Success Stories

What started as a tiny café in Rydebäck has grown into Lilla Fiket, a beloved local spot serving homemade fika, breakfast, lunch, and catering. Behind the counter is Jessica Liljedahl Marin, whose commitment to local ingredients and Swedish traditions defines everything she does.

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"I make everything from scratch," Jessica says. "I use Skåne butter for my buttercream, Bjäre chicken for the lunch menu, and I always source locally. That’s important to me."

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Originally operating from a small space with no kitchen, Jessica knew she had to either give it her all or give it up. When the opportunity to expand came, she acted fast and turned to Froda after a tip from a LinkedIn contact. "I applied and within no time, I was up and running. It was such a smooth process."

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Jessica appreciates Froda's transparent setup, daily repayment structure, and how seamlessly it fit her cash flow. "You don’t feel the weight of the full loan all at once. It just ticks away in the background while you keep going."

What started as a simple conversation between Nirvana and Sohrab has today evolved into Heartspace. It is now a cutting-edge AI platform that helps fast-growing companies automate their content creation and distribution. Nirvana, co-founder and CMO, shares how an everyday moment sparked an idea that would change everything.

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"We were talking about ideas," Nirvana recalls. "It wasn’t just another thought. It was something we both felt deeply passionate about. I told Sohrab, we have to do this. We can’t wait."

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Together with Sohrab, who is co-founder and CTO, they launched Heartspace with a clear mission: to make high-quality content creation accessible, fast and effortless for marketing teams. "Our AI agent understands our customers’ brands, their industries and keeps track of relevant news. It creates content they can publish with a click or even less," Sohrab explains.

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Like many early-stage companies, Heartspace faced financial challenges. Nirvana explains that they had big plans but needed funding to kickstart them. They needed the capital for both marketing initiatives and product development.

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Since 1996, Uluç Telmen has created a unique dining experience at Halv Grek Plus Turk, a restaurant that blends Greek and Turkish flavors from the Eastern Mediterranean. From its beginnings in a banquet hall in Stockholm to a popular restaurant on Jungfrugatan, the concept has grown with a focus on simplicity, quality, and authenticity. Uluç's passion for food and ambiance has shaped a space where everything from mezze dishes to the interior design reflects his background and creativity.

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“I grew up with the food I serve at the restaurant. My grandmother and mother were a big part of the kitchen in the early days, and their dishes shaped our menu. It’s food I’ve eaten at home and that our guests now appreciate,” says Uluç.

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Halv Grek Plus Turk is one of our customers who, with support from the European Investment Fund (EIF), was able to secure a business loan with even better terms than usual. The program enables Froda to lend to small business owners to promote growth, equality, sustainable employment, and social inclusion in Europe. Read more about EIF here.

With a focus on craftsmanship, local production and promoting the local business community, Katarina Holmberg has been running Norrtelje Musteri since 2017. Together with her husband Toni, she has built a full-scale micro-juice factory that turns Swedish apples into refreshing apple cider. In addition to the must, Katarina also produces different varieties of juice, jam and marmalade. People can also bring their own apples to the factory to have them mustached.

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But it was far from a given that Katarina would choose the entrepreneurial life. For more than 20 years, she worked within the authorities. Slowly but surely, however, the dream of running her own took over and for seven years she took the plunge. The interest in artisanal cider proved to be great and customers quickly found Norrtelje Musteri.

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“I wanted to decide my own time and choose how much I would work. There was a lot to learn and take in but it fell into place during the ride. Today I definitely work more than I did before, but I do it with pleasure because I get to do what I want.”

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In the heart of the Stockholm archipelago is Ostmakeriet on Rindö. Here Anna Kälvebrand has been making artisan cheeses in the small dairy next to Oxdjupet and the Oscar Fredriksborg Fortress since 2012. It all started after a friend talked about food crafts and Anna discovered that there was a shortage of cheese makers in Stockholm. Once the idea was born, everything went quickly. A local was found, she came into contact with a dairy farm and began her journey as a dairyman.

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Since its inception, Ostmakeriet on Rindö has grown rapidly and won a number of awards for its cheeses. The milk is collected by Anna and her husband at Öster Grytinge Gård. She then refines it into cheese before it is stored and sold in her own cheese shop in the dairy building. Her favourite is the cave-stored cheddar cheese Oscar Fredrik which she has been allowed to store inside the old adjacent fortress.

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“The advantage of cheese is that there is an infinite variety of varieties to explore and that there is always something new to learn. I tried a cave-aged cheese at a cheese tasting and was so impressed with the taste that I decided to try making one myself.”

For over 40 years, Göran Sundström has been engaged in beekeeping on the family farm outside Uppsala. It all started with him and wife Eva starting to take care of a community with bees when there were too many apple trees but too few bees in the yard and from there it has continued. They made beeswax candles, soaps and ointments which they went around to markets and sold. Eventually, the focus became more and more on honey and in 1993 Upplands Honung was started.

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Today, Upplands Honung has 90 unique apiaries, 10 employees and an annual turnover of more than SEK 7 million. The basic idea is to focus on sustainability. To some extent, in order for organic farming to continue to be KRAV-certified, but also to ensure that employees feel safe when working. Upplands Honung still operates on the farm where it once started and remains a family business. In addition to Göran who is a bee master and Eva who makes all the labels, her daughter Emmy also lives on the farm with her family and also works in the company.

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In addition to the beekeeping farms on the farm, Upplands Honey has beekeepers scattered around Uppland. They produce about 30 tons of honey themselves but also buy up to 50-60 tons of honey from other beekeepers, which they then bottling up. This is done in order to be able to keep production and operations running all year round, something that is important for Upplands Honey from several aspects. Partly to be able to deliver the volumes demanded by the wholesalers they work with, and partly to be able to offer the employees the security that a permanent position provides.