LinkedIn Top Startups 2023: The 10 Swedish companies on the rise

The past year has been challenging for companies across sectors, marked by continued inflation, layoffs and tightened capital. And with significant drops in venture capital funding, startups have not been immune.?

However, times of uncertainty can push companies to adapt and innovate — and lead to new opportunities for emerging industries.

Our third annual LinkedIn Top Startups list is a testament to that spirit of innovation, featuring 10 young Swedish companies that are growing fast and gaining attention. These are the startups that have trailblazed their way through recent economic and workplace challenges — and managed to stand out to investors and top talent along the way.

To compile the list, we looked at LinkedIn data across four pillars: employee growth; jobseeker interest; member engagement with the company and its employees; and how well these startups pulled talent from our flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list. (You can learn more about our methodology at the bottom of this article.)

This list is ultimately meant to be a resource for you. At each company, you’ll find actionable insights on the roles, skills and functions in demand. See a startup that sparks your interest? Connect with employees you may know at each company, or turn on job alerts to stay on top of future opportunities.?

Here are this year’s 10 Top Startups in Sweden — join the conversation using #LinkedInTopStartups.

Full-time headcount: 4,500 | Headquarters: Stockholm | Year founded: 2016 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Project Management, Manufacturing Operations | Most common job titles: Manufacturing Associate, Project Manager, Process Engineer | Largest job functions: Operations, Engineering, Quality Assurance | What they do: Northvolt is one of Europe’s leading battery developers and manufacturers, specialising in batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage solutions.

See jobs at Northvolt | See people you may know at Northvolt

Full-time headcount: 520 | Headquarters: Stockholm | Year founded: 2016 | Most common skills: Development Tools, Project Management, Business Management | Most common job titles: Software Engineer, Product Manager, Engineering Manager | Largest job functions: Engineering, Operations, Business Development | What they do: Einride operates in road freight logistics, specialising in electric and autonomous trucks.

See jobs at Einride | See people you may know at Einride

Full-time headcount: 170 | Headquarters: Stockholm | Year founded: 2020 | Most common skills: Project Management, Business Management, Leadership | Most common job titles: Project Manager, Executive Assistant | Largest job functions: Media and Communication, Program and Project Management, Human Resources | What they do: A steel manufacturer that produces energy sustainably by replacing coal with hydrogen. The company is planning to bring this alternative to consumers in 2025.

See jobs at H2 Green Steel | See people you may know at H2 Green Steel

Full-time headcount: 200 | Headquarters: Gothenburg | Year founded: 2018 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Aerospace Engineering, Manufacturing Operations | Most common job titles: Design Engineer, System Engineer | Largest job functions: Engineering, Operations, Information Technology | What they do: Heart Aerospace develops electric aircraft, with the ambition of creating an affordable and sustainable mode of short-haul transport. The company’s first plane, ES-30, is a hybrid electric, but is not yet ready for commercial flying, though Heart Aerospace has said that it expects the plane to go into service in 2028.

See jobs at Heart Aerospace | See people you may know at Heart Aerospace

Full-time headcount: 75 | Headquarters: Stockholm | Year founded: 2019 | Most common skills: Advertising, Digital Marketing, Social Media | Most common job titles: Outreach Manager, Social Media Manager, Marketing Associate | Largest job functions: Marketing, Customer Success and Support, Community and Social Services | What they do: Estrid is a subscription-based razor company that champions body positivity. Their focus is on creating sustainable, gender-neutral products.

See jobs at Estrid | See people you may know at Estrid

Full-time headcount: 65 | Headquarters: Stockholm | Year founded: 2016 | Most common skills: Development Tools, Leadership, Data Science | Most common job titles: Software Engineer, Business Development Manager, Business Development Specialist | Largest job functions: Engineering, Business Development, Marketing | What they do: Sana has built an AI-based platform for companies that allows employees to harness their firm’s information and knowledge in one central marketplace. The learning platform, available in more than 200 companies across various sectors, is designed to also act as a training and productivity accelerator.

