Nordic VC and Startup Ecosystem

Nordic startup ecosystem is no longer in the shadow and clearly stepping up to become one of the most interesting market for the venture capital investing. It’s been working hard for years and surely have quite a few great deals to show off every year. The market is being disrupted, people are changing the way they work choosing more often entrepreneurship over corporate career and more and more local startups are popping up on the global ranking list. It’s been resulting in bringing more and more oversees investors interested in the European, Northern countries’ brilliant minds. The recent years have seen a revival of the Nordic venture scene with more than 3 billion euros raised by VC funds in the Nordic region over the last five years (by Pääomasijoittajat)

“I’VE NEVER SEEN THE AMOUNT OF REGIONAL PRIDE AND INTENT TO GROW STARTUP TIES THAT I SENSED AMONG THE NORDICS.”
– Erica Swallow, Huffington Post

It’s been happening for quite a while that the US investors are closely looking at the Nordic startup market. It’s a lot happening there and it’s just time to start taking it seriously and maybe establishing presence there. People have entrepreneurial spirit, they care about environment, want to make difference and speed up innovation process. Having Silicon Valley investing experience, great potential in Europe we can start courageously merging it all and benefit from the open boarders, mobility, remote working, distributed teams and broaden the area of interest to no boarders.

‘Founders from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland are said to be among Europe’s most successful when it comes to producing fintech unicorns.’

by Pitchbook

I researched the Nordic countries to learn a bit more about what they do, how they operate and support their startup ecosystem. I’ve been watching them for quite a while now, I visited almost all of the countries and I’d love to introduce closer the market players, notable investments done so far, world wide known events, conferences and open minded, skilled and ambitious society.

Although the UK is home to more unicorns than Sweden, the Scandinavian country is the second most prolific tech hub in the world on a per capita basis, producing 6.3 billion-dollar companies per million people, compared to Silicon Valley’s 8.1, according to a recent report from the investment firm Atomico.

The main Nordic startup hubs are Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, and Oslo. A bit smaller but rapidly growing hubs consist of Malmö (S), Lund (S), Gothenburg (S), Aarhus (D), Espoo (F) and Reykjavik (I).

Few most active Nordic Venture Capital investors:

Organisations supporting startup ecosystem:

Nordic Innovation,

Pääomasijoittajat – Finnish Venture Capital Association,

Swedish Venture Capital & Private Equity Association,

NVCA – Norwegian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association,

DVCA – Danish Venture Capital & Private Equity Association,

Accelerators, Incubators and Co-working spaces:

Denmark : Founders House is a shared workspace located in a former warehouse in Islands Brygge, Copenhagen.
Denmark: Talent Garden Rainmaking – co-working and community for tech startups in Copenhagen. You can work from their campus, learn future skills in the Innovation School or host an event.
Denmark: FintechLab is an incubator and accelerator fully focused on FinTech. They are working on creating a Danish finTech ecosystem to the highest Nordic standards.
Denmark: BloxHub is the Nordic hub for sustainable urbanization. Founded on the belief, that the challenges of global urbanization and climate change require partnerships and new ways of collaboration.
Denmark: +impact accelerator. Their mission is to support impact startups, and bridge the development gap by scaling the solutions.
Denmark: The Rabbit Hole was the winner of the best co-working space award in 2018. The Rabbit Hole is a community in the centre of Frederiksberg Avenue.
Denmark: Accelerance is Europe’s leading seed accelerator located on the campus of Copenhagen Business School(also offers corporate matching). Accelerance has accelerated more than 600 startups and more than 50% of them have raised capital.

Norway: Katapult Accelerator with amazing mission to ‘Build the world you want to live in’, they are fuelled and inspired by the deep belief in exponential technology. They believe AI and Blockchain can help impact startups to scale faster while solving real global problems.
Norway: Oslo International Hub. They create an environment for innovation and development where social and professional networking go hand in hand.
Norway: Startup Norway is a private impact organization set up in 2011 by passionate entrepreneurs who want to create a stronger and more inclusive startup community in the region.
Norway: Startup Lab Accelerator is an intensive 3 month program where you can explore and utilize the broad network at StartupLab and get access to experienced founders, investors and industry experts.
Norway: Techstars Energy Accelerator. They are seeking innovative solutions within 4 areas in the energy sector: oil and gas, new business models, digitalization and renewables.
Norway: Antler is global startup generator and early-stage VC firm that builds groundbreaking technology companies.
Norway: Driv Inkubator helps entrepreneurs who are looking to develop their high growth, unique ideas to improve the healthcare industry.
Norway: Arkwright X is the place for aspiring startups to innovate and develop. They offer a pre-seed capital injection, top quality working environment, strategy sparring & advice, multiple support functions and access to Arkwright’s extensive network.
Norway: Charge is a startup incubator for immigrants who are passionate about growing their idea into a successful business.
Norway: MESH called Norway’s first co-working community.

Sweden: SUP46 -Startup People of Sweden- helps Sweden’s next startup stars to succeed faster with fundraising, recruitment, expansion, PR & Marketing as well as office space.
Sweden: Norrsken House is a co-working space for over 350 impact entrepreneurs.
Sweden: Skane Startups is the home of local startup community initiatives Malmö Startups, Lund Startups, Helsingborg Startups, as well as the Women in Entrepreneurship community and Startup Live.
Sweden: The Ground is a digital expert hub in Malmö.
Sweden: Fast Track Malmo is a startup accelerator investing $50k in seed-stage startups. They help talented teams accelerate their growth and raise their first VC round.
Sweden: The Factory ecosystem consists of startups, scaleups, enterprises, organizations and talents. It’s been destined to become the largest innovation and tech hub in the Nordics.

