Outlook 2013: Stockholm ICT creates global buzz

The rapid growth of the information and technology sector in Stockholm is creating a global buzz and attracting attention from international investors, according to Torbjörn Bengtsson, head of the ICT sector at Stockholm Business Region.

Stockholm-based ICT firms are receiving global interest in areas including small cell technology and mobile backhaul, big data services, mobile payments and the growing demand for consumer apps.

"There is a lot of global buzz about Stockholm due to the many great companies that are active here," Bengtsson said, identifying MySQL, Skype, DICE, Spotify, Mojang and King.com. 

Bengtsson pointed out that it's also becoming increasingly common to use Stockholm as a sales, marketing and support hub for companies' Northern European operations.

"We believe this trend will continue even stronger this year," he said.

The main threats that could derail the Stockholm ICT sector's performance include negative global economic events and housing shortages, Bengtsson said.

Final figures for 2012 are not in yet, but Bengtsson said Stockholm's ICT sector had a mixed year.

"Some areas did well, others not so," he said. "Most importantly, interest from non-Swedish venture capital firms in investing into Swedish tech companies is high."

There are several international events that Stockholm tech companies will have a presence at in an effort to meet potential investors and partners, such as Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, CES, LeWeb, Noah and SIME in Stockholm in November.