Holyvolt: Swedish-German cleantech startup loses heavyweight chairman

Ronnie Leten’s decision to step down from Holyvolt’s board emerged in documents filed with the Swedish Companies Registration Office and seen by Impact Loop.

Holyvolt is a Swedish-German company developing sustainable energy tech, and has ambitions to deliver heat, light, and energy storage. But if you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone. The firm is something of a stealth-mode company—so secretive it doesn’t even have a website. However, Impact Loop understands it operates a lab in Munich that focuses heavily on research and development.

The firm's LinkedIn page suggests it has a trademarked "Nanopaste-Printing Technology" which us used in the manufacturing of solar cells, battery cells and heating and is "proven to have a superior performance at a much lower cost, with a near-zero impact on the environment."

A nano-paste is a material often engineered at the nanoscale (one-billionth of a metre) with unique properties due to its extremely small particle size.

In 2024, Holyvolt raised SEK 100 million (approximately USD 11 million; EUR 9.5 million) from a star-studded investor lineup, including Volvo and FAM, an investment firm associated with one of Sweden’s most influential business families, the Wallenbergs. It has also received money from Course Corrected, a climate-tech investment firm committed to sustainable tech innovations, and Jacob de Geer and Magnus Nilsson, known for revolutionising digital payments in Europe after co-founding iZettle (now the PayPal-owned Zettle).

Ronnie Leten steps in (and out)

Holyvolt brought on heavyweight Ronnie Leten as chairman during a shareholder meeting last October. Leten is a veteran of European industry, having been CEO of Swedish industrial machinery company Atlas Copco and, until 2023, chairman of telecom giant Ericsson.

"He’s fantastic at understanding the bigger picture and assessing risks,” Holyvolt’s founder and CEO, Mathias Ingvarsson, told Impact Loop at the time. “An incredibly competent person to bring on board."

But now, less than three months later, Leten has left the board entirely. Impact Loop reached out to Ingvarsson for a comment, but as of writing, he has not provided one.

New chair with pedigree in strategy and academia

Another well-known business figure has already been announced as his replacement: Magnus Tyreman, former European head of McKinsey. Tyreman, who currently serves as a board member for Bonnier Group and as chair of the Stockholm School of Economics, will now take the reins as Holyvolt's new chairperson.

What this means for the future of the company remains unclear. With high-profile backers and leadership, Holyvolt remains a name to watch in the sustainable energy space. However, the sudden departure of Leten raises questions about the firm's leadership strategy as it navigates its ambitions.