Stockholm has once again been ranked as one of Europe’s best cities to start a new business, with technology magazine Wired placing the Swedish capital among its top 10 hottest startup capitals. The magazine said Swedish programmers “find web development so easy that they do it blindfolded”.

After visiting Europe’s leading startup hubs to identify the top tech cities, the editors concluded that Europe is on a roll and that Swedish startups are among the most important for international investors and developers to keep an eye on.

“With massive global successes such as iZettle, Wrapp and Mojang showing that Sweden produces category winners, it’s party time in the capital city,” Wired said.

In addition, the UK-based magazine shortlisted three Stockholm based companies – life-logging camera firm Narrative, e-commerce platform Tictail and mobile marketplace Osom – among its ‘ones to watch’.

It also highlighted the growing amount of tech events in the Swedish capital, including Stockholm Startup Hack and Code in the Dark.

The perception of Stockholm as an exciting tech city was echoed by Osom’s founder and CEO, Anton Johansson, who said the startup scene has “exploded” in the last year.

Also the Guardian recently hailed Sweden’s capital as “one of Europe’s most vibrant, and underrated, digital scenes”. The in-depth article highlighted the following companies: Klarna, Tictail, King, Spotify, FundedByMe, Osom, Gavagai, Memoto, DoReMir, Goo, Instabridge and Magine.

Tech City News also put the spotlight on Stockholm and was referring to the capital as Europe’s answer to the Silicon Valley.

“Today Stockholm is home to the world’s most successful music startup (Spotify), a number of leading games studios (King & Mojang) as well a legacy of talent from Ericsson’s expertise in mobile networks.

“Aside from the hype, the hard figures speak for themselves: 6.5% of the world’s billion dollar exits between 2005-2012 were companies from Sweden.”

Stockholm ‘ones to watch’:

1. Narrative (previously named Memoto)

2. Tictail

3. Osom

4. Shotbox

5. Instabridge

6. Magine

7. 13th Lab

8. FundedByMe

9. BioLamina

10. ShapeUp Club

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This article was sponsored by Stockholm Business Region.

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