The Nordics is usually thought of as the home of large climate tech scaleups like H2 Green Steel and Northvolt. The two giants combined raised €9bn in January of this year — a huge portion of the €11.5bn in equity and debt funding raised by startups in the region in the first seven months of 2024.
But all startups have to start up somewhere. In the same period, early-stage startups in the Nordics raised €446m, according to Sifted data. Climate tech is the most popular vertical at early stage, with more than €270m invested.
But which funds are participating in the most deals?
Below are the most active early-stage investors in the Nordics in 2024, tracked by Sifted. We’ve counted both follow-on and first-time investments over €1m; we haven’t included debt funding — or the vast majority of unannounced rounds.
Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO)
Deal count: 12
HQ: Copenhagen
Although well-known in Denmark, the state-owned investor Vaekstfonden is not that well-known outside of its borders. But it is the most active early-stage investor in the Nordics, or — to be concrete — in Denmark.
The current focus for the fund, which is now part of a much larger entity EIFO (a merger between three state funds) is climate tech, defence and security, and ‘transformative tech’, such as quantum. It has an annual budget of €125m set aside for direct VC investments.
The fund does about 5-10 new equity investments per year from 5m-200m DKK (€670k-€27m). This year, so far, it has made 12 new investments and 30 follow-on investments.
Notable investments:
- Cellugy, a Søborg-based startup that develops cosmetics using sustainable alternative ingredients, which raised a €4.9m seed round in May, led by CIG Ventures and Denmark’s Unconventional Ventures.
- Draupnir Bio, a Copenhagen-based therapeutics startup targeting protein degradation, which raised a €12m funding round in July by MP Healthcare, EIFO, Inkef Capital and Novo Holdings.
- Monthio, a Søborg-based open finance startup, which raised a €10m seed round in June, led by EIFO with the participation of Swedish investment company Harmar.
Lifeline Ventures
Deal count: 7
HQ: Helsinki
Lifeline is a generalist fund focused on early-stage startups, mainly in Finland but also elsewhere in the Nordics. The VC closed its fifth fund of €150m in 2023.
Notable deals:
- Photoncycle, an Oslo-based startup using solid hydrogen for interseasonal storage of solar energy, which raised a €5m funding round in April, led by Lifeline Ventures.
- Steady Energy, a Finnish startup based in Rauma using nuclear technology for heating. It raised €10m in a funding round led by Lifeline Ventures and San Francisco-based Yes VC.
Antler
Deal count: 6
HQ: Singapore, with offices all over the world
Antler invests in a wide range of companies, from B2B and healthtech to property tech and consumer, via its accelerator programmes and several separate funds. It’s investing out of its second Nordic fund (having done a second close of €70m in July); for most deals, it’s not the lead investor. These six deals do not include startups it has funded in its accelerator.
Notable deals:
- Sloyd, an Oslo-based gaming startup, which raised €3m seed round in May from, among others, Andreessen Horowitz, Antler and Norwegian VC Skyfall Ventures.
- Buddywise, a Stockholm-based startup that uses AI for workplace safety, which raised a €3.5m seed round in May, led by Swedish VC J12, Finnish industrial tech VC Kvanted and Antler.
Industrifonden
Deal count: 6
HQ: Stockholm
An evergreen VC fund of around €370m — formerly a state-owned fund — which focuses on deeptech, life sciences and transformative technologies.
Notable deals:
- Asgard Therapeutics, a Swedish startup, based in Lund, which is working on biotech cell reprogramming for cancer immunotherapies. It raised a €30m Series A in March, led by German VC RV Invest and Johnson & Johnson Innovation.
- ZeroPoint Technologies, a Swedish deeptech startup based in Gothenburg which is developing semiconductors and photonics. It raised a €5m Series A in May, led by Munich-based VC Matterwave Ventures.
Novo Holdings
HQ: Copenhagen
Deal count: 6
Novo Holdings is the parent company of Novo Nordisk and has a budget of $200m annually for investing in and creating early stage startups within life sciences, climate and quantum.
Notable investments:
- REDUCED, a Copenhagen-based foodtech startup which develops food made from surplus produce. It raised a €6m funding round in May led by Novo Holdings. The Series A was extended earlier this month to €8m with funding from the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund.
- Orbis Medicines, a Copenhagen-based drug discovery startup, which raised €26m in a funding round in February, led by Novo Holdings and Dutch VC Forbion.
The EIC Fund
HQ: London
Deal count: 5
The EIC Fund is the venture arm of the European Innovation Council and has a €10bn budget. The fund focuses on deeptech with a particular interest in quantum, energy and materials.
Notable deals:
- Kaffe Bueno, a Copenhagen-based biotech startup developing consumer and industry products from coffee. It raised a €6.2m Series A in a round led by Norwegian company Borregaard.
- Iris.ai, an Oslo-based startup using GenAI to accelerate scientific research processing, which raised a €7.6m funding round led by Bulgarian investor Silverline Capital.
Stephen Industries
HQ: Helsinki
Deal count: 5
Stephen Industries is a family-owned VC investing in mainly Finnish startups and scaleups across the healthtech, climate tech and deeptech verticals.
Notable investments:
- Fiberwood, a Finnish startup based in Järvenpää which is developing new packaging materials from forest industry by-products. It raised a €7.7m funding round in May led by Finnish Metsä Spring and Stephen Industries.
- Polar Night Energy, a Finnish startup based in Tampere which is developing a sand battery for seasonal heat storage. It raised a €7.6m seed round in April from billionaire Jonathan Oppenheimer, Stephen Industries Holdix and Turret.
Almi Invest
HQ: Gothenburg and Stockholm
Deal count: 5
The Swedish state-owned investor backs local early-stage startups through eight regional offices, and also has a €100m green tech fund, which has done these five deals.
Notable investments:
- GreenIron, a Stockholm-based startup focused on cost-efficient CO2-free reduction of metal oxides to pure metals. It raised a €8.6m funding round in July from Almi Invest and Wallenberg's investment company, FAM.
- GAIA BioMaterials, a Swedish startup based in Helsingborg that develops new materials to be used instead of plastic. It raised €4.6m in April from Almi Invest.
Other investors which have done four early-stage deals in the Nordics between January and July 2024, above €1m: US accelerator Y Combinator, Finnish VCs Maki.vc and Voima Ventures, Danish VC The Footprint Firm and Norwegian accelerator StartupLab.
