Azad Ali
Azad Ali’s path to entrepreneurship took a number of harrowing turns. As a 12-year-old, he escaped from Kurdistan, and after several years of dangerous travels, he finally ended up in Sweden, where he began training as a skilled carpenter.
Occasionally, he tested his skills by creating furniture and accessories for his own use. One such creation was a modern wooden lamp, which he developed not as a prototype to launch a business, but simply as a beautiful way to increase lighting in his home.
Then one day, a friend stopped by and marveled at the workmanship. “Where I can buy one of these?” the friend asked, admiring the lamp. Azad volunteered to make another one.
A second friend had the same reaction a few weeks later. Then a friend of a friend. Requests started rolling in.
Around the same time, Azad enrolled in the JA Company Program through Ung Företagsamhet (JA Sweden), through which high-school students form real companies, develop a product or service, market and sell the product, and assess their profits.
When it was time for Azad and his team to choose a product for his company, he knew just the thing!
Azad, with his prototype lamp, in 2018
The team called themselves Trälampor-UF, organized as a JA company. “I dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur,” Azad said. “Through Ung Företagsamhet, my entrepreneurial journey took off, and we started making these environmentally friendly lamps.”
The team ended up presenting, setting up a trade booth, and competing at the national JA Sweden Company of the Year competition in Stockholm, where he sold two lamps to Mikael Damberg, Sweden’s Minister for Industry and Innovation. The Minister later posted a short video on social media showing his new lamp and demonstrating how easy it was to assemble.
“I brought one of Azad’s lamps home,” Mikael says in the video, “and today, I assembled it. It went faster than IKEA.” As you can imagine, the video received plenty of attention online.
Azad was later selected to represent his region at a dinner at the Royal Palace with the royal family, all of Sweden’s governors, and another 180 invited guests, ranging from celebrities and sports stars to community leaders. The Swedish dinner is an annual event to celebrate Swedes—including Azad—who have made a significant contribution to society.
It was an overwhelming experience for Azad to visit the palace. “I never had a country. Where I come from, you are never exposed to the people who are in charge. When I left the palace, I cried. It’s an experience I will never forget,” Azad said. While at the dinner, Azad also had a chance to talk to Prince Daniel, who sits on the board of JA Sweden. They spoke for 30 minutes, and the Prince ordered one of Azad’s lamps.
Trälampor-UF was reorganized in 2018 into an individual company and changed its name to AXD, which stands for Azad eXciting Design. Azad, now 25, continues to grow AXDSweden, which has branched into new lines. “I have broadened the range at AXDSweden,” Azad told us. “We currently have six employees and a premises of approximately 3,000 sq meters, where our employees manufacture furniture, interiors, displays, and shop fittings, and also offer contract manufacturing.”
Azad in 2022, at the AXD Sweden headquarters.
AXD Sweden and Azad recently won the 2022 ICA Entrepreneur Award “Local Hero of the Year—Junior” from among 200 nominees and five finalists. The award brings a prize of SEK 100,000. ICA, a major food retailer, created the annual award to pay tribute to committed residents who moved to Sweden and inspire others to take similar initiatives. "Azad Ali has proven to be an entrepreneur through and through,” the award committee said. “With solid craftsmanship and a sense of business, his AXDSweden has grown and become a significant player in Nybro, Sweden, where he is also a local role model for many young people." Azad added, “The prize sum will be used to develop our web presence and eventually open up an online store that will also target private individuals. The AXDSweden brand will be bigger!”
Azad also tries to give back by mentoring and supporting Swedish youth: “A lot of entrepreneurs helped and supported me on my journey,” he says. “And now I see, in so many other young people who have emigrated to Sweden, the same will and interest I had in running a business.”