Holiday Greetings from Founders Loft
- Dec 19, 2025
- 4 min read
As the year comes to an end, we have taken a moment to reflect on what 2025 has truly brought. It has been a year of change, renewal and movement for us at Founders Loft. During the year, we packed up our loft office on Vera Sandbergs allé and settled into a new context at A Working Lab on Chalmers’ campus in southern Johanneberg – a place where social innovation meets entrepreneurship, students and researchers in everyday life. A place where new encounters and new perspectives are created, and where we are now continuing to build our startup community with the same warmth, joy and inspiration that have always been at the core of Founders Loft.
Key figures – Founders Loft 2025
108 evaluated business ideas → 49% had at least one woman in the founding team
26 companies we worked with during the year → 13 companies (50%) with at least one woman in the founding team
Behind every number are people with ideas, courage and drive – and relationships that make innovation and improvement possible.
Long-term trust at both national and regional level
In 2025, we received renewed confidence from Vinnova through their excellence programme. This means an additional four years of support and a total budget allocation of SEK 13.7 million for the period.
Undergoing an excellence review is a demanding process – as it should be. It is not only about showcasing the companies we work with, but also about openly examining our methods, processes and the Founders Loft team itself.
At the same time, we are very grateful for the continued support from the Västra Götaland Region, which together with Vinnova enables long-term stability in our work. Regional trust is essential for building innovation environments that are deeply rooted both locally and nationally.
We enter 2026 with humility, pride and high expectations of ourselves – to continue delivering value to founders, companies and the ecosystem we are part of, together with the funders and partners who choose to work with us.
Meetings that build ecosystems
Throughout the year, we have created many opportunities for meetings, learning and collaboration – both within our own programmes and across the wider ecosystem.
Within the incubator, we hosted seven programme sessions, where our companies worked together with a focus on business development and next steps. In parallel, 16 sessions were held within Zebra Impact Academy, our initiative where we supported sustainability-driven companies in their journey towards fundraising.
In addition, we participated in around 20 external events as organisers, co-creators or participants, contributing to knowledge exchange, relationship-building and the strengthening of the innovation system.
Some highlights included Founders Lunch, where founders meet and share experiences, and Startup Day, where 14 of our companies came together to set new goals and gain fresh insights. We also hosted investor meetings where our companies pitched, and enabled participation in other actors’ investor events – such as GoWest, where four of our companies took part in January 2025.
Across all these contexts, learnings, inspiration and knowledge were shared generously. This is how trust is built, relationships deepen and ecosystems stay alive.
Zebra Impact Academy
In 2025, we concluded Zebra Impact Academy, which we ran together with Mikrofonden and Coompanion Göteborg. To succeed in the transition towards a society that considers customers, people and society as a whole, we need to become better at valuing returns beyond revenue alone. This need formed the foundation of the project. In total, we worked with 33 organisations and delivered two investor training programmes, with the aim of increasing focus and understanding of businesses that see sustainability as an integrated part of their core operations.
Founders Challenge: innovation in practice
On December 11, Founders Challenge was held together with our partners Quokka and A Working Lab. The winner was Arkeon, a company contributing to the development of quantum computing – a field with significant potential to impact the future of society and industry. The Audience Award went to Vyse Tech,, which demonstrated how we can heat only the water we actually need in the future, saving both energy and materials. A concrete example of innovation that truly makes a difference.
A warm holiday greeting – looking ahead to 2026
As the year comes to an end, we carry forward our learnings, meetings and trust into the next chapter. We enter 2026 with responsibility, curiosity and a strong belief in the power of entrepreneurship to contribute to a society that is better than today’s – for people, markets and future generations.
To everyone who has been part of Founders Loft this year – founders, partners, colleagues and friends – thank you. Thank you for the conversations, the engagement and the willingness to share both time and knowledge.
We wish you a very happy holiday season, time for rest and reflection, and a new year filled with opportunities, new meetings, collaborations and many new companies.
/ Team Founders Loft
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