How the future of the Nordic startup scene looks like

Nordic Startup Bits have interviewed some of the most prominent Nordic VC’s, Gregers Kronborg from Northzone, Martin Hauge from Creandum, and Niels Vejrup from SEED Capital about their view on the Nordic startup scene.

In the series of articles Nordic Startup Bits will look at the most promising, the worst and the biggest challenges on the Nordic startup scene based on the interviews. The second article will look on how the future of the Nordic startup scene looks like.

“In every sector there will probably be a winner in the USA and a winner in Europe. The market in Europe will in most cases be big enough to be VC cases if the startup dominates the market. You will probably have to move to London to penetrate the European market because London is the center of investments and startup related activities. Berlin is not as obvious as some entrepreneurs might say. But you don’t have to move to New York or Silicon Valley to create a billion-dollar business. The Danish startup Trustpilot is a good example, where the startup opened a department in London before they moved to the USA” – Gregers Kronborg, Northzone Capital

Margin Hauge from Creandum is also very optimistic about the future of the Nordic startup scene, but thinks it is necessary to see more billion-dollar startups from other countries than Sweden in the Nordic region.

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“The future of the Nordic startup scene looks very bright. I have worked with Creandum the past eleven years and in that time I have experienced a tremendous development. Right now we see a new billion-dollar company every second year coming out of Sweden. In a few years I am sure that we will see a new billion-dollar company every year coming out of the Nordics. Right now most companies come out of Sweden, but I am sure that we in the future will see many big startups from the other Nordic countries Denmark, Norway and Finland as well” – Martin Hauge, Creandum

Niels Vejrup from SEED Capital has seen a change in the access to investors in the Nordic region the past couple of years.

“When Unity and Zendesk created their startups they couldn’t find institutional investors in Denmark and the Nordic region. Because of that they had to move to Silicon Valley, but that wouldn’t be necessary today. And I don’t think we should compare the Nordic Startup Scene to Silicon Valley. We live in a global world and the next big startup can be founded in Copenhagen instead of Palo Alto, the probability may just be smaller because of available capital and resource pool. However, good entrepreneurs fight against the odds, and win.” – Niels Vejrup, SEED Capital, concludes.