The answer: Antler Stockholm's inaugural Demo Day held yesterday at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, or locally known as Musikaliska.
Investors came from far and wide to hear the 36 Antler entrepreneurs pitch the new businesses they've spent the last six months working on, enabled by the global Antler network, it's advisors, coaches, directors and more.
Last minute preparations were in place, live streams were set, journalists had arrived, pitches were perfected, and founders were ready...
Now, in case you've got this far, and you are still unsure of what a Demo Day is exactly, let's paint a picture for you.
Take a founder or co-founders, put them in front of an audience of investors and set the scene for them to pitch their company to said investors for funding.
These are short, intense three-minute pitches designed to pique the interest of corporates, angels, VC, or anyone else looking to invest in early-stage startups.
OK, back to Musikaliska. To kick off the event Antler Nordic Partners Anders Hammarbäck and Oscar Westergård, alongside Livia Moore, local Director of PR & Marketing welcomed all those who had come. Magnus Grimeland, founder and CEO of Antler global then took the stage. Discussing the importance of globalisation and the rapid change of technology in today's society, Magnus said:
Today, you can build truly global companies from anywhere, and I think that Stockholm is one of those places that have really proved that you can do that across many, many industries.
Per capita, there are 0,000001 unicorns in Sweden (based on the fact that there are six unicorn companies in the country and the population size). That may sound insignificant, but it's a feat second only to Silicon Valley, and with the help from Antler we can increase those numbers.
Up next, the 14 companies and their founders.
From Jessica Mansourati, founder of Bookself, a socially engaging, freemium reading app designed for Gen Z, to the AmiLab team, who have created a way to optimize conversion and click through rate by using machine learning on a global database of models, thereby enabling a system to build smartness, scale and diversity into communication. These entrepreneurs have leveraged Antler's unique model of being global from day one and helping entrepreneurs scale at an accelerated pace, to build truly incredible businesses.
After the event, investors and founders networked over drinks, and were able to resolve any unanswered questions. There was high spirits and an energised presence in the room. Investors appeared impressed with the high quality and scale of the businesses on show.
And what better way to wrap up such a day, than with an after party at Antler Stockholm's new office space located in WeWork.
Congratulations to all Antler entrepreneurs and portfolio companies who presented. Inspiring!
Now, scroll down to read more about the other 12 Antler Nordics portfolio companies:
Astrid Wild
Maria Paulsson Rönnbäck and Jemina Pomoell, the co-founders of Astrid Wild created a digitally native, direct-to-consumer outdoor fashion for women, by women.
SkyQraft
The co-founders of SkyQraft, Umar Chughtai, David Almroth and Sakina Turabali, have found a way to combine drones and machine learning to create safer and cheaper powerline inspections.
Shamba
Imagine if smallholder farmers were able to make data driven decisions that optimizes feed recipes for their livestock in Africa. That's what was pitched by Micheal Wallis-Brown, one of the co-founders of Shamba. His mission, along with the other co-founders Ray Garcia, Gytis Raciukaitis and Mikael Nyberg, is to become the largest poultry farmer in the world without owning any chickens.
Done
Done co-founders, Malin Granlund and Alek Åström, have created a mobile marketplace for home improvement, making it more convenient for the customers as well as the craftsmen.
Incito
The Incito co-founders are disrupting the insurance industry to change the way small businesses are insured - in a more digital, flexible and tailored way.
Pandeta
Pandeta co-founders, Sona Modi and Krupa Ramanathan, are powering location-based real estate decisions using machine learning and GIS techniques thanks to their business intelligence tool.
Grogro
The Grogro team are revolutionizing the baby food industry to make it more fresh, healthy and environmentally friendly. Did you know that sometimes, the food is older than the baby who eats it?
EqualityCheck
Co-founders, Marie Louise Sunde and Isabelle Ringnes, of EqualityCheck are making the future more equal and transparent by creating a platform for crowdsourced employee reviews about equality in their company.
Salesbeat
Salesbeat has created an AI powered marketplace that connects FMCG brands with high performing sales freelancers.
xNomad
xNomad is a marketplace platform connecting brands and e-commerce stores with short-term physical retail space in premium locations.
Spacept
Co-founders of Spacept, Eric Langenskiöld, Sergiu Iliev and Arshak Ulubabyan, have created a software platform using computer vision to process satellite images of infrastructure to enable safer, more efficient and sustainable maintenance.
