Mikael Karlsson

Lärandegruppen

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.

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.

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.

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

Education, Personal, and Fellowship

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

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