Meet our accelerators: Ragnar Strigård & Njord
By Olesia Karvetskaia, Chief Operating Officer
July 7, 2026
Ragnar Strigård, Chief Technical Officer
From Industry Digitalisation to Biotech Builder
Growing up in a family company in Swedish tech hub Karlskrona, Ragnar Strigård got to see the ups and downs of Swedish IT-sector from an early age. The company his father co-founded in the late 80´s made it through the global IT-crash and continued on an expansion journey, where Ragnar moved from coding in his teens to board positions and co-ownership in present days. But he never hesitated about building his own career, and moved away from the small city-life to study engineering at Chalmers Technological University. Subsequently, he picked up roles as information architect at Sony Ericsson, Mitel and PDSVISION, and as such laying the groundwork for digitalisation revolution of heavy industry players such as Mitsubishi LogisNext, Arcam (General Electric) and Scania.
In spite of the entrepreneurial upbringing, it was never a given that Ragnar would found his own company, and he certainly never expected to do so together with his wife, Helena Strigård, who he met at Gothenburg School of Business and Economics.
“We have had completely different careers for two decades, with Helena going from lobbying roles in Brussels, to working for the Swedish government and eventually circle back to life science industry”, Ragnar explains. But when she voiced the challenges facing companies that she had worked for - the time consuming yet critical matchmaking required to raise capital, find partners, clients or assets - I realised that what they need is something that I can build.
The Birth of Njord
At the time when the tech asset of what was to become Ventures Accelerated was first drawn up in Ragnar’s head, Helena was heading up a CDMO in Northern Sweden, and tasked to penetrate the US market. The B2B sales within life science being a precision’s game, where specific needs of potential clients had to fit just right into the capabilities of the service provider, converting leads could feel like finding a needle in a haystack. Enormous efforts goes into every lead interaction, since conversion only come about when people who trust each other are ready to sign the deal.
What Ragnar created as response to his wife’s self-lived challenge was an advanced AI-powered analytical platform that allows its handler to find that needle in the haystack for anyone in life science looking for something and somebody with precision. So, basically everyone.
Starting off with coding a script specifically created for each client company, the approach called Precision Partnering then proceeds into analysing and filtering through ALL publicly available data to find precise hits, followed by iterative rounds of deep diving into those hits for validation. Combining this with the vast human networks of Ventures Accelerated, and a fast track to conversion has been created. The platform operated by Ragnar has been named Njord, after the Norse God of Seafare, making reference to how the tool help clients navigate unknown waters to find the riches, as they team up with the so called ”Accelerators”. These are C-suite life science leaders/investors who assemble like avengers with diverse skill sets. Just as important, they are deeply connected to the world’s strongest life science hubs.
Working alongside these accelerators and clients, Ragnar has got to know what defines a successful growth journey first hand. According to him, it’s always a matter of matching together human, financial and digital capital in a precise and timely manner.
“It does not matter if I talk to companies looking for capital and outlicense opportunities or investors and big pharma scouting for assets, or service providers who want to increase their market share in a specific market – they all need to work through personal networks to create human relations on the one hand, and plow through huge quantities of opportunities on the other. We do not seek to replace the human interaction, but to make sure it is relevant to pursue for both parties. No more barking up the wrong tree.”
A growing universe of companies
While the first steps towards creating Ventures Accelerated were taken in summer 2023, it took another couple of years before the company was officially launched. According to Ragnar, this was both about maturing into the actual value proposition where the AI-platform would form a centre piece alongside the Accelerator consortium’s pooled human networks, and building the financial resources needed for a width of services. The blueprint for Ventures Accelerated included global consultancy services and angel investment syndication, paired with high-end partnering events and in-house media channels already from the outset. Consequently, preparations took us a while, Ragnar concludes. Meanwhile, the AI-revolution had accelerated what could be done with the platform.
“We are only just beginning to unveil application areas of Njord. The magic sauce is really how we always keep it real in terms of what AI can do, and not. Most people can prompt an AI-agent these days, but managing the iterative deep diving required to source the not so obvious hits and secure accuracy is what sets us apart.”
Over a year into the role as the company’s CTO, Ragnar does not regret making the leap into founding companies.
“The best part of the journey is co-developing together with our clients, be it start-ups and scale ups looking to reach their next milestone or multinational corporations exploring new markets, or investors and big pharmas sourcing for assets. And finding just the right set of experienced talents world-wide to accelerate the client journey”.
Summer 2026 and another chapter of the founder journey is about to begin for the Strigårds duo.
Within shortly, a sister company to Ventures Accelerated is to be launched.
“We are only just beginning to build our VA-universe”, Ragnar concludes.