Towards the Sustainable Development Goals

Last week we held the last and biggest matchmaking of 2019 at Stockholm Business Region. Nothing less than 143 meetings took place during Ignite Global Goals, involving 77 startups with sustainable-related solutions and 18 corporates, public organizations and municipalities.

The established companies that took part in the event were ABB, Alfa Laval, AMB Industri Aktiebolag, Bombardier Transportation, E.ON, FLIR, Husqvarna Group, IBM, IKEA, Michelin, Scania, The Absolut Company and Trygg-Hansa.

– The selection of startups that Ignite Sweden has done for us fits into the areas we are interested in. The startups that I met did a very good job too, says Ganesh Chandramouli, Product Manager at Bombardier Transportation.

A total of 5 public organizations -HBV, Sveriges Allmännytta and the municipalities of Järfälla, Malmö and Uppsala- met startups during the event, a record for our project Ignite Public, that aims to increase collaborations between startups and the public sector.

– This is my first matchmaking and it’s been great! To be “matched” before the meeting means that the other part is definitely interested in meeting you, which simplifies the process a lot. Besides I have met other companies here today apart from the ones we were matched with and we got many leads so maybe there will be more meetings for us, which is a bonus!, tells Emma Möller, founder of Vkna. The company from Umeå met Malmö Stad at the event.

Apart from newcomers, there were many startups that have been part of Ignite Sweden for a few years. That is the case of Service Node’s CEO Johannes Nylund, who has been to 5 matchmakings previously and thinks that Ignite Global Goals has been the best so far.

– It feels like corporates have a better understanding of how they should speak with startups and what they should expect. I also think that the lessons we, startups, have learned at this events have helped us improve the way we communicate with big companies so that it’s easier for them to know what questions to ask and for us to assure that we get a meeting after this initial one so it can lead into a collaboration in the future, says Johannes.

Maria Lindström has participated in Ignite Sweden since the program started in 2017 and her startup SarvAI has entered a few collaborations with corporates that they have met at our events.

– We had three scheduled meetings for the event, but the best meeting I had today was in the corridor next to the coffee machine. That unexpected meeting will actually lead to a follow-up before Christmas. I like that response time! The coffee machine is not to underestimate, says Maria.