Husqvarna Group x Combient Foundry since 2019
Husqvarna Group, a global leader in outdoor power products with a history spanning over 330 years, is driving innovation in manufacturing, sustainability, and digital services. Recognizing that emerging technologies will redefine how the company operates, Husqvarna Group actively collaborates with high-potential startups to accelerate its transformation. A central pillar of this approach is its membership with Combient Foundry, which supports Husqvarna Group in identifying, assessing and working with startup solutions.
Husqvarna Group’s Approach
Husqvarna Group’s venture client operations focus on combining deep internal expertise with external innovation to develop both incremental and radical solutions. Husqvarna Group’s 2030 strategy highlights partnerships which bring speed, expertise and help to become asset light. Reinventing is a tribute to 330+ year legacy, which has contained bold ideas and courage to question the existing.
As Mila Kostadinova, Director, Digital Business Exploration and Development at Husqvarna Group explains, “Several new technologies today are going to disrupt how we work going forward. If you understand them, you can be better at what you do today and also enable complete new business and offerings for the future”, reflecting the mindset behind the company’s continuous innovation.
Combient Foundry and Husqvarna Group collaboration began in 2019, and started strongly with Husqvarna Group meeting Overstory through Combient Foundry alliance member Stora Enso. Overstory is a startup specialized in forest inventory technology. “With the same technologies, we wanted to see how we could apply this in an urban context,” says Erik Swan, Director, Digital Business Exploration at Husqvarna Group.
Together, they co-created the methodology, process, and concept behind HUGSI, Husqvarna Urban Green Space Insights, the company’s platform for monitoring urban greenery. Early engagement in the Netherlands proved the concept’s value: in just a few months, HUGSI helped 146 municipalities track, communicate, and take action on greening initiatives, a huge share of all municipalities in the country. In 2025, HUGSI is a strategic project gaining more traction and part of several ongoing development projects. HUGSI is today monitoring 516 cities in 79 countries with 780 million inhabitants. The platform has generated significant value, including over €3 million in publicity last year. Read more about HUGSI from hugsi.green
Scaling innovation through partnerships
Husqvarna Group’s collaboration with startups has resulted in tangible, scalable outcomes across digital and physical products. ReSpare, a digital marketplace where dealers can buy and sell spare parts between themselves, is also a result of successful collaboration with Sharetribe, a modern SaaS platform for renting equipment. ReSpare was launched in 2022 in South Africa, Poland, and Brazil, and is expected to support 5,000 dealers and enable 100,000 transactions by the end of 2025. Read more about ReSpare here.
In hardware innovation, Husqvarna Group partnered with Skylotec to co-develop a motorized lift for arborists. By integrating Husqvarna’s battery ecosystem, the product reached market quickly, offering real, practical benefits to professionals and achieving strong adoption and sales.
As Erik Swan puts it, “We at Husqvarna Group try to build platforms for co-creation where we can start collaborating on the adjacent side and then gradually move into the core of our company”, highlighting their methodical approach to scaling innovation.
Adopting innovation with Husqvarna Group and Combient Foundry
Husqvarna Group’s experience highlights three critical levers for successful venture client partnerships:
1. Curiosity and openness: Teams must remain curious and adaptable to emerging technologies.
2. Structured experimentation: Platforms for co-creation allow incremental learning and safe exploration of new capabilities.
3. Alignment and readiness: Success depends on organizational alignment, clear data strategies, and defining measurable outcomes for pilots.
By combining internal expertise, startup agility, and Combient Foundry’s support, Husqvarna Group can systematically explore, test, and scale innovations that enhance both core operations and new growth areas. From digital platforms like HUGSI to hardware co-creation, Husqvarna Group shows that a thoughtful, strategic partnership model can accelerate transformation, deliver tangible business impact, and drive long-term sustainability.
