Bold beats easy.
Conviction beats comfort.
Deep tech doesn’t bend to hype cycles. It rewrites the rules. In this week’s newsletter, which includes our latest podcast episode with Industrifonden’s Mala Valroy, we dive into what it really takes to secure a term sheet in 2025, why “resilience” and “sustainability” are inseparable, and why the best founders are often just a little bit difficult.
Whether Daniel Ek and Sebastian Siemiatkowski are “difficult” leaders we’ll leave to others to decide. But they both show up in this week’s flow, alongside a €5M hydropower bet and a new IVA report on Sweden’s tech strengths and gaps.
Nordic Hardtech Partners 🤝
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- SISP (Swedish Incubators & Science Parks): The network for 60+ incubators and science parks in Sweden. Find yours here.
- The Yard: Gothenburg’s hub for co-working, community, and serious hardware. Explore their memberships.
Nordic Hardtech Podcast 🎧
This Week: Mala Valroy on deep tech, founders and future bets.
From stubbornness to breakthroughs — the case for difficult founders
"Outsized returns won’t come from yesterday’s technology"
Some investors chase hype, others chase comfort. Industrifonden is betting on founders who refuse to play nice and on technologies bold enough to bend the future, a perspective shared by Mala Valroy.