Chalmers Innovation model proven in $11M sale of start-up

Exit

First exit from Chalmers.

The sellers are the management team and founders of the company Alexander Hars and Lars Karlsson, the business incubator Chalmers Innovation and the seed investor Innovationsbron West. System OK will maintain its operations in Gothenburg as a subsidiary of Sonic Solutions of Novato, California.

System OK was founded in 2002 with backing from Chalmers Innovation. The company’s software product BackOnTrack is installed in over 140, 000 computers. BackOnTrack provides a fast way to rescue failed systems from corruption, virus infection, and faulty software installations, and enables users to immediately restore data lost due to accidental file deletion or system corruption.

“Chalmers Innovation, a pre seed investor and business incubator, invests in early stage technology-based ideas. Together with the founders high growth companies are created and developed. To sell System OK after just four years to a new strong owner feels really good,” said Olle Stenberg, CEO of Chalmers Innovation.

The sale of System OK will generate approximately $3.2 million to Chalmers Innovation and its financing partners Innovationsbron West and Chalmersinvest, a 16-fold return on the original investment.

Stenberg said the sale is a demonstration that Chalmers Innovation system has the capability to create strong companies. He added, “It has also demonstrated the potential profitability of very early stage pre-seed and seed investments.”

Chalmers Innovation is the leading business incubator in Sweden and a pre seed investor. Since its formation in 1999 Chalmers Innovation has been involved in 75 projects that have resulted in 55 new technology based companies.

“High-return exits are essential for securing future investments in new projects. This deal is a small step towards our vision of creating a self-sustaining incubation process,” said Stenberg.