Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number of employees, annual revenue, scale of operations, etc. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing start-ups in the hopes that some of the companies they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. Start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are often from high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.
Niklas Zennström is a Swedish entrepreneur and technology investor. He is co-founder of the charity organization Zennström Philanthropies.
Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California which specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. As of 2022, the firm had approximately US$85 billion in assets under management.
Bertil Eric Hult is a Swedish billionaire, known for founding educational and language school company EF Education First in 1965, and for being the patron and namesake of Hult International Business School. In 1971, he moved from Sweden to Germany, and in 1977, he established EF's head office in Lucerne, Switzerland, where he now lives. He was the company's CEO until 2002, and chairman until 2008. Today, he is semi-retired. Two of his four sons work in the company; his oldest son, Philip Hult, is company chairman and his third son, Edward Hult, is CEO for North America. Under Bertil Hult's supervision, EF grew to a multi-billion dollar corporation with more than 40,000 employees in 53 countries.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski is a Swedish entrepreneur who is the co-founder and chief executive officer of fintech company Klarna.
Jean Case is an American businesswoman, author, and philanthropist who is chair of the board of National Geographic, CEO of Case Impact Network, and CEO of the Case Foundation. She is married to AOL co-founder Steve Case.
Katedralskolan is a public gymnasium in Uppsala, Sweden. The school was, according to tradition, established in 1246. It is the oldest educational institution in Uppsala, and one of the oldest in Sweden.
Kenneth Alan Howery is an American entrepreneur and diplomat. He is a co-founder of PayPal and Founders Fund. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden from 2019 to 2021 under President Donald Trump.
Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco. Highland has raised over $4 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 280 companies, with 47 IPOs and 134 acquisitions.
Habib Haddad is a serial entrepreneur and early stage investor. He is currently the president and managing director of the E14 Fund that invests in spin-offs from MIT. Prior to that Habib has spent his career in startups as a founder and early employee.
Atomico is a European Venture Capital firm headquartered in London, with offices in Paris, Berlin and Stockholm. Its founder and CEO is Niklas Zennström, a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Skype and Kazaa.
Klarna Bank AB, commonly referred to as Klarna, is a Swedish fintech company that provides online financial services. The company provides payment processing services for the e-commerce industry, managing store claims and customer payments. The company is a "buy now, pay later" service provider.
Yunus Social Business (YSB) is a non-profit organisation with an impact-investing arm, Yunus Funds, and a corporate social-innovation consulting arm, Yunus Corporate Innovation. Both business units are based on furthering the concept of social business.
Mouna Esmaeilzadeh is an Iranian medical doctor, neuroscientist, entrepreneur and TV personality. She has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stockholm Brain Institute at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. Her expertise and know-how has been covered on Swedish national television where she's invited to talk about science, technology, neuroscience and investments/entrepreneurship. The previous secretary of the Nobel Committee Alf Lindberg, said that Esmaeilzadeh is one of the leading authorities within the "future of health". She was awarded the "MENSA award of the Year" as well as the "Fact-based Optimist of the Year Award" which was handed out in partnership with Google by Warp Institute, amongst many other awards and recognitions.
John Filip Tysander is a Swedish businessman and entrepreneur who founded the watch brand Daniel Wellington in 2011.
Jack Abraham is an American businessperson, serial entrepreneur, investor, and the founding and managing partner of startup studio and investment fund Atomic.
Norrsken Foundation is a non-profit, non-religious and non-partisan foundation dedicated to helping entrepreneurs solve the world's greatest challenges, such as poverty, famine, mental health, pollution and climate change. It has raised several venture capital funds, manages an accelerator program for early-stage startups and operates co-working spaces in Stockholm, Sweden; Kigali, Rwanda and Barcelona, Spain. Norrsken was created by Niklas Adalberth, one of the founders of the fintech company Klarna.
Tomas Björkman is a Swedish financier, social entrepreneur and author. Björkman has worked in Stockholm and Geneva and is based in London.
The Wallenberg Foundations refers collectively to the 16 public and private foundations formed on the basis of donations from members of the Swedish Wallenberg family, or created with funds raised in honor of Wallenberg family members.
Gottsunda parish is a parish in Uppsala deanery and Uppsala archeaconry in Uppsala diocese. The parish is located in Uppsala municipality in Uppsala County.
