Originally published in Svenska Dagbladet by Björn Jeffery, November 24, 2025
On LinkedIn, people are cheering about “Silicon Valhalla” — the new name for the Swedish tech miracle. But how is it really going? A new industry report reveals quite a few cracks in the facade.
Ask and you shall receive, as they say. The same could be said for the flood of reports that emerge from companies with an interest in telling a particular kind of story.
One such report arrived recently from venture capital firm Atomico, in which they review “The State of European Tech 2025.” And what a surprise — this firm that primarily invests in Europe concludes that things look good for Europe. But anyone who reads the report can also draw entirely different conclusions. Such as that Sweden and Europe as a whole are light-years behind the United States, despite constant cheerleading and new slogans.
We dive into the report’s 282 pages. Here we see, among other things, that Sweden ranks fourth in Europe in terms of the amount of venture capital invested during 2025. Well ahead of countries with considerably larger populations, such as Spain, Italy, or Poland. We have also grown compared to 2024. Things are going well, one might suggest.
A slightly more nuanced way to describe the situation would be that things are going extraordinarily well — for extraordinarily few.
In Sweden, five individual investments in 2025 account for more than 50 percent of all money invested during the year. 223 million dollars went to Lovable and 266 million dollars to Legora. Just those two AI companies account for around 20 percent of all venture capital in tech invested in Sweden during the year.
Looking at the neighbouring country to the east, the concentration is even greater. There, 80 percent of all investments went to just five companies. And more specifically: had Finland not had Oura, the maker of smart rings, the total amount of venture capital in 2025 would have fallen by 900 million dollars — in other words, almost everything.
One of the companies that has contributed to Sweden’s concentration of venture capital is the aforementioned Lovable. The founder of the hyped company, Anton Osika, is quoted in the report saying that “Europe has everything it needs to build companies that last for generations, with values in the trillions of dollars — and we have decided to prove it.”
If Europe has everything we need, it seems strange that Lovable’s parent company is registered in the US, in the state of Delaware. And that, according to Di Digital, it is in the process of establishing the company in both San Francisco and Boston. The purpose is to “get closer to large parts of its customer base” — which is therefore not located in Europe.
Wanting to look across the Atlantic is natural. But then you have to look at the numbers rather than what is written in the text. The opening paragraphs state that “Europe is perfectly positioned to lead — if we choose to do so,” and that the story of Europe is no longer about “catching up” with the US.
The fact that we are no longer talking about Europe catching up with the US has a different explanation, however. We are simply nowhere close to doing so.
One clear example concerns investments and venture capital in tech. In Europe, a total of 33 billion dollars was invested in the category during 2025, up to the end of September. The equivalent figure in the US stands at 177 billion. But what about the growth rate? The increase in Europe is 7 percent. In the US it is 95 percent. You do not need to be a statistician to see where the momentum in this market lies.
In Sweden there is often a predilection for singing our own praises when it comes to tech — the same phenomenon we previously had with music. Could it be a reaction against the overused law of Jante?
“The Swedish tech miracle” has recently been replaced by the phrase “Silicon Valhalla” — a new LinkedIn slogan for a kind of supporters’ club that wants to showcase the momentum they perceive in Nordic tech. Everyone from investors to those whose job it is to monitor and scrutinise the tech industry cheers every time new money is invested in our region.
The enthusiasm has even made its way into Sweden’s own digitalisation strategy, where civil affairs minister Erik Slottner (KD) writes that “Stockholm has the second most unicorn companies in the world, only Silicon Valley has more.” This is not true — however generously you count. Not in total, and not per capita.
A more sober view of reality would be fitting. Sure, there are Swedish tech companies that are doing well. But in practice we are talking about a handful of individual companies — whose customer base, potential acquirers, or venue for a future stock market listing are all most likely in the US.
Arguments that people abroad are talking about momentum for “Silicon Valhalla” carry limited weight. Venture capitalists have everything to gain from being perceived as positive, and absolutely nothing to gain from the opposite.
The fact that there is momentum for certain AI companies in 2025 is also hardly unique. Look at the US, Israel, or the UK, for instance, for larger successes. The EU can — and seems to want to — improve here.
But we do neither ourselves nor the Nordic tech world any favours by viewing everything that happens through a rose-tinted filter. If you are looking for support for a more humble view of Sweden and Europe’s achievements in tech, you do not need to look far. Start by reading the industry’s own report, for example.
