Mikael Karlsson

Mikael has an MSc in Business Administration and an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, both from Linköping University, Sweden.

Mikael Karlsson is CEO of ALMI Invest in Sweden. ALMI Invest is an early-stage investor funded by the European Union and a number of public Swedish organizations. Before this role he served as Fund Manager for 6 years. 

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Mikael has over 10 years of experience in the Nordic VC market. Before joining ALMI Invest, he was a Senior Investment Manager at Innovationsbron in Sweden. Innovationsbron (The Innovation Bridge) is a government-owned corporation that funds startups and a number of business incubators across Sweden. 

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Prior to that the was CEO of Rendera, a regional seed investor owned by Innovationsbron, which he established in 2004. Rendera to date has carried out 27 investments and 5 exits. Before starting Rendera, Mikael was acting Managing Director at a business incubator. His earlier experiences in the VC market include 5 years at Slottsbacken Venture Capital/ACR Capital, a Nordic VC fund with $200M under management, targeting early-stage high tech companies. Mikael has been actively involved in the Boards of over 15 start-up companies during the last 10 years. 

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Mikael started his career in the software industry working in marketing and sales roles at DocEye and WM-data (acquired by Logica).

A member of Fellows Class 13, Mikael served his fellowship under mentor Tomas Hagenfeldt at Innovationsbron and ALMI Invest in Sweden.