More than 40 years of history in innovation and information technology.

Henryk Rubinstein, founder of Textalk

Henryk Rubinstein started studying engineering at the Politechnika Warszawska, immigrated to Sweden in 1968, and graduated from the Chalmers University of Technology. In January 1979, Henryk met Leif J. Andersson, a journalist from the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper, at a Chinese restaurant in Gothenburg. There, they sketched out the first steps for creating a newspaper for readers with visual impairments. Later that year, Henryk created the world’s first digital newspaper in conjunction with Chalmers and Göteborgs-Posten.

Henryk and a friend, Aleksander Ratz, founded Textalk AB in 1987. At the Innovation Cup 1988 (sponsored by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri), Henryk received a grant of 17,500 SEK “for innovative and applicative thinking regarding financial and marketing issues.” That same year, Henryk was awarded the IEE Prize for Helping Disabled People – Certificate of Commendation from the UK Institution of Electrical Engineers.

Lars Gustavsson from Tanumshede, Sweden, received his diploma in engineering from Chalmers in 1993. About 70 people applied for the first job posting as a programmer at Textalk. Henryk chose Lars the same year textalk.se was registered (one of the first 1000 domain names in Sweden). Today, Lars is part owner and chief technology officer of Textalk.

Together with Textalk, Helsingborgs Dagblad (hd.se) launch of one of the first newspapers in Sweden to go online.

The first version of Textalk Webshop was launched.

Between 1994 and 2002, Henryk employed more people: Rikard, Svante, Oskar, and Fredrik. Alongside Henryk and Lars, they became owners in the company.

"PC För Alla" magazine ranked Textalk Webshop as best performer in their evaluation of Swedish e-commerce platforms.

The Swedish business newspaper Dagens Industri awarded Textalk the DI Gassell award 2010.

Rikard Sigvardsson started out as the first book scanner at Textalk in 1994. He has worked with website design, product development, and marketing since 1997.

Textalk was awarded DI Gassell 2011 for the second year in a row. The ceremony that year at the Gothenburg Concert Hall had over 600 attendees. Interesting to note is that Textalk delivers Dagens Industri to its visually impaired readers.

The Swedish Agency for Accessible Media (Myndigheten för tillgängliga medier, MTM), chose Textalk to be the national provider of digital solutions for people with visual impairments.

Textalk AB named entrepreneur of the year by companies in Mölndal, Sweden.

Position as the leading e-commerce provider in Sweden held and reinforced with more than 4000 active web shops

The most comprehensive startup project to date launched: a completely new ecosystem for media houses and companies wishing to improve accessibility and readability of their content. Prenly. For Everyone. Everywhere.

The Textalk Media AB subsidiary formed together with colleagues Jens and Magnus. Textalk media solutions taken on and further developed by Textalk Media, making it the Group’s startup venue for future investment in media. (Picture: Jens and Magnus trying on suit jackets.)

Textalk Media expansion in Scandinavia with newspapers for visually impaired readers. Iceland and Finland first in line.

Textalk Webshop launched in Norway under the brand name of Abicart. Read more at abicart.no

Textalk Webshop launched in India under the brand name of Abicart. A dozen people in the India office making things easier for Indian businesses to start professional web shops. Read more at abicart.in

Textalk Webshop and Textalk operations in e-commerce solutions transferred to the Abicart AB subsidiary.

Textalk operations in customer-adapted web directed by Magnus Blad from the office in Alingsås.

Jens Halvarsson, CEO of Textalk and head of the Textalk Group, was joined by his colleague Magnus Lundh as owners of the parent company, Textalk AB to continue innovating in talking newspapers, web, e-commerce, and other solutions that facilitate the online participation of all people.