The 27 Noteworthy Nordic VC Funds

With VC companies funding businesses in the region for almost 30 years, the Nordics are rich in investment options for promising SaaS companies. We have handpicked 27 venture capital and private equity funds to help you get an idea where funding comes from in the five countries. Listed in alphabetical order, dive and get the pitch decks ready for SaaStock on Tour Helsinki on May 23rd.

1. Accelerace

Accelerace ranks among the top 10 seed accelerators in the world. Based in Copenhagen, the organisation invests and trains promising Danish and international startups, as well as growth businesses. It focuses is on CleanTech, BioTech, MedTech, and Life Sciences companies, operating with SaaS models.

Country: Denmark
Founded: 2008
Size of fund: $48.6M
Stage: Debt, Seed
SaaS Investments: Churchdesk, uCommerce, and others.

2. Alfvén & Didrikson

Alfvén & Didrikson focuses on investing in tech companies from Northern Europe. The VC and private equity company seeks businesses that exhibit strong potential for growth in the region. With a pragmatic and hands-on approach, the investment team provides ongoing support to its portfolio companies, boosting their efforts towards success.

Country: Sweden
Founded: 2010
Size of fund: n/a
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Private Equity
SaaS Investments: Most recent was Transfer Galaxy in February 2018. Other notable ones include Trustly, Quinyx, and Sympa.

3. Alliance Venture

Alliance Venture operates between Oslo and Palo Alto. The venture capital firm has a knack for early-stage businesses with a lot of international promise. It assists businesses in their multi-country expansion with hands-on support and a rich knowledge base.

Country: Norway
Founded: 2001
Size of fund: €100M
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Seed
SaaS Investments: Boost AI, Xeneta, and others

4. Creandum

The Swedish VC firm Creandum makes the majority of its investments in seed rounds. It has a special preference for consumer internet, software, and hardware companies with an innovative edge. Creandum provides development support and a powerful international network.

Country: Sweden
Founded: 2003
Size of fund: $536.5M
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed
SaaS Investments: iZettle, Xeneta, and others

5. Gorilla Capital

Gorilla Capital is the continuation of Gorilla Ventures Oy. Besides an accelerator, it was also a seed-stage angel fund which has backed 37 Finnish startups. Gorilla Capital has existed since 2017. It is a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm that invests in tech companies that solve real business problems.

Country: Finland
Founded: 2012
Size of fund: $1.3M
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed
SaaS Investments: Zapflow, TidyCMS, and others

6. First Fellow Partners

First Fellow Partners is a family investment office based in Helsinki. The firm invests in tech-focused startups, with a clear interest in competitive intelligence, mobile payments, and health services. The guys at First Fellow have a simple vision: to support the “entrepreneurs of tomorrow.”

Country: Finland
Founded: 2016
Size of fund: N/A
Stage: Debt, Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed
SaaS Investments: Frosmo, Detectify, and others

7. Frumtak Ventures

Frumtak Ventures invests mostly in Icelandic companies and is the leading VC in the country. Its particular focus is on post-seed startups that have a potential for international expansion. The important selection factor for Frumtak is the originality of the ideas that entrepreneurs present. The firm wants to support innovation in Iceland, and beyond.

Country: Iceland
Founded: 2008
Size of fund: N/A
Stage: Early Stage Venture
SaaS Investments: Data Dwell, Meniga, SidekickHeatlh, and others.

8. Industrifonden

As one of the oldest venture capital firms in the Nordics, Industrifonden is also one of the largest and most important ones in the region. It specialises in investments in promising Life Sciences and tech startups. Ground-breaking ideas and potential for growth are key selection factors for Industrifonden portfolio companies.

Country: Sweden
Founded: 1979
Size of fund: $500M
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed
SaaS Investments: Starcounter, DPOrganizer, and others

9. Innovation Fund Denmark

Innovation Fund Denmark is a government funding option for new knowledge and tech companies. Its InnoBooster programme is specifically targeted at companies that want to create an innovative product or service or improve existing processes to optimize their competitiveness. The fund’s purpose is to help grow employment and the entrepreneurial spirit in Denmark.

