The secret sauce may surprise you.
For the past decade, the global startup playbook has been clear: grow at all costs and dominate through visibility. Sweden has played a different game, one of profitability and sustainability—and is outperforming as a result. The country now ranks among the top 10 globally for unicorn companies, and first in Europe per capita, with 46+ billion-euro startups and counting. Earlier this year, vibe coding unicorn Lovable became the fastest growing software-startup in history, reaching $100 million in subscription revenue in just eight months
