Record year for acquisitions of Gothenburg tech companies

Tech companies with Gothenburg founders have never been hotter. Ten companies were acquired for a total value of up to SEK 40 billion (approximately USD 3.6 billion) in 2024 – figures without precedent.

Strong technology-based business ideas born in Gothenburg are often about improving, or revolutionizing, other companies’ operations, business-to-business. The services are not aimed at consumers, and the companies are therefore not as well known to the public.

But if the idea can be scaled up to customers worldwide, with large potential revenues, the interest from international investors can be great.

We have seen proof of exactly this during 2024.

The largest and most talked about deal was US Mastercard’s purchase of the world’s largest company in security intelligence and cybersecurity, Recorded Future, founded by Gothenburgers Christopher Ahlberg and Staffan Truvé, among others. Headquartered in Boston, the company has the largest armed forces in western countries and more than half of the Fortune 500 companies on its customer list. In total, it has nearly 2,000 customers in 75 countries.

Much of the development work takes place at the Gothenburg office, which employs 150 of the tech company’s approximately thousand employees. The founders’ ownership has been reduced in several investment rounds, as new investors have stepped in and the company has grown. The purchase price paid by Mastercard was a whopping USD 2.65 billion.

Foreign buyers

The next largest deal was Thomson Reuters’ purchase of software-as-a-service company Pagero from the Swedish Nasdaq First North list. After a bidding war early last year, the Canadian giant offered shareholders the equivalent of USD 800 million (SEK 8.1 billion) for the entire company. Among the big sellers was CEO Bengt Nilsson. Pagero connects buyers and sellers worldwide and offers an automated solution for exchanging invoices and other business documents digitally. Many of the more than 300 employees work in Gothenburg.

“These are really big acquisitions, which we are not used to in Gothenburg. Add to that a series of pure exits that have taken place this year, founders from Gothenburg who have sold – then the flow of money into new companies increases, which in turn can develop stronger. These deals are good for the entire region, says Andreas Göthberg, director of business development services at Business Region Göteborg, and responsible for developing the tech scene in Gothenburg.

“Recorded Future is an example of exactly that effect – an entrepreneurial journey built with money that Staffan and Christopher received when they sold Spotfire to American buyers, their first exit. The entire tech scene in Stockholm has been built in this way, with capital from the sales of companies such as Skype and Tradedoubler.”

The buyers of the other eight Gothenburg companies were also foreign, except in one case.

Three weeks after acquiring Recorded Futures, Mastercard announced that it was also acquiring Minna Technologies, founded by Jonas Karles, Joakim Sjöblom and Marcus Lönnberg. Minna’s platform helps users easily cancel, change or manage their subscriptions and has become an important tool for banks and financial players worldwide. Mastercard expects that the current 120 million users should be able to grow significantly and paid an estimated SEK 770 million for the company, according to Swedish tech news website Breakit.

Wide range of technology-based services

Norwegian Talentech acquired recruitment marketing service Jobtip for an amount in the same range. Dutch hotel platform Mews, which is backed by Kinnevik, recently bought AI company Atomize – a deal worth around SEK half a billion. Atomize helps Strawberry and other hotel chains optimize their pricing.

Accounting company Wint, energy saving company Metry and email server company Halon have also gained foreign owners in 2024 – investors from Norway, the UK and Finland, respectively. In addition, Avinode has been acquired by US-based Camp Systems, where the private jet rental marketplace has become part of a broader offering.

Stockholm-based Marathon Software also acquired Troman, which has built an app that has become popular among the country’s local politicians.

“It has never happened that so many tech companies from Gothenburg have been acquired in one year, for such a large total amount. Not all sums have been communicated, but our total estimate is close to SEK 40 billion. A record year, for sure,” says Andreas Göthberg.

Several of the companies – Minna, Avinode, Halon and Recorded Future – have strong connections to Chalmers University of Technology.

“Many of them are also strong in cybersecurity and manageability in large organizations. I think that is a strength we have in Gothenburg. International players have discovered that Gothenburg companies have good potential to scale. At the same time, the deals show a shortage we have when it comes to smart growth capital. We need more big investors operating in Gothenburg and getting more involved here and being able to be involved further into the growth journey. Hopefully we can see more of that type of capital here in the future,” says Andreas Göthberg.