Nordic Startup News Early Stage Startup News From The Nordics
Oslo-based SNÖ Ventures has launched its second fund to invest in visionary Nordic entrepreneurs and connect the Nordics with the US and broader Europe. The new fund targets $100M to invest in early stage, high-growth Nordic tech companies with the potential to disrupt, create or capture large markets through transformative technology or solutions.
By Kremena Tosheva
SNÖ Ventures is led by Magne Uppman, Teodor Bjerrang, Max Samuel and Kremena Tosheva, an international team with expertise in founding, building, scaling and advising companies. In connection with the new fund, SNÖ plans to expand the organization into Sweden and Denmark. Peter Thiel has also joined SNÖ as an investor and Strategic Partner and is accompanied by an international group of advisors to the SNÖ teams. SNÖ’s most recent investments include PortalOne, alongside Founders Fund, Coatue, Seedcamp, TQ Ventures, and more; Kitemaker, alongside Y Combinator and EQT Ventures; and Confrere, with co-investors Point Nine and Nordic Makers. The new fund will be targeting Series Seed and Series A companies throughout the Nordic region.
“The unique cultural, economic and geographic traits of the Nordics contribute to the success of its thriving startup ecosystem. We aim to enhance this ecosystem by facilitating the sharing of resources, talent, ideas and experience throughout the Nordic region, and by leveraging our international networks to support Nordic companies in their global expansion.” said Max Samuel, Partner of SNÖ.
Unique partners
The first closing of SNÖ Fund II has already been held, with investments from a group of international partners who bring unique experience and networks to the fund, including Peter Thiel, Karl Christian Agerup (co-founder of Northzone), Eilert Hanoa (CEO of Kahoot!), KLP (Norway’s largest pension company), Investinor and others from throughout Europe and the US.
“SNÖ Ventures fills an important role in the Nordic ecosystem for building valuable international growth companies out of the Nordics. The entrepreneurial background of the investment team, their proven ability to build international networks and their active ownership approach towards their portfolio companies makes them a valuable partner for any growth company with international ambitions.” said Karl Christian Agerup, co-founder of Northzone.
Nordic venture capital
The launch of SNÖ Fund II follows a trend of increasing venture capital in the Nordics. According to a recent report by PitchBook on European venture capital (VC), there has been an increase in VC capital deals in the Nordics compared to the rest of Europe. The strengthening of the Nordics VC comparative position comes while the has been a general decrease in VC, likely due to Covid-19.
