Here is the most important news from the past week from the unlisted companies on Eqvor's platform. A week in which several companies stepped outside their core — towards new technology, new markets and new stages.
Epidemic Sound — a price tag on the Plenty Labs purchase
The terms of Epidemic Sound's quiet purchase of VXA (now Plenty Labs) are now shown in the annual report: the purchase price came to SEK 30 million, of which only a third was paid in cash — the rest is conditional on revenue targets up to 2027. Plenty Labs, founded by three former Epidemic consultants, is building an AI tool for tailoring adverts at scale, and before the deal had raised around SEK 3 million at a valuation of 8 million. The sellers included Cofounded Capital (Patrick Söderlund, Jacob de Geer, Hjalmar Winbladh). A small but strategic step beyond music.
Source: Breakit; Dagens industri.
Instabee — a shop in Finland, more efficient pallets in Norway
Budbee is opening its first Finnish Budbee Store in Helsinki (Ullanlinna) this autumn — collection, returns and shipping under one roof, a concept that already exists in Sweden and is to become a platform for testing new services. At the same time, Instabox and Porterbuddy are introducing reusable plastic pallets throughout their Norwegian operations: they are stackable, increase load capacity by up to 25 per cent and shrink return transport — seven empty pallets take up the same space as one. The initiative is linked to the group's science-based climate targets.
Source: Instabee.
Virtune — BitGo becomes new custodian
Virtune is adding the BaFin-registered BitGo Europe as an additional custodian for its Bittensor, BNB and Polygon ETPs, with effect from 16 July and alongside the existing Coinbase Custody. BitGo is an established institutional custodian, and the change neither affects trading in the products nor requires any action from investors. Spreading custody across more regulated players reduces dependence on a single counterparty and strengthens the robustness of the offering.
Source: Virtune.
Mentimeter — answered when the Pope asked
When Pope Leo XIV visited Madrid at the beginning of June and spoke to 10,000 volunteers, the Catholic Church used Mentimeter to capture the mood in real time — the question ”What word best defines your experience as a volunteer at the Pope’s pastoral visit?” formed a live word cloud on the screen behind him. ”…at this scale it becomes something entirely different. A kind of collective insight into the thoughts of 10,000 people,” says Oscar Svernlöv, Product Marketing Manager at Mentimeter. An unusual stage for a Swedish SaaS company, and strong brand exposure.
Source: Breakit.
Voi — Q2 report on 23 July
Voi Technology publishes its interim report for the second quarter on Thursday 23 July. We will come back with the figures.
Source: Voi Technology.
