Tech News from the Nordics and the Gulf

Stockholm Climbs Global Tech Ranks

Stockholm just jumped to #3 in Europe and #15 globally in Dealroom’s Global Tech Ecosystem Index 2025 — leapfrogging Amsterdam. It's now officially the highest-ranking tech hub in the Nordics, thanks to its AI, deep tech, and startup strength.

Millions of Swedes to Get Free AI — Led by Sana Labs and Backed by Founders of EQT and Avanza

Sana Labs has launched the Swedish AI Reform Foundation, aiming to give as many Swedes as possible access to AI. The foundation reflects a mission to ensure Sweden stays ahead in the AI revolution. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson endorsed the initiative.

AstraZeneca, Ericsson, Saab, and SEB, in partnership with Wallenberg Investments, are teaming up with NVIDIA to build the country’s first-ever national AI infrastructure — complete with supercomputers and a new AI tech center. This is big. It’ll fuel breakthroughs in everything from drug discovery to defense and fintech. Sweden’s gearing up to lead in applied AI.

Inven Raises €11.2M to Reinvent Deal Sourcing with AI

Helsinki-based Inven is changing how M&A gets done. With €11.2M in new funding, its AI-native platform is helping investors source deals 10x faster across 23 M+ companies.
Inven is already used by 700+ firms (PEs, VCs, Fortune 500s). It’s another strong signal that Nordic AI in B2B SaaS is going strong.

Saudi Arabia’s AI Era Begins with HUMAIN

Saudi Arabia just launched HUMAIN, a new national AI champion under the PIF.
Its mission? To offer one of the world’s most powerful Arabic multimodal language models and AI infrastructure. Already in discussions is Humain Ventures, a $10 billion fund to invest in AI startups in Europe, the US and Asia.
Part of a bigger play under Vision 2030 and a signal to the private sector to invest more in AI (only 36% of firms prioritize it today).

UAE Launches Arabic Language AI Model as Gulf AI Race Heats Up

The UAE’s ATRC unveiled Falcon Arabic, a native Arabic LLM that’s more efficient than even Meta’s latest models. It’s a big win in the UAE’s billion-dollar AI strategy and adds momentum to the region’s growing AI sovereignty movement.

MENA Sees 31% Growth in M&A Deals in Q1 2025

Q1 saw 225 deals worth $46B — a 66% YoY value spike.
UAE led with $20.3B across 63 deals. Tech topped the charts for domestic M&A.
Highlight: Group 42’s $2.2B buy of 40% of Khazna Data Centers.

UAE’s Tech Universal Ventures (TUV) Acquires Swedish startup ELVA11 and FixSquad from the UAE

TUV is making strategic moves to build a global empire focused on AI and digital services. ELVA11 will scale to the UAE, while FixSquad is expanding its B2B operations and launching a regional franchise model across the GCC. These moves highlight the UAE’s growing role as a top-tier  M&A hub, with $7.6B in inbound deals recorded last year.

Söderhub at the Egypt–Sweden Business Forum

We were invited to join the delegation of Sweden’s Minister of International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, H.E. Mr. Benjamin Dousa, to the Egypt-Sweden Business Forum. Our CEO Magdy Shehata and Regional Manager Mohamed Hamada represented Söderhub at the event.

A highlight of the forum was the announcement of a new €1.8 billion Investment Guarantee Mechanism — set to launch in June 2025 with EU backing — to boost investments in energy, manufacturing, and more.

Article | Exits, Acquisitions & Aftermath: The Real Stories Behind the Deals

On May 16th, our CEO Magdy Shehata moderated a panel at Reflect Festival on Exits, Acquisitions & Aftermath, discussing with other serial entrepreneurs about their path to exits, pitfalls and when to start preparing. We’ve gathered the juicy bits in the article ⬇️

Article | Artificial Intelligence as a Co-Founder: The Next Unicorn May Emerge from a Small Apartment in Aswan

What if you didn’t need funding, a co-founder, or even coding skills to launch a startup?
In this piece, we explore how AI is reshaping who gets to build startups—and why the next wave of innovation may come from Cairo, Riyadh, or Aswan.

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