ArcticStartup

X5 Music Group Sets Its Sails For US As It Secures 7 Million Euro Funding From Northzone Venture

by Sardar Mohkim Khan - January 07, 2011 - Leave a Comment

Going nuclear with your business, especially when it is related to a geographic expansion is a justified move especially if you are recognized as a major regional player. A similar story comes from the Stockholm based European Music company; X5 Music Group which is branching itself into the US.

The Swedish music company announced that it secured a 7 Million Euro investment from Northzone Ventures. This isn’t Northzone Venture’s first investment in a music related firm, given that they had earlier made a major investment in Spotify, a prominent Scandinavian music startup. With the current investment by NZ, the venture group has given X5 Music the necessary investments to expand beyond Europe and into the US Markets. And if X5 Music is actually able to make this, it will become the first Swedish record label in over five decades to move into the US region. With that said, X5 will be readying to start work at its New York office in early 2011.

IK Investment Partners Acquires Swedish EPiServer Group

by Antti Vilpponen - November 10, 2010 - Leave a Comment

A Pan European private equity firm IK Investment Partners has agreed to acquire EPiServer Group shares from Amadeus Capital, Martin Bjäringer, Monterro Holdings, Northzone Ventures, Michael Runhem and families as well as employees. EPiServer is a growing Sweden based CMS provider with revenues in 2009 around 192M SEK (20,6M EUR). According to Swedish authorities, the company made 24M SEK (2,6M EUR) profit in 2009.

Northzone Announces The First Close Of € 90 Million Of A New Fund. So What?

by Ville Vesterinen - February 18, 2010 - 2 comments

Northzone Ventures announced the first close of € 90 million of a new fund, Northzone VI. Targeting € 150 million, the fund will invest in fast growing Euro tech companies. Prominent Nordic and International institutional investors participated in the first close.

This was not only significant because we certainly don't have too much venture capital in the Nordics, but also because this will mean that some of the better venture capital firms are bullish enough to look outside for new investments instead of just trying help navigate their current portfolio companies through the rough economy. I'm happy that the Finnish Industry Investment, whose Advisory Council I sit at, invested a total of € 7.5m in the new fund (consider this as my disclosure). This shows that the institutional players believe in the asset class despite the lack of an IPO market. I agree that I might read this news as a bigger positive sign than most, given how bad the European let alone Nordic venture capital situation is, but what it highlights is that the best startups will always find the money when they need it regardless of geography or economy. For the real pirates now is always the right time to start a company.

Spotify Aims For €230 Million Valuation

by Ville Vesterinen - July 08, 2009 - 7 comments

spotify We all love Spotify here at ArcticStartup and use it everyday to listen our favorite tracks. We also know that it was not cheap to begin with for the VCs to invest in Spotify even though it was (and still is) the early days, since the founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon had plenty of experience, capital of their own and know what they were doing. But if you thought it was expensive before, the Times Online reports that "Spotify is trying to drum up a valuation of close to £200m (roughly €230m) as it seeks new investment of between £20m (€23m) and £30m (€35m)."

Times Online further reports that If it Spotify achieves the valuation it aims for, the company will have almost trebled in value since it sold a £13m stake last autumn to Nordic investors Northzone Ventures and Creandum.

We are excited and for once, think the high valuation is for a very good reason. Just recently in an investor forum I heard a VC who had invested in Spotify proudly stating that Spotify is the next Skype, meaning that it will be the next big Internet service success story coming from the region. They certainly have the right direction and I don't think I have seen any company have the same potential since. Regardless of whether Spotify ever reaches a $2.6 billion exit (with current exchange rate some €1.87 billion), or exit at all for that matter, I, for one, would invest in a heart beat.

Imbera Ramping Up Production - NorthZone Led $15 Million Round

by Ville Vesterinen - April 15, 2009 - 3 comments

Chip-packaging company Imbera Electronics announced that it raised $15 million from NorthZone Ventures, Index Ventures and Conor Venture Partners. NorthZone led the round. Imbera is the developer of patented Integrated Module Board technology for 3-D semiconductor packaging

Previously Imbera had raised $2 million in a first institutional round and just under $1 million in seed money before that. chips

The newly raised money will go to kick start a new high-volume manufacturing operation in Sangsong-ri, South Korea, and to continue Imbera’s embedded technology evolution through its R&D activities located in Espoo, Finland.

According to VentureBeat Risto Touminen, Imbera’s chief technology officer, had worked on the technology as a student at the Helsinki University of Technology since 1999.

You can read more about Imbera’s chip packaging technology at VentureBeat here.

It’s good to see a Nordic VC’s Nordic VCs active, when the Venture Capital industry in Silicon Valley is coughing.

Casual Gaming House Playdo Raises $4.3M

by Antti Vilpponen - January 13, 2009 - 1 comment

Playdo AB, a Sweden based casual gaming house, has raised $4.3M financing round led by Miniclip Ltd. and Northzone Ventures in December 2008 (via). Playdo has been creating casual games since 1999 and has also entered the market for virtual worlds with Spineworld, a game released in April 2008. The financing was organised by GP Bullhound and will be used for development of Spineworld, as well as marketing and sales of the game.

Eventhough Spineworld is a relatively new game, it already has some one million registered users. It is distributed through Miniclip. Miniclip is one of the most famous casual gaming sites in the world and thus explains the success behind Playdo's games. The business model behind Spineworld is simple, users pay a €3.95/month membership fee which gives them access to quests, virtual goods, and other features in the game.

Spotify rumoured to have raised €15m round

by Ville Vesterinen - October 02, 2008 - 1 comment

TechCrunch UK just reported (here) that Spotify, a Swedish startup offering a lightweight software application enabling on demand streaming of music, is rumoured to have raised €15m round (massive €71.6m pre-money valuation) from a Scandinavian VC fund Northzone Ventures.

As TechCrunch UK commented "Northzone themselves have declined to comment, but Creandum, another of Sweden’s top VCs, is also understood to have taken part in the funding round."

ArcticStartup met Creandum at Seedcamp in London and a partner at Creandum told us that he is very excited about Spotify when we asked what are the most interesting Swedish startups at the moment. On the face of it this would support the rumor, even though we can't confirm it either.