EQT Leads, Batch 12026-08-03

Vaja

Tobii's founder and 20-year CEO Henrik Eskilsson building vertical solar tracking for northern latitudes; pre-seed led by node.vc, €3.1M seed 2026.
Outlier-founder seed ← All leads
Founded
2023Stockholm (559450-9894)
Seed
€3.1M2026, follows node.vc pre-seed
Founders
Eskilsson + OlssonTobii · Soldag
Sector
Solar / energyvertical tracking, high latitudes
Series A
Not raisedseed-stage
Why this fits the sweetspotOutlier founder by any definition: Henrik Eskilsson co-founded Tobii and ran it for two decades to a publicly listed global category leader. Second-time energy founder alongside him (Anders Olsson, Soldag). Backed at pre-seed by his own former Tobii co-founders through node.vc, the people who know him best re-upped. Energy TAM with a northern-latitude technical wedge.
01

What the company does

Vaja develops vertical solar-tracking systems optimized for northern latitudes, raising energy yield where low sun angles make conventional fixed panels weakest. The founding insight pairs Eskilsson's hardware-at-scale experience with Olsson's solar-installation background (Soldag).

02

Founders & leadership

Henrik Eskilsson: co-founder; co-founded Tobii, the global eye-tracking leader, and served as its CEO for ~20 years through IPO (Nasdaq Stockholm). Anders Olsson: co-founder; founder of solar company Soldag. Registry confirms both on the board of Vaja AB (559450-9894, founded 2023-10).

03

Market, why vertical tracking in the north

At high latitudes the sun sits low for most of the year, so fixed-tilt panels systematically under-yield exactly where land is cheap and power prices spike in winter. Vertical tracking raises yield in low-sun conditions and pairs naturally with agrivoltaics (land stays usable). Nordic grid zones (SE3/SE4, southern Norway/Finland) price winter power at multiples of summer, so yield shifted toward winter is worth disproportionately more per kWh.

04

Funding & signal

Pre-seed led by node.vc, whose partners include John Elvesjö and Mårten Skogö, Eskilsson's Tobii co-founders, followed by a €3.1M seed (2026). Founders' closest former collaborators funding the new venture is among the strongest founder-quality signals available.

05

What the public record does not disclose

Deployment pipeline, unit economics vs. conventional trackers, and manufacturing strategy are not public. Hardware-energy capital intensity means the A, when it comes, will likely be sized for deployment scale, worth understanding their capital plan early.