Swedish tech lender Ark Kapital appoints Annika Falkengren to the Board

The Swedish Ark Kapital has appointed Annika Falkengren to its Board of Directors. Ark Kapital provides tech companies with access to up to €10 million founder-friendly and non-dilutive loans combined with its unrivaled growth forecasting platform AIM. Earlier in 2023, Ark secured over €400 million non-dilutive capital available to European tech startups and extended its business to Germany and Finland.

On her appointment, Annika said: ''After joining the acceleration round in 2022, I’m excited to join the board at Ark Kapital and be in a position to provide more support and advice to the Executive team for the next phase of growth of this exciting business. The capability that ArK has developed using AI to support credit analysis and assess future financial strength with a high degree of accuracy paves the way for a more modern approach to growth financing and will enable future generations of entrepreneurs to grow and succeed.''

Earlier in September, Annika announced her intention to step down from her position at Swiss banking group Lombard Odier where she’s been serving as one of six Managing Partners since 2017. Prior to joining Lombard Odier, Annika had a long and successful career at SEB where she was appointed President and CEO in 2005.  In addition, throughout her career, Annika has held multiple Board positions including for Volkswagen, Munich Re and Securitas amongst others and has been repeatedly ranked by Fortune Magazine as one of the most powerful women in Global Business. 

Oliver Hildebrandt, CEO and Co-founder, Ark Kapital: ''Annika is one of the most experienced and sharpest minds in banking. We’re both thrilled and humbled to have her join the ArK board. I can’t think of anyone better to guide and assist in our journey to pioneer and establish a new asset class for tech companies – made possible by combining the most traditional form of lending with leading AI capabilities and growth forecasting.'' 

In record time, Ark Kapital has seen significant demand in the Nordic region and Germany for its frontier growth forecasting platform and is planning on further market expansions as the growth platform is rolled out to the world’s entrepreneurs. 

The team is backed by LocalGlobe, Creandum and no less than seven unicorn founders and a German banking veteran - Frank Strauß, formerly Deutsche Bank and Deutsche Postbank Group, Hjalmar Winbladh of Epidemic Sound and founding partner of EQT Ventures, Jacob De Geer of IZettle, Timo Soininen of Small Giant Games, Ilkka Paananen of Supercell, Sebastian Knutsson of King, Riccardo Zacconi of King, and Steve Anavi of Qonto.

www.arkkapital.com