See jobs at Sana | See people you may know at Sana

Full-time headcount: 85* | Headquarters: Stockholm | Year founded: 2016 | Most common skills: Project Management, Digital Literacy, Business Management | Most common job titles: Customer Experience Manager, Account Executive, Business Development Representative | Largest job functions: Sales, Customer Success and Support, Engineering | What they do: Worldfavor is an ESG platform that helps investors, supply chains and businesses achieve sustainability goals in their operations through data management.

See jobs at Worldfavor | See people you may know at Worldfavor

Full-time headcount: 100 | Headquarters: Stockholm | Year founded: 2021 | Most common skills: Leadership, Project Management, Digital Marketing | Most common job titles: Sales Expert, Product Manager | Largest job functions: Sales, Business Development, Engineering | What they do: Carla is an online e-commerce platform where customers can buy, sell or rent electric vehicles, with delivery within 72 hours.

See jobs at Carla | See people you may know at Carla

Full-time headcount: 80 | Headquarters: Stockholm | Year founded: 2018 | Most common skills: Development Tools, Web Development, Data Science | Most common job titles: Software Engineer, Insurance Specialist, Product Manager | Largest job functions: Engineering, Business Development, Customer Success and Support | What they do: Hedvig is a millennial-focused insurance company that aims to cut down the time it takes for customers to get their payout after making a claim. They’ve also just started running a pet insurance policy in Sweden.

See jobs at Hedvig | See people you may know at Hedvig

Full-time headcount: 125 | Headquarters: Stockholm | Year founded: 2018 | Most common skills: Digital Literacy, Data Science, Development Tools | Most common job titles: Customer Service Team Lead, Full Stack Engineer | Largest job functions: Engineering, Operations, Customer Success and Support | What they do: Anyfin is a fintech company that aims to improve consumers' personal finances and debt management by managing their credit and loans in one place.

See jobs at Anyfin | See people you may know at Anyfin

You can also check out the Top Startups in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands (Dutch & English), Singapore, Saudi Arabia (English & Arabic), Spain, Türkiye, the UAE (English & Arabic), the UK and the U.S.

Methodology

LinkedIn measures startups based on four pillars: employment growth, engagement, job interest and attraction of top talent. Employment growth is measured as percentage headcount increase over methodology time frame, which must be a minimum of 10%. Engagement looks at non-employee views and follows of the company’s LinkedIn page, as well as how many non-employees are viewing employees at that startup. Job interest counts rate at which people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid postings. Attraction of top talent measures how many employees the startup has recruited away from any global LinkedIn Top Company, as a percentage of the startup’s total workforce. Data is normalized across all eligible startups. The methodology time frame is July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023.?

To be eligible, companies must be fully independent, privately held, have 50 or more full-time employees, be 7 years old or younger and be headquartered in the country on whose list they appear. We exclude all staffing firms, think tanks, venture capital firms, law firms, management and IT consulting firms, nonprofits and philanthropy, accelerators and government-owned entities. Startups who have laid off 10% or more of their workforce based on corporate announcements or public, reliable sources between July 1, 2022 and the list launch, are not eligible. These decisions are made by the LinkedIn News team based on company statements and/or reputable news outlets.

About company insights

*Company insights were sourced from LinkedIn Talent Insights. Data reflects aggregated public member data from active LinkedIn profiles in the relevant country and includes full-time employee profiles associated with the company on LinkedIn. We exclude members who identify as part-time or contractors. Headcounts are provided by the companies directly, unless otherwise noted with an asterisk. Those headcounts are based on LinkedIn data. All insights reflect a 12-month time period looking back from July 2023. Skills data was derived from measuring the most frequent skills among a company’s employees. Most common job titles represent the occupations that are most common within each company. Largest job function measures the function area most prevalent within each company.?

Reported and proofread by: Ilan Goren

Methodology and insights by: LinkedIn's Economic Graph team

Special Projects Leads: Marina Valero, Michele Pierri, Juliette Faraut

Managing Editor: Lynn Chouman

Regional Lead: Julien Wettstein

International Executive Editor: Sandrine Chauvin

Honoree companies: 1. Northvolt | 2. Einride | 3. H2 Green Steel | 4. Heart Aerospace | 5. Estrid | 6. Sana | 7. Worldfavor | 8. Carla | 9. Hedvig | 10. Anyfin?|