Prins Daniels Fellowship

What Prins Daniels Fellowship does

Prins Daniels Fellowship is a non-profit entrepreneurship initiative founded in 2013 and operated by Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien (IVA) in close collaboration with H.K.H. Prince Daniel, who serves as Honorary Chair. The initiative addresses the fear of failure and lack of role models that prevent many young Swedes from starting businesses, by providing mentorship, networking, and exposure to successful entrepreneurs.

The core offering is a two-year structured mentoring programme for entrepreneurs under 40 who run either an early-stage startup with clear growth ambition or an established company with annual sales of SEK 5 million or more. Each year approximately 10 entrepreneurs are selected from a competitive applicant pool (over 200 applications for the 2026 cohort) and matched with hand-picked senior mentors from the Swedish business community. Beyond the mentoring programme, the initiative delivers three additional activities: international and domestic entrepreneurship outreach trips (Singapore 2019, USA West Coast 2022, Norway 2023, Paris 2024, UK 2025); entrepreneurial talks at Swedish schools and universities; and an annual flagship Entrepreneurship Day gathering. The initiative also convenes a Steering Committee chaired by Jessica Schultz (Partner, Northzone) and including Marcus Wallenberg (Chairman of SEB and Preses of IVA) and Carl Bennet (owner of Carl Bennet AB), providing direct access to senior Swedish industrial and financial leadership.

The initiative has no commercial revenue model: participation is free to selected mentees and the programme is funded entirely by six corporate partners (Carl Bennet, Handelsbanken, Marianne & Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, Nordea, SEB, and Swedbank). Since 2013, 82 entrepreneurs have been admitted across eight cohorts. The organization is headquartered at IVA's offices at Grev Turegatan 16, Stockholm, with a 1-10 person operational team.

Name

Prins Daniels Fellowship

Legal name

Prins Daniels Fellowship

Website

https://www.prinsdanielsfellowship.se

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Prins Daniels Fellowship is a Swedish non-profit initiative, run by IVA with H.K.H. Prince Daniel, that runs a two-year mentoring programme, entrepreneurship trips, and school talks for entrepreneurs under 40. Since 2013, 82 entrepreneurs have been admitted; funding comes from six corporate sponsors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Entrepreneurship Development Programs

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Scholarship & Fellowship Foundations and Trusts (EDADAHAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Entrepreneurship, Business & Innovation Camps (EDAMALAL)

Keywords

• Entrepreneurship mentoring
• Nonprofit fellowship program
• Leadership development
• Startup education
• Corporate sponsorship

Headquarters

HQ city

Stockholm

HQ country

Sweden

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Non-profit initiative: Prins Daniels Fellowship is a non-profit initiative run by Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien (IVA) in collaboration with H.K.H. Prince Daniel. It is funded by partners including Carl Bennet, Handelsbanken, Marianne & Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, Nordea, SEB, and Swedbank. No revenue is generated from program participants.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Prins Daniels Fellowship is a non-profit, IVA-administered development program that selects ten Swedish entrepreneurs under 40 each year and pairs them with senior business leaders for a two-year mentorship. The fellowship complements mentorship with entrepreneurship outreach trips to international destinations, school-based talks, and an annual Entrepreneursdag event. The program is funded entirely by corporate sponsors and imposes no fees on participants.

