Sweden’s innovation edge highlighted at the Embassy of Sweden in Helsinki during Slush

On 18 November, Sweden’s innovation community gathered in Helsinki for two back-to-back events during Slush week. The program began with a Pre-Event to the Join Sweden Tech Mingle @ Slush 2025, featuring a dynamic panel discussion on Sweden’s global innovation strengths. Immediately afterwards, guests transitioned into the mingle, a fully booked networking reception at the Residence of the Swedish Ambassador to Finland.

Hosted by the Embassy of Sweden in Helsinki, Business Sweden, and SISP, the evening brought together international founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders to explore Sweden’s growing influence in the global tech landscape.

Why Sweden stands out in the global innovation arena

Moderated by Stina Lantz, CEO of SISP, the panel consisting of Tanya Horowitz (Butterfly Ventures), Liam Hardey (Cellfion), Robin Eriksson (IndX & Linköping Science Park) and Olivia Jacobsson (Loveable)featured diverse perspectives from across the innovation ecosystem. Drawing on roles ranging from investor to deeptech founder to ecosystem builder, it explored what makes Sweden an attractive destination for talent, capital, and global scaleups.

A key theme throughout the discussion was Sweden’s strong collaborative culture. Robin Eriksson highlighted how IndX connects global startups with major industrial companies through fast, structured processes that accelerate innovation:

“By giving founders direct access to top-level decision-makers, IndX shortens the path from idea to real partnership or investment – and that openness, transparency, and cross-sector collaboration is exactly what defines the Swedish ecosystem.”

Sweden’s role models fuel ambition

Representing one of Sweden’s fastest-growing startups – Lovable – Olivia Jacobsson pointed to the importance of visible success stories and community support:

“There are so many role models in Sweden. It creates a buzz where people help each other and believe they can succeed.”

She also underscored the need for modernized equity incentive programs to remain competitive in global talent attraction.

Research excellence as a global launchpad

Liam Hardey traced Cellfion’s roots to more than a decade of Swedish research, noting that Sweden’s incubators, networks, and early investment environment were essential to the company’s rapid scaling:

“Sweden gave us exactly what we needed when moving from research into building a company.”

Hardey also reflected on the increasing need for late-stage deeptech funding, even as international interest – especially from Asia – continues to grow.

Europe’s deeptech strength meets U.S.-led scaling

Speaking about the differences between scaling in Europe and the U.S., she highlighted how Europe – and Sweden in particular – offers world-class deeptech expertise and a strong research foundation, while the U.S. remains a challenging but unmatched market for rapid commercial expansion. As she put it:

“Europe gives companies the research strength they need to build, while the U.S. offers the scale – once you’re truly ready for it.”

She stressed the importance of proving product–market fit at home before entering the American market, and pointed to the rising role of EU and EIB funding in supporting later-stage deeptech growth in Europe.

A full house for Global–Nordic collaboration

After the panel, guests moved into the fully booked Join Sweden Tech Mingle, where investors, founders, corporate leaders, and public-sector partners continued the discussions in a lively setting. The reception provided space to explore Sweden’s and the Nordics’ position as global tech hubs, exchange views on talent, capital, and scale-up readiness, and strengthen connections with markets in the U.S., Asia, and Europe

Across both the pre-event and the mingle, several priorities stood out: the need for more competitive incentive programs to attract international talent, stronger links between corporates, investors, and startups, and deeper Nordic cooperation to unlock shared strengths. Participants also emphasized the importance of continuing to showcase Sweden’s innovation capabilities globally.