A selection of the main news from Sweden's startup and tech sector. All – and many more – have previously been covered in more detail in the Swedish Tech News PRO newsletters.

Et si les robots humanoïdes assemblaient des produits dans de petites usines sous formes de conteneurs ? C’est l’ambition de 120ft. La start-up suédoise sort de terre et annonce ce 15 octobre une première levée de fonds de 576 000 euros auprès de 22 fonds et business angels.

Swedish robotics startup 120ft Factory AB launched today with 576,000 euros ($644,000) in new funding from 22 angel investors to build autonomous microfactories run by humanoid robots. 120ft builds and operates small factories that fit inside three 40-foot shipping containers, and the combined length of those containers gives the company its name. Customers never buy a robot. Brands pay for each finished product and keep their existing component suppliers, which send parts to a 120ft site where robots shared among several customers handle final assembly, inspection and packing. The first customers 120ft is chasing are design-led consumer brands, such as makers of small appliances and consumer electronics. Smaller brands can be forced to place production orders months before they know what will sell. Their parts often come from around the world and go to China for assembly before the finished goods are shipped back to Europe. The company frames that reliance on distant factories as a geopolitical risk. On the production side, 120ft’s software takes product designs, parts lists and quality requirements and converts them into digital instructions. Every job runs in a simulation first. Missing information and bottlenecks are meant to show up there before production starts. Once a...