Product overview

Prins Daniels Fellowship is a unified entrepreneurship mentorship and inspiration programme—not a software product. It operates as a single integrated offering comprising four interconnected components: the two-year Mentorsprogrammet (Mentoring Programme) which provides hand-picked mentors to young entrepreneurs; Entreprenörsresor (Entrepreneurship Outreach Trips) for international and domestic business exchanges; Entreprenörssamtal (Entrepreneurial Talks) including school visits that connect students with inspiring entrepreneurs; and Prins Daniels Fellowships Entreprenörsdag, the annual flagship entrepreneurship day event. The programme was established in 2013 and is run by Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien (IVA) in collaboration with H.K.H. Prins Daniel.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Mentorsprogram (Mentoring Programme) A two-year mentorship that pairs each admitted entrepreneur with a senior Swedish business leader for structured guidance, with the program running its 9th round in 2026 and having admitted 82 entrepreneurs since 2013.
• Entrepreneurshipsresor (Entrepreneurship Outreach Trips) International and domestic study trips that expose fellowship participants to leading entrepreneurial ecosystems, with past destinations including Singapore, the USA, Norway, the UK, and France.
• Entrepreneurssamtal (Entrepreneurial Talks) School visits and talks delivered by Prins Daniels Fellowship entrepreneurs to engage Swedish students and build awareness of entrepreneurship as a career path.
• Prins Daniels Fellowships Entrepreneursdag (Entrepreneurship Day) An annual flagship event that convenes the fellowship community, alumni, mentors, sponsors, and partners to celebrate and showcase the year's cohort.

Quantifiable outcome

• 82 young entrepreneurs admitted to the mentoring programme since 2013
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• IVA Näringslivsråd (Business Council)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Since 2024, the Business Council of IVA has co-organized innovation trips within Sweden with Prins Daniels Fellowship, strengthening synergies between networks and providing opportunities for learning and exchange with entrepreneurs and business leaders.
• Nordic Innovation House SingaporeminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019A hub where small and medium-sized Nordic companies can exchange experiences and receive support in entering the Singaporean market. Prins Daniels Fellowship visited during the 2019 Singapore entrepreneurship trip.
• Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien (IVA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) is the primary operator of Prins Daniels Fellowship, running the initiative in collaboration with H.K.H. Prince Daniel since 2013. IVA provides institutional infrastructure, staff, and connections to the Swedish business community.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Endeavor: Global non-profit supporting high-impact entrepreneurs through mentorship, networking, and access to a vetted community of founders and business leaders — directly analogous mission and model to Prins Daniels Fellowship, though operating across many countries rather than Sweden alone.
• Startupbootcamp: Global accelerator network running mentorship-driven programmes for early-stage founders with corporate and institutional partnerships; closely comparable structure (corporate sponsors, mentor matching, cohort model) to Prins Daniels Fellowship.
• Ashoka: Global fellowship for leading social entrepreneurs providing long-term mentoring, peer networks, and institutional backing — a comparable fellowship-style mentoring model for changemakers, including a Nordic presence.
• Echoing Green: Fellowship programme providing financial support, mentorship, and community to emerging social entrepreneurs; comparable fellowship structure, selective cohort intake, and emphasis on role models.
• MassChallenge: Global non-profit accelerator running equity-free, mentor-driven cohorts for early-stage startups; directly comparable in being a non-equity mentorship-focused non-profit accelerator serving high-potential founders.

Broad incumbents

• Y Combinator: World's largest startup accelerator providing mentorship, funding, and a powerful alumni network to early-stage founders; broader, for-profit oriented incumbent in the same entrepreneur-mentorship space.
• Techstars: Global accelerator running mentorship-driven cohorts in partnership with corporations and investors; a wider-portfolio incumbent offering overlapping capability in entrepreneur mentorship and corporate-partnership activations.
• Kauffman Foundation: Major US foundation funding entrepreneurship research, education, and ecosystem programmes; a large, established grantmaking player with a comparable mission to catalyse entrepreneurship, though at much greater scale and broader scope.

Regional players

• European Innovation Council: EU-level programme providing funding, mentoring, and acceleration services to European deep-tech and high-impact startups; a regional funder/fellowship analogue targeting the same entrepreneur population from a different geographic anchor.
• Vinnova: Sweden's innovation agency funding R&D and growth of innovative Swedish companies; an in-country public-sector peer that supports Swedish entrepreneurship through grants, programmes, and ecosystem investments.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/prinsdaniels-fellowship

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Prins Daniels Fellowship