The organizations behind
Sweden Startup Nation

The initiative is led by BLING, FUHS, the Swedish Higher Education Institutions' Innovation Office and SISP, which together represent over 100 Swedish research and innovation environments from across the country.

  • BLING is a network that supports entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups through free
    incubation, networking and capital. The goal is to democratize entrepreneurship and create a more inclusive business community.

  • Föreningen Universitetsholdingbolag i Sverige, FUHS, is an association in which the Swedish university holding companies are members. The association monitors the development of university holding companies in Sweden and internationally.

  • There are twelve innovation offices in the country, which are tasked by the Ministry of Education with, among other things, increasing the use of research.

  • SISP is the trade association for Sweden's incubators and science parks. Its members run regional innovation environments that support startups, scaleups and established players in developing innovations for a sustainable society.

  • "Sweden lacks an independent national organization that continuously collects and presents data on how we as a nation are performing in terms of startups and scaleups, something we see other countries doing successfully. To strengthen our competitiveness, we need to be more data-driven and by connecting data with insights from the innovation ecosystem, we can improve how we support startups and scaleups during their critical growth journeys."

    Lisa Ericsson
    CEO KTH Holding and representative
    for FUHS in the project

  • "BLING works to promote diversity and inclusion in the Swedish business community and innovation system. We look forward to contributing to this in Sweden Startup Nation. Collected data will give us better tools to highlight and support startups from underrepresented groups."


    Deqa Abukar
    Founder of BLING

  • "In Sweden, we have world-leading research in several areas and we top various rankings, for example when it comes to the number of qualitative patents. However, we could be even better at commercializing and starting more successful growth companies to get this research out into society in a scalable way, where it makes a real difference. By collecting data on the companies coming out of universities, we can better understand their challenges and gain insights that will increase the number of research-based startups that make it all the way from lab to scaleup."

    Niclas Nilsson
    Director of Innovation at LU Innovation at Lund University, Representative of the Swedish University Innovation Office

  • "Through Sweden Startup Nation , we are creating a unified platform to generate and disseminate knowledge about startups and scaleups from all over the country, as well as insights into what is required for these to have the best conditions to grow in Sweden. This will not only benefit the entrepreneurs, but also strengthen Sweden's position as a leading innovation nation. We also welcome other actors with similar goals to get in touch to explore collaboration opportunities and together create even greater impact."


    Ulrika Malmqvist
    Chairman of the Board of SISP and CEO
    of Movexum in Gävle

Steering group

Anders Nilsson
CEO, Ideon Science Park

Filip Almeida Tideman
Technical Project Manager/Product Manager, SISP

Sasan Shaba
VP Philanthropy & International Cooperation,
SISP

Deqa Abukar
Founder, BLING Startup/Capital

Lisa Ericsson
CEO KTH Holding

Stina Lantz
CEO, SISP

Ellinor Bokedal
Director Strategic Communications & Policy, SISP

Niclas Nilsson
Head of LU Innovation

The team

  • Lisa Ericsson

    CEO KTH Holding

    LinkedIn

  • Deqa Abukar

    Founder BLING Startup/Capital

    LinkedIn

  • Niclas Nilsson

    Head of LU Innovation,

    LinkedIn

  • Adnan Yousuf

    COO, BLING Startup/Capital

    LinkedIn

  • Viktoria Westerberg

    Project Manager, FUHS

    LinkedIn

  • Stina Lantz

    CEO, SISP

    LinkedIn

  • Sasan Shaba

    VP Philanthropy
    & International Cooperation, SISP

    LinkedIn

  • Ellinor Bokedal

    Director Strategic Communications & Policy, SISP

    LinkedIn

  • Filip Almeida Tideman

    Technical project manager/ product manager, SISP

    LinkedIn

  • Katarina Bennich

    Project Manager, SISP

    LinkedIn

  • Jonathan Ahlbom

    Technical Specialist, SISP

    LinkedIn