Nordic Startup News Early Stage Startup News From The Nordics
This analysis of Q3 investments in the Nordics is based on a combination of publicly available and proprietary data gathered by Index.
In Q3, tech startups based in the Nordic countries collectively raised $296.5 million in 73 rounds. This falls short of Q1 for the region by 21.9 percent. Compared to Q2, it comes in significantly lower ($812.8 million total) despite having three more round total, however when Spotify’s overshadowing round that quarter is discounted, Q3 three comes out higher by 3.3 percent.
Breakdown by country
The breakdown of the total dollar amount raised in Q3 per country remains largely dominated by Sweden and Finland. This isn’t surprising, considering Finland’s history as a mobile and gaming hub, and Stockholm’s regional prominence as a startup hub.
Denmark contributed 3.48% to the total ($10.3M) and Norway 5.69% ($16.8M). Finland, on the other hand, comprised 24.01% of the total dollar amount ($71.1M). The undeniable powerhouse of startup funding, Sweden, put in by far the biggest share at 66.81%, amounting to a total of $198.1 million.
Iceland was regrettably missing this quarter, but with three VC funds having been established back in February, we can expect Iceland to make a larger contribution in the final quarter of the year.
Interestingly, whereas the amount of companies that account for these totals is in line with expectations for the two ends of the spectrum – 5 Norwegian companies received funding and 32 did so in Sweden – the logic breaks down in the middle. Despite the discrepancy in the percentage of the total funding, Finland managed to pull down its share with 15 companies receiving funding, whereas Denmark’s was distributed over 20 companies.
We can see this echoed in the average investment sizes of the countries as well. Denmark’s average investment amount of $794K points toward very small events. Despite contributing nearly five times as much capital to the total Q3 amount than Norway, Finland’s average round size is only $1.37M higher. Sweden still towers above the rest with an average round size of $13.7M.
Q3 by Stage
The majority of the investment events this quarter were seed and angel-stage funding. Compared to last quarter there were less Series A rounds, but the seed rounds also shrunk back, preventing the distribution from being too concentrated in one stage.
Top 10 Investment Rounds
Unsurprisingly, six of the top ten investments this quarter were collected by Swedish companies, with Finland contributing three, and Norway making its presence known with Swarm64’s Series A round. Denmark is noticeably missing from the top ten, with Linkfire’s $2.5M Seed round only reaching the 17th position overall.
Top 3 by Country
The top three investments in Denmark this quarter went to Linkfire ($2.8M Seed), a music marketing company offering smartlinks, ChurchDesk ($2M Series A), a company that aims to make it easier for churches to establish their online presence, Nordic Power Converters ($2M Undisclosed round), a company that manufactures smaller, more efficient power converters.
Crowning the ranks in Finland are RELEX Solutions ($22M Undisclosed round), a supply chain management software company, Seriously ($18M Series A), a mobile games development studio, and Kiosked ($16.8M Series C), an omni-channel advertising platform.
On the podium in Norway are Swarm64 ($7.9M Series A), a company that offers a database plugin to help manage and visualize SQL databases, Your.MD ($5M Seed), an app that allows users to get medical advice from real doctors on their mobile devices, and MeaWallet ($2.2 Seed), which turns your phone into a wallet, giving access to all your cards in one place.
Topping the charts not only in Sweden but in the region overall are iZettle ($67M Series D), a successful point-of-sale system is looking to expand to small business financing, Bima Mobile ($38.4M Series C), a company that offers end-to-end microinsurance for mobile operators, and Boozt ($29.2M Series A), a fashion e-retailer and e-commerce platform.
Breakdown by Vertical
The most prolific verticals this quarter appear to be Media and E-commerce. Health, which held the top place last quarter, has dropped overall but 6 investments were made in the sector as opposed to 8 in Q2, so the difference remains slight. As with last quarter, the majority of those companies are Finnish (4 of 6), however, Finland contributed the same amount of investment rounds as last quarter in absolute terms (16).
For a further Q3 funding analysis, please see the Nordic Web.
Additional reporting by Lisa Mallner.
