Strawberry: Sweden's AI Browser Tries What OpenAI and Perplexity Couldn't

Strawberry, a Stockholm start-up, has released version 1.0 of its AI browser after about a year in beta. It is launching just as the biggest names in the industry are scrapping their own browser experiments one after another, and it is positioning itself as an AI alternative for businesses. The headline frames it as trying what OpenAI and Perplexity could not, and the piece asks whether the move is brave or reckless.

The company was founded in 2023 by three people: Charles Maddock as chief executive, Sebastian Thunman as chief operating officer and Arian Hanifi as chief technology officer. Maddock, in his mid-twenties, already has an exit behind him after founding and selling a climate tech start-up. The team currently numbers 12.

Strawberry raised a $6 million seed round (about €5.35 million) a year ago. It was led by General Catalyst and EQT Ventures, with participation from the founders of Lovable, Supabase and Hugging Face.

The available text ends at a section titled "Agents as 'Colleagues'", so it does not explain how the browser works, what its AI agents do, how it is priced or how it differs technically from the products that rivals have dropped. What it does establish is the timing and the bet: a small Nordic team with well-known backers is shipping a business-focused AI browser at a moment when larger players are retreating from the category.