What makes Stockholm a particularly interesting place for technology tourists, however, are start-ups that combine hardware, software and online services. Memoto has developed a brooch-sized camera to “log” one’s life (it takes two pictures per minute, to be flipped through on a smartphone and uploaded to the cloud). iZettle makes an add-on for smartphones that, together with an app, lets individuals accept credit-card payments. Tobii’s technology enables all sorts of devices to track people’s eye movements. Somewhat of a different beast, Zound Industries has launched several successful headset brands, including Urbanears and Molami.
Such hybrids point to one of the ecosystem’s strengths: these firms are something of a cross between Ericsson, the giant Swedish maker of telecoms gear, and IKEA, which was founded in Sweden, but is now based in the Netherlands. “Swedes want to build the best stuff possible,” explains Pär-Jörgen Pärson of Northzone Ventures, one of the two big VC firms in Sweden (the other being Creandum). “Add to that our tradition of design, and it is easy to understand why Swedish websites are both robust and easy to use.”
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