The Swedish Internet Foundation invests 1.5 Million SEK in MetaSolutions, that enable open digitalization and new services in the public sector.

MetaSolutions makes advanced data management available through cloud services, making it quick and easy for information to be more searchable and better described through using linked data. The applications for this technology are numerous.

One of these solutions is quickly becoming a market leader in Sweden, the service for publishing open data. Over 60 percent of those who currently publish open data nationally are using MetaSolutions’ cloud service EntryScape.

– We help our customers to publish in just one day, which is unique. Among other things, we have helped the Swedish Tax Agency create and use APIs for open data, something that is a prerequisite for digitization on a broad front. That The Swedish Internet Foundation is now entering and investing in the company means we will be able to scale up and help many more, says Eric Hjelmestam, MetaSolutions CEO.

– MetaSolutions is a very exciting company whose mission – to help customers make large amounts of data available – is very much in line with the goal of The Swedish Internet Foundation to promote the development and use of the internet in Sweden. By making it simpler for more people to make their data available, we are confident that new services and innovations will be created, says Staffan Hagnell, responsible for The Swedish Internet Foundation’s investment portfolio.

The Swedish Internet Foundation is also a former customer of MetaSolutions through datahotell.se, a service where Swedish users can begin to describe and upload their data for free. The service has close to 100 users and is often used for publishing to öppnadata.se.

The Swedish Internet Foundation as investors

This year, The Swedish Internet Foundation has begun to invest in Swedish start-up companies. The main purpose for The Swedish Internet Foundation is not return or to control the companies’ development, but to help companies in an earlier stage where it is hard to attract investors. In these companies, The Swedish Internet Foundation will be a minority shareholder and the company will have the opportunity to buy back shares in future investment rounds.

The goal is to invest in three new companies per year. In order for a company to be considered, they must meet certain criteria:

• Focusing on the Swedish market.
• The companies’ services or products must be in line with The Swedish Internet Foundation’s purpose and values.
• The companies can get help from the The Swedish Internet Foundation organization for advice, but The Swedish Internet Foundation will not work on the companies’ boards.

About The Swedish Internet Foundation

The Swedish Internet Foundation is an independent, business-driven and public organization. We work for an internet that contributes positively to people and society.

We are responsible for the Swedish top-level domain .se and for the operation of the top-level domain .nu. Revenues from business activities finance a number of investments in research and education. The purpose of these investments is to promote and provide knowledge of the internet, internetusage, and the societal impacts of digitalization in Sweden in order to provide internet users with the ability to further advance it. 

Examples of our investments are the start-up and coworkning space Goto 10, the annual report The Swedes and the Internet, the online resource Digitala Lektioner, the conference Internet Days and the measuring tool Bredbandskollen. Our vision is that everyone in Sweden wants, dares, and is able to use the internet.

About MetaSolutions

MetaSolutions makes sophisticated data management available to everyone. We want to make it quick and easy to make information searchable and linked. MetaSolutions already has several Swedish customers in the public sector and during 2016 has added several customers in Europe. The company is well ahead with applications to linked data and provides these as cloud services. One of the first solutions is open data. MetaSolutions was founded in 2011 by Hannes Ebner and Matthias Palmer, as an offshoot from research at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.