Iceland: Innovation House. They are incubating local startups and entrepreneurs in Iceland by providing inexpensive office facilities, networking and collaboration space.
Iceland: Startup Reykjavík. A 10 week long mentorship driven seed stage accelerator program that runs from June to August each year.
Iceland: Ocean Kluster. Its’ mission is to create value and discover new opportunities by connecting entrepreneurs, businesses and knowledge in the marine industry.

Finland: Games Factory is a member of the partially city-owned tech startup community Maria 01. Community space for the Finnish games industry.
Finland: Maria 01 is a non-profit combination of an entrepreneurial community, a selective campus for tech teams and a technology builders club.
Finland: Startup Sauna co-working space is a focal meeting point in Northern Europe for entrepreneurs and investors. It’s a regular event space for anything startup-related: founder talks, pitching competitions and hackathons. The space is open for everyone and no membership is needed.
Finland: Cleantech Invest is a hub of Finnish CleanTech expertize and sustainable innovations.
Finland: Catapult helps big European corporations by finding them the best digital solutions and technologies from startups and tech innovators.
Finland: Boost is an entrepreneur society that encourages young students and entrepreneurs to make their dreams come true.
Finland: Kiuas is the leading startup accelerator in Finland. In their programs, they bring early-stage teams together and provide them with the best support and tools to take their progress to the next level.
Finland: xEdu is Europe’s leading business accelerator for EdTech startups creating transformative learning solutions with pedagogical impact.

Startup/Tech Events and Conferences:

Slush, Finland,
TechChill, Riga,
THE NORDIC.AI FESTIVAL,
Women in Tech, Sweden,
The Shift, Norway,
TechnoPort, Norway,
#GBG Tech Week, Sweden,
Arctic 15, Sweden,
Katapult Future Fest, Norway,
Startup Iceland, Iceland,
Latitude59, Estonia,
NordicNext, Sweden,
Tech BBQ, Denmark,
Nordic Edge Expo, Norway,
Oslo Innovation Week, Norway,
Sting Day, Sweden.

Few recent successful startups founded in Nordics:

Kubo Robot(Denmark) introduces coding in an intuitive manner to youngsters as young as four. Coding is made as easy as a puzzle giving endless insights, ideas, and inspiration for the next generation of techstars.
Labster(Denmark) has  created award-winning virtual lab simulations. It makes million dollar labs available with only one click, which are used by educational institutions across the globe, including top tier universities such as MIT and UC Berkeley.
Pleo (Denmark) offers smart payment cards for employees enabling them to buy the things they need for work, all while keeping the companies in control of spending.
Grandhood (Denmark) has taken up the challenge of revolutionizing the pension industry. It simplifies occupational pension plans, and its investment algorithm ensures that people’s financial needs are met when they reach retirement age.
Kahoot (Norway) makes learning awesome! Kahoot! brings engagement and fun to more than 1 billion players every year at school, at work, and at home.
Northvolt (Sweden). The company designs, develops and manufactures lithium-ion battery cells and complete battery systems for electric vehicles, heavy transport, mining, and energy industries, as well as portable devices
Anyfin (Sweden). Anyfin aims to lower interest rates on loans, which it claims to reduce by an average of 50%.
Klarna (Sweden) Buy what you love today and pay later in 4 instalments with Klarna. No interest. No fees. Available at all of your favourite online stores with the Klarna app.
Einride (Sweden) developed a fully electric and autonomous logging truck, called the T-Log and T-pod, an electric self-driving cargo truck, remotely controlled by drivers.
Kry (Sweden) is an app-based video service for meeting doctors and therapists at any time or any location, via smartphone or tablet.
Sana Labs (Sweden) provides an artificial intelligence platform, which learns from the student’s individual learning style and determines his or her optimal learning pattern.
Authenteq (Iceland) Authenteq provides real-time identity verification built on the principles of privacy by design. Verification of identities in 60 seconds or less, guaranteed!
Rovio (Finland) is a video game developer based in Espoo. Founded in 2003 by Helsinki University of Technology students Niklas Hed, Jarno Väkeväinen and Kim Dikert, the company is best known for the Angry Birds franchise.

Three of Sequoia Capital’s best performing portfolio companies are from Nordics – Unity (Denmark), Klarna (Sweden) and Medalia (Norway).

by TechCrunch

Other resources:

• Nordic Growth Show – Podcast,
• Startup Guide-Nordic countries,
• Nordic.VC report,
• The Nordic 100 – annual list recognising 100 most impactful and influential figures in the Nordic tech scene,
• Coworkies – Directory, Network & Job Board for Coworking Spaces,
• 15 Impact Startups in Finland to Keep an Eye On,
• The Hub – free-of-charge community platform,
• Sillicon Vikings: Nordics/Baltics Investors,
• FiBAN – Finnish Angel Business Network,
• NVN – Nordic Venture Network.

In the news:

Nordic Tech List is a website that helps give facts and information on Nordic Tech (a regional version of Crunchbase :))

VCs in the Nordics are increasingly optimistic about the future of venture capital in the region – 59% of investors view the future more positively than they did 12 months ago by Nordics.VC.

Nordic Startup Bits is more than just a media platform – it is a hub for anyone interested in Nordic entrepreneurship.

Accel raises 575 mio for early companies in Nordics and Israel.

Early-stage VC byFounders closes €100M fund to back Nordics and Baltics startups.

Nordic Startup Awards 2019 Regional Winners announced in Copenhagen. 

Now is the time to build an impact startup in the Nordics.

The hottest VC trends of 2019.

A very Nordic fintech revolution.