Together, SSE Business Lab and the innovation support department of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, KTH Innovation, have a rich history of producing successful startups. SSE Business Lab’s portfolio includes companies like Budbee, Voi Technology and Klarna, while KTH Innovation can boast about companies like Airmee, Volumental and Renewcell. KTH Innovation and SSE Business Lab have collaborated for many years, and with this new joint Ideate initiative they take further steps to bring together students from KTH and the Stockholm School of Economics, to work together and form teams.

“These types of forums where people with diverse academic backgrounds can meet are incredibly important. We notice on a daily basis how significant it is for teams not to be too homogenous, so this new partnership has an enormous potential to further strengthen Sweden’s position internationally on the startup scene”, says Julia Delin, CEO at SSE Business Lab.

Lisa Ericsson, Head of KTH Innovation, agrees:
“We’ve seen many examples of successful teams founded by people from both of our universities, like Airmee for instance. In this initiative, we can give our students new tools to create exciting innovations together. Diverse teams are stronger and perform better and we look forward with anticipation to see what what the program will result in”, she says.

Ideate has previously attracted well known entrepreneurs like Fredrik Hjelm, Josefin Landgård, Elsa Bernadotte and Lisa Lindström, who have joined to help the participants in the program. This time is no exception, with the successful tech investor Jane Walerud, and the founder of Soundtrack Your Brand, Ola Sars, joining the program.

The program ends with the companies, which have been formed during the program, presenting their pitch in front of an expert jury who decide which team gets to win prizes from partners like Grosshandelssocieteten as part of Stockholms Borgerskap, Kekst CNC, PriceGain and Exparang.

Applications for the program are open until February 27, and the program starts on March 10. Are you a current student at the Stockholm School of Economics or KTH who is interested in participating? Apply here!

About the speakers in the program:

Jane Walerud
Jane is a serial entrepreneur and investor, who among other things was one of the first investors in Klarna, as early as 2005. Jane still invests today together with her family and focuses on deep tech for a more living planet. She has her academic background from Stanford University and is also an Honorary Doctorate at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Ola Sars
Ola is a Stockholm based serial entrepreneur, active within the music tech space. He is the founder, CEO and Chairman of Soundtrack Your Brand, the world’s fastest growing B2B music platform. His earlier experiences include founding Spotify Business and Beats Music, which was acquired by Apple and later turned into Apple Music. Ola Has been featured in publications like Rolling Stone, Billboard and Bloomberg, and was selected as Billboard International Power Player in 2021.

Ludvig Berling
Ludvig is a co-founder of Karma, one of Sweden’s fastest growing startups that works towards making restaurants more sustainable. Ludvig has a MSc. in Integrated Product Development from KTH, and has previously founded another startup before co-founding Karma. In 2018 he became a member of the Forbes 30 under 30 Europe list in the category Social Entrepreneurs.

About SSE Business Lab

SSE Business Lab is the startup incubator of the Stockholm School of Economics, open to all current and former students as well as faculty of SSE, that have founded a business. We provide support through one of our three programs: Ideate, Activate and Incubate. SSE Business Lab offers coaching, mentorship, workshops, and connections to a network of alumni and investors as well as first-class partners, such as Assessio, Scrive, Grosshandelssocieteten as part of Stockholms Borgerskap and PE Accounting.

About KTH Innovation

KTH Innovation supports students, researchers and employees at KTH who want to develop an idea or create impact from their research. In the open program, more than 350 teams per year get support within areas like business development, financing, recruitment, agreements and patents. KTH Innovation also runs several other programs giving opportunities to get mentorship, launching on the international market, or getting ready for incubation. KTH Innovation’s model for innovation support, the KTH Innovation Readiness Level Model, is used by hundreds of organizations around the world, including Vinnova and Imperial College.