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Swedish start-ups booming: investor

A record number of investors flocked to the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship Start-Up Day and have indicated that Sweden will be a hub for new start-ups in the wake of Spotify and Skype’s global success.

Over 500 investors attended the event over the weekend, hoping to catch wind of the latest entrepreneurial ideas and tips for following the trend of Swedish success on the start-up market.

“Recently we’ve seen a number of international venture capitalists investing in start-ups that were founded by our alumni, for example SoundCloud, Klarna, Videoplaza and Tripbirds, said event planner Marie Sundström to daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).

“This has been a contributing factor as to why we’re seeing so many investors at this event,” she said.

Australian star investor and main attraction Frank Meehan of Horizons Ventures in London was also present, and spoke about Sweden’s strong future, as well as how the country’s past may have been an influencing factor.

”I’m always looking for a new product that goes against the usual flow. When everyone overseas was still using iTunes I came to Sweden where everyone was listening to Spotify,” he told DN.

“Then I understood that something was happening, and it’s these things that you want to see as an investor. We’re always searching for products that make life easier and more fun,” said Meehan to DN.

Meehan is no stranger to Swedish shores, having studied at the Karolinska University in Stockholm as an exchange student. He points to Ericsson, ABB and Volvo as stalwart Swedish institutions that have paved the way for the modern successes.

“This all comes, perhaps from the Viking age when Swedes were out conquering the world. Daniel Ek and Niklas Zennström where never after a quick sale, they wanted to build something big,” he said.

With this in mind, and with the boom in social media interaction and game playing, Meehan points to Sweden as the hotspot in terms of the next start-up explosion.

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BUSINESS

Spotify reports strong growth in users as it announces price rise

Spotify on Tuesday reported a bigger-than-expected rise in active users at the end of the second quarter, a day after the music streaming giant announced price increases for its premium service.

Spotify reports strong growth in users as it announces price rise

The Swedish company, which is listed on the New York stock exchange, said it’s total active users rose 27 percent to 551 million year-on-year, or 21 million more than it expected. The number of paying subscribers also rose, with a 17 percent jump to 220 million — three million more than expected.

On Monday, the company announced it was raising its prices for premium subscribers “across a number of markets around the world,” following in the footsteps of similar moves by competing music services from Apple and Amazon.

Despite the boost in users, Spotify reported a bigger operating loss of 247 million euros ($273 million) in the second quarter, compared to a loss of 194 million euros for the same period a year earlier.

The company said it was “primarily impacted by charges related to our actions to streamline operations and reduce costs.”

In early June, Spotify announced it would be cutting some 200 positions working with podcasts.

That move came after a January announcement that Spotify was cutting around 600 jobs — equalling about six percent of its workforce — following similar moves by other tech industry giants.

Spotify has invested heavily since its launch to fuel growth with expansions into new markets and, in later years, exclusive content such as
podcasts. It has invested over a billion dollars into podcasts alone.

In 2017, the company had around 3,000 staff members, more than tripling the figure to around 9,800 at the end on 2022.

The company has never posted a full-year net profit and only occasionally quarterly profits despite its success in the online music market.

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