Gabriel Vasquez, a associate at Andreessen Horowitz, not too long ago revealed he took nine flights from NYC to Stockholm in a single 12 months. Whereas his visits included stops at firms like Lovable — the place he posted from its workplace — the journeys had been additionally about discovering future Swedish unicorns earlier than they cross the Atlantic.
This all got here to gentle when news emerged that a16z had led a $2.3 million pre-seed round into Dentio, a Swedish startup that makes use of AI to assist dentists’ practices with admin work. Whereas this can be a small test for a agency that simply introduced new funds totaling $15 billion, it confirms that U.S. VCs are actively in search of deal circulate outdoors of the U.S., even with out native places of work.
Stockholm is a pure cease for a16z, which beforehand achieved vital returns from backing Skype, cofounded by Swedish entrepreneur Niklas Zennström. Since then, a major variety of fast-growing startups have been created within the Swedish capital, and the VC heavyweight tracked down the place lots of them had been coming from.
“We spend lots of time growing a deep understanding of particular markets and understanding the place innovation is rising. In Sweden, that has meant intently monitoring ecosystems like [SSE Business Lab] — the startup incubator of the Stockholm College of Economics — and the businesses popping out of it,” Vasquez instructed TechCrunch.
Like fintech big Klarna, authorized AI startup Legora, and e-scooter firm Voi, Dentio is an alum of SSE Enterprise Lab — a startup incubator that has produced a number of profitable Swedish firms. The three former highschool classmates Elias Afrasiabi, Anton Li and Lukas Sjögren joined the incubator after reconnecting as college students at each the SSE (Stockholm College of Economics) and KTH (Royal Institute of Know-how), then joined the incubator with extra backing from KTH’s Innovation Launch program. They tackled an issue near dwelling: Li’s mother, a dentist, had instructed them how admin work detracted from medical care.
The trio intuited that they might leverage LLMs to assist folks like her — an concept that in addition they validated together with her and her colleagues. This led them to Dentio’s preliminary product, a recording instrument that makes use of AI to generate medical notes. Nevertheless it’s solely a matter of time earlier than AI scribes grow to be a commodity product, and Dentio must show its worth to dentists in order that they aren’t tempted to modify suppliers when that occurs, Afrasiabi stated.
Potential opponents embody fellow Swedish startup Tandem Well being, which raised a $50 million Series A spherical final 12 months to help clinicians with AI throughout a number of medical specialties. Dentio, against this, focuses completely on dentists, nevertheless it believes it could possibly nonetheless attain the dimensions VCs count on by worldwide enlargement
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“Now we’re a crew of seven folks, and we expect that it’s attainable to construct a unified approach of dealing with administration throughout Europe, and perhaps even all around the world,” Afrasiabi stated. Whereas Europe’s healthcare methods are fragmented, they share similarities, and Dentio’s assumption is that what works in Sweden may work elsewhere within the EU.
Dentio prominently options its “Made in Sweden” branding and emphasizes that “all related information is processed in Sweden and Finland in compliance with Swedish and EU regulation.” It alerts information safety to privacy-conscious European clients. Nevertheless it additionally alerts potential to VCs — a callback to Sweden’s historical past of manufacturing breakout firms.
“We went to zero meetups. I reached out to zero traders,” Afrasiabi stated. Whereas the crew was heads down constructing, the phrase unfold out. “I feel it was largely by referrals and other people speaking to one another that the information acquired all the best way over to the U.S.,” he stated.
This wasn’t happenstance: a16z has eyes around the world as a way to spot these firms as early as native funds may, Vasquez stated. “In Sweden for instance, we partnered with high founders overseas like Fredrik Hjelm, founding father of Voi, and Johannes Schildt, founding father of Kry, by turning them into scouts and mapping one of the best native expertise.”
For Vasquez, who focuses on AI software investments for a16z, this isn’t nearly Sweden, however about “a sample of nice world firms being born overseas and scaling shortly,” from Black Forest Labs in Germany to Manus, the Singapore-based AI startup not too long ago acquired by Meta.
Born and raised in El Salvador, he has additionally been spending time in São Paulo. “I’m actually enthusiastic about what’s brewing in Brazil and throughout Latin America in AI,” he wrote on LinkedIn on the time. “I consider AI is the good equalizer,” he added. “Most individuals now have entry to PhD-level intelligence on a telephone, and finally, Silicon Valley is a mind-set.”
Corrections: This story initially said that a16z is an investor in Lovable owing to an modifying error. The identify of SSE’s incubator has additionally been corrected.
