Tag Archives: VC

In this blog post, Katapult Group CEO, Fredrik Winther assesses the fast-changing landscape of venture, and why venture investors need to re-think strategy. By Frederik Winther The venture capital industry broke all records in 2021, and it led to systemic changes as to how it operates. Not long ago start-ups fought for the investors, these days investors are fighting to …

With Chilean insurance tech startup Betterfly now sharing prestigious unicorn status with fellow portfolio company, Esusu, Norwegian VC Katapult has gained its second accelerator-bred impact unicorn in one week. Katapult first discovered and invested in Betterfly at the early Seed stage in mid-2019 with further investment via their follow-on fund in mid-2020. With Betterfly already reaching Unicorn status and $1 …

According to reports from, European Capital,  Danske Bank and i5invest, European VC and PE funds have been substantially gaining ground despite Covid-19, and a substantial margin in the Nordics are focusing on investments in energy and sustainability. Norway, Denmark, and Lithuania have a particularly strong focus on investments in these areas in 2021 compared to the rest of Europe, and …

All male founding teams still get 92.9% of external capital in the Nordics, to build and expand their startups. However, a new report from Unconventional Ventures shows us how a shift towards a more equal distribution of capital can be accelerated.  Unconventional Ventures is a Nordic early-stage investment firm that invest in scaleable tech startups at the pre-seed and seed …

New report on Japanese Investments launched last week at Slush shows that when it comes to Japanese investments going in to the Nordic regions, Finland & Estonia is leading.  The report was made by Innovation Lab Asia, Nordic Ninja VC and Copenhagen Capacity. According to the report, since 2013, 22 of the 36 Japanese investments going into the Nordics has …

The Creandum funds won the “Venture Capital Fund of the Year” award at the 17th Investor Allstars event last night distinguished with the honors due to the outstanding performance over the previous year driven by exits from Spotify, iZettle, Small Giant Games, and Elastic. According to industry experts, the Creandum II fund is the best European institutional venture fund to …

This month, the first VC in the Nordics focusing purely on startups with a background in deeptech and science launched.  Headed by serial entrepreneur Inka Mero, Voima Ventures targeting a final closing of €50 million and has already announced commitments at €40 million. The fund’s press release states that their mission is to build a strong bridge between the scientific …

Accel raises a $575 million fund to back ambitious founders in Europe and Israel. The Nordics are a key market for this new fund.The Nordics will be a key market for investment Last week, Accel, a global VC firm, announced that it has raised a $575 million fund, its sixth to be invested in early stage companies across Europe and …

Serial entrepreneur Inka Mero launches Voima Ventures, the first VC fund in the Nordics with a focus purely on startups with deep tech and science background The first VC in the Nordics focusing purely on startups with deep tech and science background was launched officially today. Voima Ventures’ cornerstone investors are VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and European Investment …

NordicNinja VC by JB Nordic Ventures has officially launched its new €100M VC fund in partnership with Panasonic, Honda, Omron, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). The fund will help Nordic and Baltic scale-up companies enter the technology business ecosystem in Japan and across Asia. “Today, the Nordic startup ecosystem and Japanese blue-chip companies represent something of a …

BaltCap, together with JBIC IG Partners, a Japanese government backed private equity and venture capital firm, is establishing a new €100m fund focusing on venture capital investments in the field of industrial technology in the Nordic and Baltic region. The fund was announced at Slush 2018 and is launching this year. JB Nordic Ventures is a 50/50 joint venture between BaltCap,  …

Recently successful Finnish startup entrepreneurs have founded an investment and consulting company in order to help fresh, potential founders direct their efforts more productively and avoid easy mistakes. Start Here Ventures offers starting teams support, hints, valuable contacts, as well as a financial investment – preferably already before the registration of the company. By Tuure Parkkinen Each qualified team gets …

In 2016, Finnish startup and early stage growth companies raised the second highest amount of venture capital funding in Europe when looking at investments as percentage of GDP. The investment amount was almost twice as large as the European average.  Sweden and Denmark are also among the top countries attracting venture capital. Finns can be proud of their rank in …

Last week, Helga Valfells, CEO of NSA Ventures in Iceland, along with two of the funds’ investment managers, Jenny Ruth Hrafnsdottir and Hekla Arnadottir, announced that they have left NSA Ventures to start their own VC fund, Crowberry Capital. According to the team at Crowberry Capital, NSA has been reviewing its’ investment strategy since 2012 and will now become a …

“Power Couples” was the theme for the recent Oslo Innovation Week (OIW) and quite fitting that Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway (pictures above, interacting with the AV1 robot) attended the opening ceremony at Skur 13, the indoor skate hall alongside the regenerated harbour in Oslo. Oslo Innovation Week is hosted by the City of Oslo and …

When visiting Oslo Innovation Week last October, long-time business development investor Jeanne Sullivan was intrigued by the commercial potential she found in the various presenters, taking note of one company in particular. Bubbly, founded by Marianne Hindsgaul from Oslo, is a startup introducing an IoT kiosk to the market that utilizes data that is collected from customers in a retail …

New York: In a few minutes, Danish BookBuses founder Oscar Aabech Jung will be entering the stage in front of 700 American investors. This is the day Oscar Aabech Jung and the rest of the Danish IT company Book Buses have been working towards the last months. “Demo Day” is for startup businesses looking to raise capital.  Though similar events …

At Infoshare 2016, Rachel Milgram  of InnovIL shared an investor’s perspective on startup funding.  Rachel’s expertise comes from years of working closely with VC’s and business angels to evaluate companies seeking investment and help match them with the right opportunities. “The fundamentals are never going to change”, says Rachel.  “When an investor looks at an idea, they will always look …

“There are 2 main views, both well qualified.  One is the venture capital situation in the US, which says that VCs do much more than provide capital – they help companies grow.  Another view is that more than 95% of VCs add 0 value to companies, and perhaps 70 or 80% add negative value.” This is how Bakhrom Ibragimov of …

SV House TV, aiming to help startups from all over the world learn the learn the know-how, mindset, and culture of Silicon Valley, hosted a Corporate Investor Panel to discuss the hottest investments in 2016. The investors pinpointed mobile technologies and Internet of Things (IoT) as the hottest investments in 2016, and discussed the role of big corporations in the …