They could be Tech Company of the Year at the 2022 Tech Awards
Innovators who challenge the status quo. Companies that see tech and digitization as a great way to help people, businesses and society reach their full potential.
The Tech Business of the Year Award is a special prize awarded by TechSverige to a responsible company that protects its employees and the environment, has positive growth and can demonstrate measurable results.
IDG and TechSverige are behind the Tech Awards Sweden. The prizes will be awarded at the Tech Awards gala in Stockholm on March 22 - and here are this year's finalists for the Tech Company of the Year award:
Aixia/CGIT
CGIT is a Gothenburg-based technology company that has taken on the big giants in AI. Through Aixia, a joint venture with AI company Asymptotic, CGIT has taken the first steps towards delivering AI as a service to Swedish industrial companies, and is one of the few companies in Europe that can deliver AI solutions from data centers, via MLOPS tools, to applied AI. The company develops tools and software that help companies and organizations realize, grow and accelerate AI projects.
Among other things, the company is part of a project in quality control for automation in the automotive industry and in a project in AI-based climate economic research. Being chosen as one of three strategic partners by Sweden's national center for applied AI, AI Sweden, is proof that the company is at the forefront.
Danads
Advertising sales on large websites - via self-service. Danads enables small advertisers to buy ad space on large, global websites by offering a complete system for everything from booking and publishing to invoicing. The basis of the offer is to democratize the advertising platforms and return advertising revenue to media houses and publishers from the tech giants.
Danads, which has its largest market in the United States, has become synonymous with the do-it-yourself trend in the advertising world and is dominant in its segment. Thanks to Danads, a larger share of the advertising market is opening up to small and medium-sized enterprises that would otherwise not have had the means to advertise with the large publishers and content platforms.
Doconomy
Doconomy is a Swedish impact-tech startup that has created methods to increase knowledge about our carbon habits and thereby reduce our climate impact. The company makes it easier for suppliers of consumer products to measure their carbon footprint and report it so that consumers can make informed decisions. The company was founded in 2018 with the business idea of showing the climate impact of different purchases - and empowering consumers to change habits and/or offset them.
In a short time, Doconomy has made a big impact and launched several award-winning innovations. A whole new category of products, becoming part of the solution to the climate crisis by providing consumers and manufacturers with tools to manage their environmental footprint and empowering everyone to contribute by measuring, understanding and engaging.
Freja Eid
Freja Eid is a free, government-approved mobile e-ID that does not require you to be a customer of a bank, which addresses socially important issues of digital exclusion and redundancy. Freja opens the door to the million Swedes who are outside the banks' e-ID structure and has built up a redundancy on its own where Bank-id otherwise risks becoming a serious "single point of failure" if the service were to be down.
Freja Eid can now be used as a physical ID on a mobile phone, to store and view CVIDs, and to log in to more than 300 online services. The solution is also the first mobile e-ID to be approved as a Swedish e-ID by Digg, the Swedish Agency for Digital Government. There are currently over half a million users.
Getswish
Launched in 2012 as a collaboration between Sweden's largest banks, Swish has since become Sweden's mobile payment service and one of the largest mobile payment solutions in Europe. An innovative company working through partners and growing rapidly with new applications. From having around 5 million users five years ago and being a service primarily for payments between private individuals to having almost 8 million users and 50% of payments to 200,000 connected companies by the end of 2021.
In 2021, a total of 770 million payments were made, including 340 million payments to businesses. During the pandemic, contactless payments became an additional competitive advantage, and in 2021 a physical demo store was opened with companies that had innovated on Swish APIs.
Kivra
The Kivra digital mailbox was originally launched in 2012, as a digital mailbox for government mail to replace physical letters. The rationale was that it saves taxpayers money, is good for the environment and increases accessibility. Initially, interest was low, but it has gradually increased, especially in the last two years. Today, Kivra is the largest player in the email market with over five million connected users and more and more services are being added. In particular, Kivra's CVs provided extreme leverage in 2021.
Tens of thousands of businesses and government agencies send mail with Kivra and new ones are connecting every week. In addition, more and more shops are joining to send digital receipts in Kivra, further reducing emissions. Kivra has moved from digitizing PDFs to developing services for everyone in the digital ecosystem.
Massive Entertainment
The Swedish gaming wonder at its best with extreme growth, creative products and global impact. Massive Entertainment is a Swedish game development company and studio in Malmö. The company was founded in Ronneby in 1997 by Martin Walfisz, but has been owned by the French company Ubisoft since 2008. Among other things, it has developed the computer games Tom Clancy's The Division in 2016 and Tom Clancy's The Division 2, which was released in 2019.
Between the launch of The Division 1 and The Division, Massive Entertainment doubled its staff from 350 to 700. The Division 1 grossed a staggering $3.3 billion in its first five days on the market and together The Division and The Division 2 have over 40 million players.
In 2021, the company announced that it had obtained the rights to make Star Wars games together with Lucasfilm Games and Disney.
Starstable
Starstable is an adventure game and community in a fantasy-inspired horse environment that has been around since 2010. The player gets to experience adventures and events on the island of Jorvik, but also take care of horses and chat with other players online. The game is aimed at a target group that historically has not had much of a place in the gaming industry before, young girls. A stated idea is to let the girls who play be at the center and actively listen to their feedback, needs and wishes in the development of the game.
The mottos "be brave be kind" and "kindness is a superpower" permeate the company. There is also an internal focus on women, which is unusual in the gaming industry: 53% of the workforce identify as women. The game has 1.5 million active players, is available in 180 countries and has been translated into 14 languages.
Tobii Technology
Tobii's mission is to make the world a better place with technology that understands human attention and intention. The company develops and sells world-leading eye-tracking and gaze-measuring products that read head and eye movements to provide in-depth insights about a person. At the core is its own patented cutting-edge technology. Applications exist for various purposes - such as assistive technology for the disabled, solutions for drivers, research, education and gaming.
Founded in 2001, Tobii has since its inception been praised and recognized for its groundbreaking technology and has been a global leader in driving the growth of the entire eye tracking industry. Now, the company is taking a new direction with an increased focus on commercial applications and a new organization. Over the past two years, Tobii has laid the groundwork to enable disruptive solutions based on its core technology. The "new" Tobii's growth journey has just begun.
Warpin Media
VR agency Warpin Media offers solutions in the growing field of immersive tech - virtual reality, augumented reality, mixed reality and most recently enterprise metaverse. Founded in 2016, the company has received increased attention in the past year for its early investment in these future areas. The company has several customers in AR and VR behind it and a strong team of technologists driving development forward from Sweden. A one stop shop for immersive tech offering strategy, content creation, technical solutions and distribution.
With its focus on B2B, Warpin is one of the companies in the genre that uses technology in a concrete way to create a measurable difference and benefit for its customers. The industry is in its infancy and Warpin is putting Sweden on the map.