Today is the first day of SSE Business Lab’s eight-week program Activate, where the seven admitted teams will take their business ideas from just that, idea, to reality. Among these seven ideas you’ll find everything from carbon neutral, hydroponic cultivation containers to digital tools which will help e-commerce actors to ship less air in their packages. In other words, there is no common trend, but rather a wide array of differences, with regards to the business idea. There is however, a common trend when it comes to the teams, as six out of seven of them (85%), have both male and female co-founders.

“Allbright’s newly released report about diversity within the tech industry highlighted the enormous structural issues within this sector. We are even more convinced that our work within diversity, that we are now starting to see the results of, is of significant importance,” says Julia Delin, CEO at SSE Business Lab.

Sebastian Knutsson, founder of King and chair of SSE Business Lab’s Advisory Board, agrees:

“The team is very important when deciding who is admitted or not. Our view is that a diverse team, able to incorporate more and wider perspectives, has a larger potential to find success with their business idea. As such, it’s no coincidence that diversity is such a distinct trend among these teams, and we are thrilled to be able to continue to attract teams with high potential, he says.

And it is not just the teams – the business ideas are also influenced by diversity and inclusion. It is most apparent with Kollectiv, whose cloud kitchens will contribute to a higher degree of social inclusion for immigrants by letting women from different cultures cook authentic, nutritious and sustainably packaged meals. Digibility is also focused on inclusion and their digital tool for assessing the abilities of students in school aims to better adapt the education to every student’s unique needs.

An intense period now lies ahead for these teams, as they are going from idea to reality, and entering the market. It all culminates in SSE Business Lab’s Demo Day on August 20, where the teams get the opportunity to pitch in front of an audience of invited investors. The hope is of course to follow the same journey as other success cases who started out at SSE Business Lab, like Voi and Klarna.

The next deadline to apply for the program is August 17, and you can apply if someone in the team is a student, alumnus or an employee affiliated with the Stockholm School of Economics. For more information, visit SSE Business Lab’s website.

The following companies have been admitted:

Linkely: Their promise is a safe way to be free every day. Their solution is a locally focused platform where freelancers and companies connect and build a long-lasting network. They enable higher job security for freelancers and flexible talent acquisition for companies. Because they want everyone to be free to realize their dreams and seize their unique competence and creativity, without risking their security.

Kollectiv: A tech-based platform delivering healthy and balanced meals daily, to the threshold of Stockholm’s busiest people. They run networked cloud kitchens that host women from various cultures who recreate indigenous dishes which are sustainably packed as complete meals delivered through their integrated logistics solution. With a promise to take people around the world in 80 dishes, they celebrate the diversity of Stockholm.

Digibility: Many students’ learning needs are overlooked in school today. Approximately 20% of children exit elementary school in Sweden with incomplete grades. Schools and teachers are limited by constrained schedules and scarce resources. Digibility is a digital platform that will simplify and automate the assessment process of learning abilities. We want to empower teachers and students with the right tools, so that education can be adapted to the student’s needs.

Urban Culture: A company which develops hydroponic cultivation containers that are carbon neutral, independent of climate and can supply crops in a closed system. Their AI automatically develops with their crops, and the number of users, to optimize growth conditions. It also enables flexible management of the variables that affect the efficiency of the cultivation.

Skrym: A logtech startup committed to eliminating all that unnecessary air in packages being sent across the world. Based on the latest mathematical research, they develop optimization systems for online retailers, which lower both their emissions and shipping costs. By partnering with environmental research institutes, they are also working on automating the assessment of the packaging's life-cycle and climate footprint - making it easy for every online retailer to be transparent about their emissions.

Lassie: Today's customers are used to everything being digital and instant, but the insurance industry is far behind. Lassie wants to change this by offering digital on-demand animal insurance that works with your animal's health every day instead of just when the injury occurs.

Lively: Lively is a digital platform that lets musicians find gigs and consumers find the perfect live music for their special occasions. With Lively, consumers can request specific songs and genres, and efficiently compare music acts while creating equal and secure working conditions for musicians. Whether you’re looking for a string quartet for your wedding or a cover band playing the greatest Beatles-hits for your birthday, you’ll find it with Lively.

For more information, please contact:

Andreas Johansson
Program Manager
SSE Business Lab
Email: Andreas.johansson@hhs.se
Tel: +46–72 306 33 44