Stockholm ICT innovation praised

Feted by the high-profile foreign press, Stockholm's ICT sector has been held up as a model of innovation.

In its September issue, the American magazine Wired wrote that Sweden has “the most digitally connected economy in the world”, and a global mindset when it comes to developing innovative tech start-ups.

Stockholm was listed alongside Berlin, Tel Aviv, Paris, London and Moscow as a hotbed for European start-ups.

With a relatively small market, most Swedish entrepreneurs by default have a global mindset when building up a business, the magazine pointed out.

A Wall Street Journal reporter recently met with a large number of Stockholm's ICT entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to talk about Stockholm as a tech hot spot.

The report, which was part of the newspaper’s Tech Europe tour, concluded that the Swedish capital has a very entrepreneur-friendly community and there's ”no shortage of ideas or engineering talent” in Stockholm.

Both publications highlighted companies like the music service Spotify, online video monetising service Videoplaza, video editing tool JayCut and audio distribution platform Sound Cloud.

Anna Nedeby Bar-Am, head of Stockholm Entrepreneur Center (Stockholms NyföretagarCentrum), said she would like to create an “Entrepreneur Palace” in the heart of Stockholm that would accommodate start-ups and provide a lending hand to small business owners.

“What if we could create a place that cultivates a sense of belonging and where everyone inspire and help each other?,” she said, and added that small business start-ups are crucial for the Swedish economy now multinational companies can no longer be relied to provide the bulk of the jobs.

 This article was published in collaboration between Stockholm Business Region and The Swedish Wire.