Digital startups meet new customer demands during Corona

When the application period to the incubator SSE Business Lab started and applications began to pour in, it was apparent which type of companies had been able to to grow in spite of the Corona pandemic.

“We primarily see companies whose business is based on digital sales and a DTC model [direct-to-consumer], as well as companies who benefit from things becoming increasingly data-driven and digitized,” says Julia Delin, CEO at SSE Business Lab.

Sebastian Knutsson, chair of the SSE Business Lab Advisory Board and founder of King, agrees.

“A big societal shift presents big opportunities for those who are agile enough to take advantage of them. In the teams who start their journey with us now, we can without a doubt see a big potential to grow in markets where consumers and companies are quickly changing their behaviors”, he says.

An example of this among the newly admitted companies is Team Together, who enable people to donate money to the charity of their choice with no added cost, when shopping online. The platform benefits from consumers shopping online more and more since the start of the pandemic. Digmak meets new needs that have arisen during the pandemic. As more people can work for international companies and projects from home, or even another country, the number of international nomads has increased. Digimak’s service aims to help digital nomads deal with complex international tax issues.

Madden Analytics simplifies collaboration between brands and retailers with their data-driven SaaS platform [software-as-service]. This new company takes the founder Axel Jacobsson, back to his roots at SSE Business Lab, where he started his journey with his well-known and successful company Nividas Eyewear six years ago.

“This is the second time we are admitted to SSE Business Lab and I trust that this time will be just as valuable for the development of the company as last time. I particularly look forward to being part of the ambitious and inspiring community at the lab,” says Axel Jacobsson.

Madden Analytics is just one of multiple newly admitted companies to boast an impressive founding team. Among the other companies you will not just find experienced entrepreneurs, but also stress researchers and an engineer student from Harvard University. The teams who today start their journey in the Activate program have eight weeks ahead of them where they get help and support to go from idea to reality and enter their respective markets. The new Incubate companies on the other hand can look forward to up to 18 months in the incubator where companies like Klarna and Voi Technology got their start. Here they will grow and scale their businesses and expand internationally.

If you or a team member of yours is a student, alum or faculty member of the Stockholm School of Economics, you are also eligible to apply. More information is available on SSE Business Lab’s website, ssebl.com.

The following companies have been admitted:

Incubate:

OMIT: An interdisciplinary team of stress researchers, designers and engineers have collaborated to create the OMIT INSTRUMENT. The innovation is an analogue tool and platform for stress recovery, experienced individually in short sessions.

AWAN: A tech-driven and circular direct-to-consumer fashion brand creating a new generation of comfortable clothing for women. Versatile enough to be used anytime and anywhere.

LEANalyser: LEANalyser provides a self-service analytics tool compatible for big data. The tool is suited for any business in need of analyzing large quantities, and does not require any previous analytical expertise.

Team Together: Team Together enables e-commerce shoppers to, with their online purchases, donate to their charity of choice without paying extra.

Scrintal: Scrintal is an AI-powered cloud platform that helps researchers save time and improve their productivity when transcribing and analyzing interviews. It has been developed with the help of researchers to address their key needs.

Madden Analytics: Madden offers a B2B SaaS platform for shared data and analytics between consumer brands and retailers, helping to minimize overproduction, reduce missed sales from stock-outs and streamline brand-reseller collaboration.

Bemlo: Bemlo wants to improve working conditions and create industry transparency for doctors and nurses in healthcare staffing. They do this through an online platform that, similarly to Glassdoor, enables professionals to review their employers, read public procurements, salary statistics and receive job offers from the best staffing agencies.

Activate:

EBIE: EBIE replaces the need for deposits, an archaic system which creates exclusion for tenants and requires effort by landlords, with a more sophisticated way of satisfying the need for deposits. EBIE works as a middleman, offering the reassurance landlords want while giving tenants access to affordable housing without the need for a deposit.

Leconery: Leconery is an e-commerce and consultancy focusing on sustainable vegan leather products, such as shoes, bags, jackets, accessories and more. Their values are sustainability, cruelty-free, innovation and design.

QLVR: QLVR provides flexibility in the housing market through a PaaS-solution. Sign up to all housing queues in one place!

Digmak: Digmak aims to provide the basic tools for digital nomads in terms of taxation and to offer easier access to understanding the international regulations.

JOYNR: Joynr is a matchmaking platform which allows online gamers to find teammates based on individual preferences through a website and smartphone-based search engine.

For more information, please contact:

Andreas Johansson

Program Manager, SSE Business Lab
Email: andreas.johansson@hhs.se
Telefon: 072 306 33 44

About SSE Business Lab:

SSE Business Lab is the Startup Incubator of 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; Initiate, Activate and Incubate. In these program we offer coaching, mentorship, workshops and connections to networks of investors and partners, such as Manifest Stockholm, Assessio, Sigma Software and Scrive.