OpenTech — with a new name and focus on Europe
In Lund Innovation District There are a number of actors who make a big contribution to the ecosystem. One of them is the non-profit organization. OpenTech, a cluster organization in tech with about 120 members in the form of companies and organizations and an extensive network, both in Sweden and Europe.
“Tech is a sector that is only getting bigger, because digital tech is in almost everything today,” says Ola Svedin, CEO at OpenTech. Our view of the world is that tech is not something isolated, but rather we see that major disruptive events in the outside world are driven by digitalization. We see digital technology as a means to support the transition to a sustainable society.
It was fifteen years ago that what was then known as Mobile Heights was formed. Behind it were the two big companies Sony and Ericsson who felt that the industry lacked expertise and skills and that there was far too little investment in research and development in southern Sweden. Together with Region Skåne and the universities of Lund and Malmö decided to start Mobile Heights to do something about the two challenges.
In 2016, the focus of the activities broadened from telecom and connectivity to ICT - information and communication technologies - and membership grew rapidly to about 100 members consisting of municipalities, companies, other non-profit actors, but the vast majority were and are SMEs and startups.
- Then we realized that if we are to make a difference as an organization, we need to make better use of the structure, which is why we committed ourselves at European level starting in 2017, including by looking for European partners. We also realized that our target audience is not just the industry-coded companies but that it exists in every industry that develops solutions with advanced digital technologies. Our mission is to bring the expertise within your technology to the industry that will apply it and one of our strengths is that we have a strong network of digital experts.
As part of its look towards Europe, OpenTech was informed about the European Commission's plans to accelerate digitisation in the EU through their Digital programme, the basic idea of which is that in every region of the EU there should be a digital information hub that locks digital expertise into non-traditional IT industries in order to make them more efficient. Today, there are about 290 such hubs around Europe.
- We were early in the program and this has resulted in OpenTech now coordinating DigiT Hub Norway. It is a European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH) in southern Sweden with a focus on manufacturing industry and the public sector. I am very proud that through this we have taken the organization from a more limited opportunity to influence and help that we are now running Southern Sweden's EDIH and several other projects that accelerate Skåne's tech sector with a total budget of SEK 70 million.
In 2022, the Board decided that it was time to take over the business based on what the members were asking for. This landed in a new strategy in 2024, which involves, among other things, deepening the quality of certain services and introducing new services.
A completely new service is internationalisation, where OpenTech helps SMEs in particular to the world. This is what OpenTech does through the network Silicon Europe Alliance, which includes twelve organizations spread across all tech hotspots in Europe.
- This gives us a superpower. We know the needs and knowledge of our members and so do our colleagues in Europe with their members. Through this we can create a direct connection from companies in Skåne to Europe. It will be a speeded up process that would otherwise take months to build up and we can do it with more detailed and in-depth knowledge than many other actors manage.
A service that has existed since before but has intensified is the business process Power Hour where the basic idea is for a panel of experts to help startups on their journey. OpenTech is vacuuming Skåne and the surrounding area for tech startups that are then helped by a panel of experts. Every year, 24 companies get to participate in this process and over the years OpenTech has helped over 200 startups through Power Hour.
- The panel shares its experiences and advises on business and technology but also uses its networks. This means that the startup can be put together with a large company, which otherwise would have been almost impossible, says Ola Svedin
Now an Investor Readiness programme has also been launched, to help smaller companies through the challenges of obtaining investment. Experts will drill the companies on the path to both private and public financing, in Sweden as well as the rest of Europe.
In the team and among the members there are many of the competencies demanded by companies. Although OpenTech has only thirteen full-time employees, there are competencies in law, communications, marketing, innovation, finance and business development. In addition, the team represents six nationalities.
- We can credibly convey the message that diversity is a strength, not only for business but for society at large.
In this context, it is also important that the team has knowledge of the functioning of the public sector, academia and business.
- The different actors are driven by different motives and we are in the middle. We need to have an understanding of their different logics, understand how they think, what they are driven by and what their focus is. We at OpenTech need to be frontiers—those who understand the different worlds. I'm incredibly proud of the team and they are incredibly good at what they do. Looking at the breadth and depth of our services, it is surprising that we are so few. One of the reasons we do it is that everyone is good at using new technologies. It's almost part of our job to be curious about tech!
More facts
OpenTech is a not-for-profit organisation funded to approximately one third by membership fees and basic support from Region Skåne. The rest is made up of project funds or grants to run various innovation projects with the members. OpenTech is either the coordinator and principal owner of the project or the organization runs part of the project. The projects are of various sizes and range from regional activities such as a feasibility study on the semiconductor sector in Skåne but also large pan-European projects, such as EuroCluster Silicon. In this, the consortium manages about 1.3 million euros given in research and development support to startups in microelectronics and electronics across Europe. OpenTech is responsible for the process of selecting and distributing funds to companies to take their business from the prototype level to a marketable product.