The Swedish Internet Foundation acquires leading company in open data

The Swedish Internet Foundation is buying the majority in the software company MetaSolutions, which has developed cloud-based software that helps companies and organizations publish and manage linked and open data. The company was founded in 2011 by computer scientists Matthias Palmér and Hannes Ebner.

In 2016, a small investment was made in MetaSolutions as part of a venture to support start-up Swedish Internet companies. Now The Swedish Internet Foundation is acquiring the majority of the shares and at the same time making an investment through a new issue which gives the company money for continued growth.

MetaSolutions helps its customers to organize and publish data and their operations are very well in line with The Swedish Internet Foundation's goal to promote the development and use of the internet in Sweden. By making it easier for more people to make their data available, the conditions for new services and innovations are developed.

For more than 20 years, The Swedish Internet Foundation has been working to promote the development of the internet through various initiatives. In the field of open data, The Swedish Internet Foundation has financed and run a number of development and collaboration projects to positively affect the possibility of improving the roll-out of open data in Sweden. Through the acquisition, The Swedish Internet Foundation enters as a stable and long-term majority owner to give MetaSolutions an opportunity to grow and further develop its operations and services to the market. 

- One of The Swedish Internet Foundation's primary goals is to stimulate knowledge sharing and innovation with the help of the internet, which is exactly what open data stimulates. The man who once founded the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has called open and linked data 'web 3.0' and MetaSolutions is a leader in how to collect, organize and publish open data in the world. We hope that our support can help them to continue to develop and thereby help Sweden become better at publishing and managing open data, says Danny Aerts, CEO of The Swedish Internet Foundation.

- The deal gives us completely different muscles to expand and continue to develop our software to help more companies and organizations collect, manage and publish open data. We have worked with The Swedish Internet Foundation for many years and we share the vision of working for an open internet, everywhere, all the time, says Eric Hjelmestam, CEO of Metasolutions AB.

About Metasolutions AB

MetaSolutions delivers solutions for sustainable information management. The company helps organizations throughout Europe to publish open data, create data portals and build customized solutions based on linked data.

The EntryScape software offers a flexible and user-friendly cloud platform, based on open source and linked data technology. The company was founded in 2011 as a spin-off from a research project at KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) and Uppsala University.

The technology base in the company originates from research in linked data. The founders of the company have an active role in the Swedish and international sphere of interest in linked and open data.

About The Swedish Internet Foundation

The Swedish Internet Foundation is an independent, business-driven and non-profit 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. The revenues from the business operations finance a number of investments in research and education in order to enable internet users in Sweden to further develop their use in a conscious way and to provide knowledge about internet use in Sweden and the impact of digitalization on society. 

Examples of our investments are the meeting place Goto 10, the report Swedes and the Internet, Digital lessons, the Internet Days conference and the measurement tool Bredbandskollen. Our vision is that everyone in Sweden wants to, dares to and is able to use the internet.