Sweden’s economy has, in many ways, suffered from the same tribulations as the rest of Europe: recent bouts of crushing inflation and recession, and now the prospect of meager growth in a world split by geopolitical and economic conflict.
Nevertheless, the Nordic country has a roster of high-tech entrepreneurs that is the envy of its neighbors. Spotify and Skype are globally recognized brand names. Klarna, a financial tech firm, and King Digital Entertainment, the maker of the video game juggernaut Candy Crush, are other examples of homegrown tech powerhouses.
“They have something — particularly in the tech sector — which other European countries do not really have to the same extent,” said Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund.
That entrepreneurial track record has been attracting renewed attention at a time when anxieties are mounting about Europe’s ability to compete with American and Chinese advancements in high technology.
The United States has turned out a generation of companies like Google, Meta and Amazon, while China’s tech scene flourished with firms like Alibaba, Huawei and ByteDance, the owner of TikTok.