In 2016, Niklas Adalberth, co-founder of Klarna, exited the market now, pay later giant to found the Norrsken Foundationa non-profit organization based on the principles of effective altruism.
While at Klarna, Adalberth immersed himself in the intricacies of credit ratings, offers and payments. However, these subjects lost their appeal over time, prompting Adalberth to seek a deeper purpose, which led to the founding of the Norrsken Foundation.
Norrsken’s idea was to encourage and invest in both for-profit and not-for-profit entities to have a positive social impact. Over the years, the Norrsken Foundation has grown into a multi-faceted entity, creating a venture capital firm and establishing three impact-driven co-working spaces and foundation hubs worldwide, all part of an ambitious plan to create 25 hubs within the next decade. From Stockholm to Kigali and recently Barcelona, these hubs have nurtured and invested in hundreds of startups, including through an accelerator program in their home city.
Last week, Adalberth visited Kigali, home of the nonprofit’s first hub in Africa. Launched in 2019 but only fully operational this year, the hub is designed to host over 1,000 entrepreneurs, investors and operators. It is the largest hub for entrepreneurship in Africa and forms part of the Foundation’s wider initiatives on the continent, including the Norrsken Africa Seed Fund and Norrsken22.
Adalberth sat down with TechCrunch to delve into Norrsken’s strategy for its African hub, the choice of Kigali, and the Foundation’s vision for success on the continent.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
TC: Since Norrsken was founded in 2016, you have put so much into the organization. I would love to know how much and why.
TO: I have donated about $125 million, almost half of my fortune, to the Norrsken Foundation. And we’re doing a bunch of different initiatives — [including] creating a large impact hub in Stockholm. And I also just launched the largest hub of influence in Europe in Barcelona. This initiative in Kigali is $20 million. I am lucky to be born in Sweden, with free health care and education. And we had perfect timing with Klarna. If we started a year earlier, there would be no Klarna or e-commerce based on it. I still have half of my wealth left, so if I don’t give back or do something important, who should?
What influenced the decision to set up a hub in Africa and how does its strategy compare to Europe?
What we were trying to do in Europe was to change entrepreneurship from starting any business to inspiring entrepreneurs to go into impact entrepreneurship. So here, companies will tackle climate change, biodiversity and humanity’s biggest challenges, not just the next online casino or Klarna or an addictive mobile PC game, but to use technology for good.
This is even more so when you consider Africa’s challenges. If you are serious about making an impact and want to do something positive in the world, I think Africa is where you should consider. And that’s about the challenges. On the other hand is population, from 1 billion to 4 billion people by the end of the century. This is one of the most important opportunities in the world. Also, you can already see now that Africa is leapfrogging many old technologies used in the EU and the US. creating jobs and tax dollars. These are long-term sustainability goals that you should have.
The Kigali center is the first hub opened by the Norrsken Foundation in Africa. What comes after that?
I have always had a passion and interest in Africa. And then, when it came to choosing countries, he had to start somewhere. Rwanda has been an excellent testing ground and gateway to the rest of Africa. So this was like a natural first step for us in Africa. But this is all about the next steps in perhaps even bigger geographies and markets in Lagos, Cape Town and Nairobi to reach even more people and inspire them to go into entrepreneurship to create jobs and economic growth.
Interesting. Would you also say that government cooperation was a factor in choosing Rwanda in the first place?
Yes. Rwanda has a friendly and cooperative government. It is also progressive in terms of start-ups, for example with the Startup Act now in place. We also found this fantastic spot in the middle of Kigali, a beautiful old school which we then converted into this centre, which will soon be able to accommodate 1,500 people.
Tell us about the accelerator in Stockholm and how African startups benefit from it.
In the accelerator, we select 20 companies every year, put money in, bring them to Stockholm and accelerate them in two months, providing the network and mentors to ensure they get the next round of funding. We’ve been doing it now for three years. And I think in the last group in 2023, about half were from Africa.
We have a network of 120 mentors in Stockholm, former Unicorn founders and former corporate builders who come to help during these two months to strengthen these companies. So this is the kind of vehicle where we invest very early pre-seed. Then in Africa, we have another seeding vehicle. And then we just announced it with Norrsken22 with the $205 million growth fund. We want to be able to provide capital at various stages.
This is a healthy pipeline. However, wouldn’t it be more strategic for downtown Kigali to have its own throttle? So instead of moving African startups to Stockholm, they can do it here too they use the knowledge and expertise of mentors on the continent.
I think that makes a lot of sense. then you get the local expertise, which is much needed. So, yes, we are looking into it. But nothing to share right now.
Okay, that’s great to know. What will your success look like in the next five to 10 years?
Success would be to have thriving ecosystems across Africa, like Silicon Valley, Stockholm or London. There’s no reason it shouldn’t be. I mean, the talent is there. They just need to have the opportunity and access to capital. And I think with our different vehicles, we can prove that this is not only the right thing to do, but it’s also a very good thing to do in Africa. They have a population of 60% under the age of 25 and most have smartphones. I mean they will transform content with digital solutions. So we want it to have thriving ecosystems for entrepreneurship across Africa. Whether we make these different nodes ourselves, or whether we can inspire someone else to do so, it doesn’t matter. We’re a non-profit organization, so we don’t have to while it’s happening.
I like optimism. Finally, what’s next for the Foundation?
We’re looking at multiple geographies, but we’ll have to get back to you on that. We will not stop with Stockholm, Rwanda and Barcelona. we will go further.
