Nordic Notes: Back in business

Issue #64 - 14. January 2024

Hey all,

We’re refreshed and ready to roll after a relaxing holiday time. The new year is always a good time to start new things or re-start projects.

As always, happy to hear from you, let us know what we missed, what we can improve on & what you’d like to read about!

All the best,

Josefiina & Teodora

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Funding rounds

🇫🇮 Stayify raised 500k€ for their travel booking system.

🇪🇪 Scorestars raised 725k€ for their basketball fan engagement platform.

🇮🇸 Leviosa raised 1m€ to streamline healthcare documentation.

🇩🇰 Artelize raised 1m€ for their performing arts platform.

🇪🇪 Money Industries raised 1.5m€ for their cross-border payment platform.

🇳🇴 The Human Touch Robotics raised 1.76m€ to pack online groceries.

🇸🇪 Swiftcourt raised 2m€ for their peer-to-peer transaction platform.

🇫🇮 Koite Health raised 4m€ for their oral care solutions.

🇫🇮 Cactos raised 26m€ for their battery energy storage systems.

🇳🇴 1X raised 91m€ for their AI and robotics company.

Did we miss something - send us a note!

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Quick Notes

Kost Capital announced the first close of their new 25m€ foodtech fund.

Kiuas Accelerator applications are open - read more here.

Startup House Riga will open on February 1st - do your pre-reading here.

byFounders published their Shape of the New Nordics 2023 report - check it out here.

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Opinion

Tesi came out with a great rundown of the Finnish deep tech ecosystem in 2023 - available here.

Some quick takeaways:

• Unsurprisingly, given the recent downturn in global markets, overall investment activity decreased with eg. total invested capital decreasing 42% from H1 2022 to H1 2023. 

• Looking at the bright side, the ecosystem is experiencing steady growth, with the top quartile of companies demonstrating resilience and revenue growth of 81%.

• We saw increasing activity in sectors like energy and quantum. While Finland has long been a pioneer of quantum (eg. Bluefors and IQM), we are now seeing an influx of new companies securing substantial funding in the space, with eg. Algorithmiq raising a €13 M series A.

• What’s concerning is that there’s a declining trend in the number of founded deep tech companies.

What are the implications going forward?

Raising later-stage capital is proving to be a growing issue for the Finnish deep tech ecosystem.  On the supply side, this is driven by a dramatically decreased presence of international investors with enough dry powder to act as anchor investors in sizeable later-stage rounds. Further compounding this is the demand pressure of an increasing number of Finnish companies projected to seek later-stage capital from international markets in 2024. However, it's not all doom and gloom, at least for investors that like to go against the grain - this likely means that quality and diversity of Finnish deal flow will only improve.

Thank you for reading Nordic Notes, your biweekly guide to the Nordic startup ecosystem. If you enjoyed this issue, please like it and share it with your friends.