Sting

Karin Ruiz is CEO, and Sting coaches are embedded with each portfolio company several hours per week, which means selection and support sit with the program team rather than a standalone investment committee. The accelerator is non-profit and owned by the Electrum Foundation, so there is no GP carry structure driving allocation decisions.

Sting runs open applications for its twice-yearly Sting Core cohort and also draws from the Electrum Foundation's corporate and academic network — Ericsson, IBM, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University all hold board seats. The accelerator's 400-plus alumni further feed referrals, and its public-sector ties via Vinnova and Region Stockholm create a pipeline that reaches early-stage researchers and spinouts before they hit commercial radar.

Neither. Sting is a non-profit startup accelerator owned by a public-private foundation. It does not manage third-party LP capital the way a venture firm does, nor does it steward a single family's wealth. Returns flow back into the foundation and the Stockholm ecosystem.

Sting primarily makes direct investments via its Propel Capital vehicle, writing approximately SEK 500,000 checks into cohort companies. It also incubated Turbine Capital, a separate early-stage DeepTech fund that raised capital from the European Investment Fund and Scania, suggesting Sting can architect fund structures but does not act as an LP itself in the conventional sense.

Sting targets pre-seed and seed-stage companies. The Sting Core program works with startups over a six-month window and can extend engagement up to 18 months, providing the kind of operational and coaching support that typically precedes a priced institutional round.

Sting does not publish a list of excluded sectors. Its stated 'extra bets' are on ClimateTech, HealthTech, DeepTech and Society-focused verticals including FinTech, PropTech and EdTech, so sectors outside those domains may not align with the coaching and network resources the accelerator has built.

The Electrum Foundation is Sting's owner, a public-private foundation whose board includes representatives from Ericsson, IBM, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University, the City of Stockholm and Region Stockholm. This structure makes Sting a non-profit where any surplus is reinvested into the Stockholm startup ecosystem.