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We are blue da ba dee

26 Jan, 2012
New SSES flag outside the office
New SSES flag outside the HQ office

We are always happy to see our alumni busy and hard at work. The last couple of months have seemed more hectic and exciting than usual and we are proud to look back at a year where once again, our alumni companies appeared on various top lists, completed amazing financing rounds, and concluded successful IPOs.

Alumni highlights 2012 

SSES alumni on various top lists
In the September 2011 issue of Wired UK magazine Stockholm was listed, alongside, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Paris, London and Moscow, as the hottest startup capital in Europe. Even more exciting is that there were no less than four SSES alumni companies listed as the companies to watch: Stockholm, one of Europe's hottest startup capitals according to Wired

As usual, several of our alumni students also end up on Shortcut’s annual list of ”Uppstickare”: young entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and people who inspire others and make a difference. On the 2011 list we found SSES alumni Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud, Henrik Berggren, Readmill, David Pilbäck, Gnistra Städ and Shahan Lilja, Gruppi. Click here to see the whole list (in Swedish).

$200 million plus valuation of SSES alumni companies
Throughout the last 12 months, several SSES alumni companies have been successful in attracting venture capital. In December, e-commerce payments provider Klarna raised a huge, pre-IPO round of $155 million. The round was led by General Atlantic and Yuri Milner’s DST Global. Read more about it here.

In January this year, social sound sharing platform SoundCloud announced a new fundraising round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The amount was not released but has been estimated by several parties to be $50 million, valuing the company in excess of $200 million. Read more about it here.

Successful IPO and exit
In the middle of one of the darkest periods for stock markets, when most IPOs were postponed, SSES alumni company Brighter AB successfully launched their initial public offering. Read more about this medical technology company here. (article in Swedish)

At the same time, environmental technology company Rehact had their new share issue oversubscribed: Read more about it here. (article in Swedish)

In July last year, it was announced that online video editing company JayCut was acquired by Research in Motion (RIM), creators of BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook. Read more about it here.