EQT Founder Backs Startup Swebal With Plans to Build TNT Factory

Swedish defense startup Swebal has raised €3 million ($3.5 million) from investors including Thomas von Koch, the co-founder of private equity firm EQT AB, to help it construct a factory manufacturing the explosive material TNT.

The facility in Nora, Sweden is targeting annual production of 4,000 metric tons of TNT by late 2027, which will help bolster Europe’s supply chain of a material used in military munitions like artillery shells, according to Swebal Chief Executive Officer Joakim Sjoblom.

“I dare say that every single European manufacturer today has an import dependency on Asia,” Sjoblom said in an interview. “That’s ...