From Stockholm to Oxfordshire: What Inify Laboratories' UK Journey can teach Swedish Businesses

What does it take to move from a strong home market into one of the world's most complex and competitive healthcare systems? For Inify Laboratories, the answer began with 18 months of careful groundwork and a mindset built on curiosity, resilience, and a clear-eyed view of the long game.

Inify Laboratories is a Swedish diagnostic company specialising in prostate cancer and gastrointestinal disease. In October 2024, it formally established its UK entity. By May 2025, it had signed a lease at Milton Park in Oxfordshire, one of the UK's most prominent science and technology parks. Seven local employees are now in place, with consultants covering specialist functions, and the company is firmly in launch phase, targeting both NHS trusts and private healthcare providers.

It is an early-stage story. But the decisions taken so far carry important lessons for companies considering the same journey.

A market too big to ignore

The scale of the UK healthcare market is hard to overstate, so is the pressure it is under. Diagnostic backlogs, rising demand, and an ageing population have pushed the NHS to seek faster, more efficient solutions, and this is the gap Inify has moved to fill.

"It is a huge market for healthcare services with an extensive need for highly efficient solutions to cope with existing and future challenges with workload and quality demand," says Fredrik Palm, CEO of Inify Group. The company's diagnostic services, are built precisely for that kind of demand: high volume, high stakes, and time-sensitivity.

There is also a longer strategic logic at play. "The NHS is a very respected brand globally in healthcare, so successful market penetration will most likely resonate well and support expansion into countries all over the world," Fredrik says. A foothold in the UK, in other words, is a first step in growing globally.

Building from the ground up: people first

Inify's early-stage strategy comes down to the very fundament of the company: getting the right people on board and building a culture around them.

"Number one is to make sure we recruit a talented and committed team and set the company culture," Fredrik says. That local team then works in close collaboration with colleagues across the wider Inify group, combining on-the-ground knowledge with institutional support.

In practice, it is a deliberate rejection of a common expansion pitfall: treating hiring as logistics rather than core strategy. For Inify, the people and company culture is the very engine that keeps the business running.

"Be curious about cultural differences, create understanding and invest time in developing company culture in your local team," Fredrik adds. Sweden's reputation for flat, collaborative working environments is real, but it cannot simply be transplanted. It has to be built, deliberately, in a new context.

The unexpected value of reaching out

However, even well-prepared expansions can run into challenges. For Inify, one of the early friction points was a purely administrative hurdle: opening a UK bank account.

"One thing I would have done earlier is to reach out to the British Embassy in Sweden to find out what kind of support they could offer, that I was not aware of. It was not on my radar until they reached out to us," Fredrik admits. Ultimately, they helped Inify overcome that challenge, and another introduction to the local Chamber of Commerce followed, opening a web of support that proved equally valuable.

What makes Inify different

Inify's differentiators sit on two distinct but connected axes: clinical specialisation and environmental accountability.

On the diagnostic side, the company's focus on prostate cancer and gastrointestinal disease targets some of the NHS's most acute pressure points. On sustainability, Inify has set a net zero target of 2045, deliberately aligned with the NHS's own commitment.

The operational detail behind that commitment is notable. The laboratory runs on at least 90% renewable energy, workflows are fully paperless, consumables have been reduced by 30%, chemicals are recycled through a dedicated recovery system, and transportation packaging is reused. All of which matters when building trust with an institution such as the NHS.

Practical advice for the road ahead

Fredrik does not dress up the difficulty of what Inify has taken on, and his advice to other Swedish businesses reflects that honesty.

"Conduct a thorough pre-study to understand the market conditions in your industry. However, do not expect that you know everything, so make sure you have perseverance to navigate through bureaucracy and keep your focus on your long-term goals, surprises will come and you need to be able to handle them," he says.

Leadership, change, and the bigger picture

Inify's UK story is about committing to a direction despite lack of certainty and maintaining focus once complications arise. That kind of leadership is not unique to international expansion. The same qualities, comfort with ambiguity, openness to learning, a long-term orientation, are what distinguish organisations that navigate change well from those that stall.

Fredrik points to something Sweden does structurally well in this regard. Innovation in Swedish business, he argues, is ‘largely related to less hierarchical company cultures.’ That openness to challenge, collaboration, and ideas from anywhere in the organisation could be a very competitive asset on the UK stage.

Inify is still writing the early chapters of its UK story. But the approach they have taken, led by rigorous preparation, people, and an openness to learn and evolve, is a template to take on for any Swedish business ready to make the move.