Scandinavia and Sweden have – over the course of the last ten years – become one of the hottest and most successful tech corridors in the world. In 2015, Sweden became the second most prolific tech hub in the world on a per capita basis, producing USD6.3bn in value per million people, compared to Silicon Valley’s USD8.1bn, according to a recent report from the investment firm Atomico. It’s a salute to Sweden’s innovation and tech savvy.
Clavister, a Latin word meaning ‘Key holder’ came together by a union of chance in an unlikely Swedish place. Örnsköldsvik, located between Stockholm and the Arctic Circle, is blessed with natural beauty. But more importantly, it’s powered by an excellent university in Umeå that feeds its knowledge waters as well as an entrepreneurial spirit born of creating value and wealth from modest means.
Entrepreneur Peter Johansson, who had founded an early Internet company, EnterNet Sweden HB in 1995. As it grew, the need for more equipment – namely a secure router – became mission critical. Johansson had joined forces with another software entrepreneur, John Vestberg, who, together with talented software engineer Mikael Olsson, quickly set about solving problem. Together, they’d create a secure and fast router, something that took larger companies teams of staff and budget to achieve. In fact, they were developing an actual product that could be offered to the market, a device and code that could take on the security aspects of an always on Internet connection. It was an idea that could be sold to the world. Clavister AB was born in 2001 as EnterNet AB became the the new company, founded by Johansson and co-founded by Vestberg, ready to see how far their ambitions could go.
By 2002–2003 they launched their first physical appliance, a highly regarded firewall device that performed well in test after test. By 2008 the first virtual gateway was released, another critical technological milestone. Clavister’s reputation grew and European markets started to hunger for their products and services. Soon Asian offices were added. The development of their own, proprietary software – first cOS core and later its cOS stream solution – made the product into an award winning and industry respected leader in cybersecurity and digital threat deterrence. Investment and growth have helped put Clavister create an installed base of 20,000 customers with a 95% satisfaction rate and propelled it to be one of the few Swedish technology companies to be listed on the NASDAQ OMX Nordic exchange. It’s also achieved a formidable client list that includes Nokia, Canon, D-Link as well as collaborations with Intel, Redhat, VMware and others. It’s an almost 20 year history that has led to Clavister to its present market position, a leader in virtual security with an eye to the future.
