In Sweden there is a potential to double the amount of industrial excess heat from todays 5 TWh that is delivered into district heating networks. This paper investigates factors that are influencing industrial excess heat collaborations. The paper presents result from qualitative interviews as well as answers through a more quantitative web based survey which has been sent out to stakeholders in existing Swedish industrial excess heat collaborations. This work provides new evidence on that economic motivations are the most common driver for starting up a collaboration, but well in place factors like transparency as well as investment sharing between the partners becomes important for a long-term successful collaboration.