Swedish High Tech Investment Smorgasbord Served on Sand Hill Road : Henry Gooss, Vinod Khosla and Don Wood to Speak on High Tech Investment

MENLO PARK, Calif. (Business Wire EON) October 29, 2008 -- The Swedish high tech startups span a range of rapidly developing technologies and markets: from mobile services and digital music, to radar inspection systems, eye-tracking technology, FPGA acceleration and carbon nanostructures for semiconductor manufacturing. These innovative companies bring patented technologies and business models that have already attracted commercial partnerships with Alcatel-Lucent, Altera, Ericsson, H-P, Intel and other global leaders. Recent strategic investors in other Swedish startups have included Boeing, Google, H-P, Motorola and Oracle. Since 2006, nine Swedish companies have been among Red Herring's Top Private Firms.

"In my view, countries that produce outstanding technical talent combined with an environment that encourages and supports the innovation ecosystem are likely to thrive -– Sweden is one such example," said Vinod Khosla, venture capitalist and a keynote speaker at the ISA conference.

Swedish startups attending the investment conference include winners of the Microsoft Ingenuity Award, 2008 Red Herring Euro 100 and 2008 CES Design and Engineering Award. Conference speakers include Henry Gooss, President of Investor Growth Capital; Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures; and Managing Director Don Wood of Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Dollar Appreciation Increases ROI

The all-day conference will enable venture capital and corporate investors to evaluate some twenty Swedish high tech startups, learning about their business models, growth prospects and development. All of the attending startups have received investment funding from Swedish venture investors. Tony Svensson, Executive Director of ISA in North America states, "Swedish venture capital has funded more than 800 new technology ventures, and in the past five years has achieved nearly 100 exit events and IPOs. And with the recent 30% appreciation of the dollar against the krona, Swedish investment valuations and startup burn-rates are exceptionally attractive."

"The conference offers a convenient venue where Sand Hill Road can meet the best of Swedish innovation," explained ISA Head of Information and Communications Technology Niklas Johnsson. "Under one roof we will assemble nearly twenty companies, representing dozens of unique patents and hundreds of thousands of man-hours of technology and market development."

The ISA conference will be held from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM at the Quadrus Conference Center, 2400 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA. Active investors with funds currently raised are encouraged to participate. Additional information can be found at: http://www.isa-northamerica.org/events.html. To register for this invitation-only event, or to send questions or comments, please contact Maja Svensson, +1 212 702 8780, usa@isa.se

About Invest in Sweden Agency (ISA)

ISA - North America, reporting to the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, markets Sweden and its regions, industry clusters, funds and individual businesses to North American companies and investors. ISA's mission is to promote and facilitate Foreign Direct Investment into Sweden. ISA's services are free of charge.

Release Summary:

Twenty Swedish high tech startups will rendezvous on Sand Hill Road for an investment conference on 11 November to introduce early-stage technology companies to venture capital and strategic investors in Silicon Valley.

Keyword Tags:

high tech, information technology, investment, media, semiconductors, silicon valley, software, Sweden, telecom, venture capital, web 2.0