Ignite Has Reached a New Milestone

“Reaching 5000 meetings is a huge milestone. It means that we have been able to support a lot of Swedish startups with customer opportunities. But what I am most proud of is that we have managed to reach this number and at the same time improved the outcome of the meetings for our startups. We have a follow-up rate between 45 and 50%. So we are doing more for more startups, with better quality, thanks to a devoted team and tons of engagement from the Swedish Incubators and Science Parks. Ignite is an ecosystem effort,” says Stina Lantz, Program Manager and VP of our lead organization SISP – Swedish Incubators & Science Parks.

The initiative surpassed 5000 tailored matchmaking meetings with the 43 meetings held during the third edition of the Sweden-Brazil Startup Matchday that took place last week.

“The fact that we reached this milestone during one of the seven international matchmaking events we hold this year is fantastic. These meetings open doors to concrete and long-term business between Swedish startups and international corporations, contributing to Sweden’s growth globally and, above all, to solving some of our global societal challenges,” says Sasan Shaba, COO and Director of International Cooperation.

Five Years Since the First Matchmaking

Last week also marked five years since our very first matchmaking event was held during Sveriges Innovationsriksdag in April 2017.

“The first matchmaking was a chaotic success. We brought startups and corporates from all over Sweden to Linköping and Norrköping, and tailored more than 200 meetings during two intense days,” recalls Stina.

She adds that some of the first Ignite success cases were actually born during these days. “We also learned a lot during these first matchmakings. It was clear that startups were more comfortable pitching in front of an investor rather than excelling in a customer meeting. We realized that we needed to develop their sales skills. Today, I think that all of us in the startup ecosystem are much better at preparing our startups to be customer ready. But it has been a journey.”

Ignite began as a pilot project led by the incubators Lead, Sting and Things with funding from Vinnova – Sweden’s innovation agency. Later on Uminova, Minc, Kista Science City and Sahlgrenska Science Park joined as co-founders. Today the initiative also has onboarded seven incubator and science park partners including Blekinge Business Incubator, Chalmers Ventures, Create Business Incubator, Dalarna Science Park, Ideon Innovation, Kalmar Science Park and Movexum, and it is funded by Vinnova and the Swedish Energy Agency.

Ignite Sweden in numbers

350+ startup collaborations initiated with both the public and the private sector
5041 tailored matchmaking meetings held
984 startups matched
255 corporations engaged
40 public organizations participated
14 incubators & science parks onboarded
74 matchmaking events held
10 countries
50% follow-up processes