But some of the few participants got in touch afterwards and told him about investor contacts, new customers, and unexpected collaborations.

That was when we realized that the meeting place itself had power, even though it was small. Since then, we have consistently reinvested. We have spent around SEK 30 million on helping entrepreneurs with accommodation, travel, delegation trips, and exhibition space. That money could have been profit, but we chose to invest it in the companies.

For a long time, Techarena was a side project alongside other work. It wasn't until 2019 that Omid and the team took the formal step: they scrapped everything else commercially and focused fully on the arena.

"2019 was perhaps not the best year to decide on that, considering that 2020 turned out to be a COVID year," he says with a laugh. But that was when we felt: now we've found something that actually works – for startups, for partners, for investors.

“This is a matter of national importance”

In interviews, Omid has called Techarena a matter of national importance. When he elaborates on what he means, the picture becomes bigger than a single event.

Sweden is a small country. We are talented, yes, but we are not always as well known as we think we are. International investors often say, "Our startups don't look at Sweden as a market." So we need to create a showcase that is attractive enough, recurring enough, and big enough.

– Techarena will serve as a window to the world for Swedish and Nordic companies and a window to the Nordic region for international players.

His ambition is also for the arena to be perceived as communal, not as Techarenan's.

Our goal is for everyone—ecosystem actors, entrepreneurs, investors—to feel that this is our event. Then we will have succeeded.

Invisible value: thousands of meetings

The program is impressive: top international names, Swedish unicorn founders, ministers, and researchers all on the same stage. But if you ask Omid where the real value lies, the answer is clear.

– I believe that 90 percent of the value is created outside the program. The program is important for bringing people together around issues, but it is the meetings that change the conditions for companies.

Techarena facilitates thousands of pre-booked meetings between startups, investors, large companies, and international delegation participants.

– We had a company where one of the founders managed to attend 14 customer meetings during an event, and the other had over ten investor meetings. These are things that are not always visible in the program, but which really make a difference.

He also talks about international relations that are born in silence.

– Someone from Brazil meets someone from Spain, and a year later I receive an email saying that they have done business together. Being a catalyst for those relationships – that's the most important thing.

Sweden is innovative, but not immortal

Sweden is consistently ranked as one of the world's most innovative economies. But Omid sees clear signs of trouble ahead.

– One risk is that we develop a false sense of security. A few visible AI companies are doing very well, and we believe that this reflects the entire ecosystem. At the same time, cleantech, medtech, and other capital-intensive areas are facing major challenges.

He returns to the customer question several times.

– We need to become much better customers. We have strong large companies, but too many collaborations become one-off pilot projects that die out after a year or two. For industry-heavy companies, those that build facilities for 25 million, a first paying customer can be the difference between survival and extinction.

The issue of talent and migration is another crucial issue.

We talk about attracting top talent, but at the same time we make it difficult for international talents and entrepreneurs to stay. The fact that the Migration Agency decides what constitutes a "viable" company says a lot. Sweden really needs to rethink its approach here.

And then there is the fundamental question about the early years:

– We should make it easier for companies to survive their first three to five years. Taxes, employer contributions, administration; it's very difficult to scale companies here. Many of the most valuable entrepreneurs are precisely those who have been involved in companies such as Klarna, Spotify, or Truecaller. If we want more of them to start their own companies, we need to reduce the friction at the beginning.

New Nordics – towards a common capital region

The issue of capital has become an increasingly prominent theme, both for Techarena and for the Nordic region as a whole. Sweden has strong institutions and mature capital, while Estonia, for example, is often highlighted as fast-moving and policy-innovative.

In conjunction with this year's Techarena, Sweden Startup Nation its partners are organizing the side event "Capital Strategies for a New Nordic Innovation Region,"where investors, decision-makers, and ecosystem leaders will discuss how New Nordics can become a joint capital region for the next wave of Nordic scaleups.

For Omid, the idea is obvious:

– I really like thinking of the Nordic region as a market. When we talk to countries in the Middle East, they say: “Come here and you’ll have access to 500 million Arabic speakers.” They’re selling a region, not just a city or a country. If we can do something similar in the Nordic region, I think we can attract completely different types of capital flows.

He points to the potential of combining Swedish research strength with Nordic capital capacity and more markets.

– Many of our companies have made the difficult journey in the lab. They need capital and customers – not only in Sweden, but also in Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Estonia. If we can agree on how to implement new technology and use institutional capital, the chances for these companies in particular would increase dramatically.

A new generation of founders

Despite the challenges, Omid is clearly hopeful when he talks about the next generation of entrepreneurs.

– They are on a completely different level. They are faster, more aware of what is possible with technology, and have better basic skills in building companies. Many already know which investors they want to talk to before they start.

He describes a generation where it is natural to test, adjust, and sometimes give up to start over again.

You might have a 22-year-old who has already started and closed three companies and is now on their fourth. That wasn't as accepted in the past. Today, there is an understanding that learning from each attempt builds capacity, both in individuals and in the ecosystem.

What politics can do

When asked what he would like to see from the government, his answer is straightforward:

– Make it easier for startups to grow. International expertise, investment climate, all of that is important, but if you start by making it possible to hire, grow, and scale here at home, you've already won half the battle.

He calls for more systems that dare to take slightly greater risks, specifically for new companies.

– In Sweden, we build models that are designed to suit a wide range of people, often with low risk. But for startups in particular, we may need separate models where we accept a little more risk in exchange for the opportunity to create more large companies. In this context, these are fairly small investments with potentially enormous impact.

A moment and a direction

When asked what he is most proud of so far, he goes back to a moment during last year's Techarena.

It was when Al Gore took the stage and thousands of people were standing there. I looked out over the audience and saw Swedish companies, international companies, startups, investors, politicians—all in the same place. That's when I felt: we've actually built this together.

In ten years, he hopes that the answer to the same question will be even less about himself and even more about the platform and the people around it.

– In ten years, I hope we will have built something big enough to accommodate many leaders and that they will feel that this is their arena as much as ours.