Country: Denmark
Founded: 2014
Size of fund: N/A
Stage: Grants, Seed
SaaS Investments: Queue-it, and others

10. Lifeline Ventures

Lifeline Ventures’s team is made up of serial entrepreneurs that know the startup life inside and out. The firm invests in healthcare, games, web and general tech businesses. It mostly focuses on Finland, but has some international investments as well. The typical funding ranges from €0.5M to €1M at both early and growth stages.

Country: Finland
Founded: 2009
Size of fund: €57M
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Private Equity, Seed
SaaS Investments: Smartly.io

11. Bird Dog Equity Partners

Bird Dog Equity Partners, previously known as Nordic Venture Partners, is focusing on private equity investments in the tech sector. Its interests include growth-stage businesses developing enterprise software and hardware, communications software, and internet applications. The company provides support to its funded portfolio companies, including strategy, finance management, and recruitment.

Country: Denmark
Founded: 2000
Size of fund: $16M
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture
SaaS Investments: Bitbar, and others

12. Northzone

Northzone has been around for more than 20 years and has offices in Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, London, and New York. During this time, the VC firm has invested in more than 120 promising businesses. Its team is well acquainted with the challenges faced by startups both at the early stages and at later growth stages. That’s why Northzone offers extensive operational and network support.

Country: Sweden
Founded: 1996
Size of fund: €350M
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Private Equity, Seed
SaaS Investments: Trustpilot, Spotify, HappyorNot, Personio, iZettle, Red Points, and others

13. OpenOcean

The OpenOcean manifesto is clear: the VC firm is looking to back delicious data-intensive software companies. Its preference is for products built on deep technology. Every partner at OpenOcean works with no more than seven portfolio companies at the same time. This ensures that funded startups get enough technical and operational support.

Country: Finland
Founded: 2008
Size of fund: €140M
Stage: Early Stage Venture
SaaS Investments: Oppex, Unacast, and others.

14. PreSeed Ventures

PreSeed Ventures provides early-stage investments for promising tech companies in Denmark. It’s the biggest and most renowned innovation incubator in the country. In the past five years, it has made 125 investments in early-stage businesses. Besides funding, PreSeed Ventures provides companies with help in diverse key areas such as team and skill building, business development and strategy, and networking.

Country: Denmark
Founded: 2000
Size of fund: $616M
Stage: Early Stage Venture
SaaS Investments: Traede, Chabber, Activity Stream, and others

15. Seed Capital

Seed Capital is best known for being the largest early-stage VC in Denmark, and for backing the famous Vivino app. It focuses on medical technologies, but also invests in a range of other businesses. Seed Capital manages both private venture capital and public funds. Its initial investments range from €50,000 to €500,000, with lifetime investment in a single company reaching as much as €10M.

Country: Denmark
Founded: 2005
Size of fund: €272M
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed
SaaS Investments: Templafy, Archii, Traede, and others

16. Stockholm VC

Stockholm VC is the newest kid on the block in Sweden. Its founders Jannik Ackermand and Daniel Laurén want to fill an empty funding niche. They are referring to the stage of a company’s development that doesn’t fit angel investments, yet is still not a right fit for a VC fund. Stockholm VC will focus on FinTech, games, B2B SaaS, and e-commerce. The firm would like to invest in about 30 companies in its first round.

Country: Sweden
Founded: 2017
Size of fund: N/A
Stage: Early Stage Venture
SaaS Investments: N/A

17. Sunstone Capital

The Nordic-based international team of Sunstone Capital works mostly with tech and Life Sciences businesses. The firm is interested in companies that show solid potential for global expansion. The partners at Sunstone have extensive experience in supporting startups — from operations to finances — guaranteeing a solid backup for the firm’s portfolio companies.

Country: Denmark
Founded: 2007
Size of fund: €500M
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed
SaaS Investments: Templafy, and others

18. Superhero Capital

Superhero Capital stands behind its name: the micro VC firm is searching for the next superheroes of B2B. It seeks to finance Finnish companies at the seed stage in the HealthTech, FinTech, IoT, and SaaS sectors, which show international promise. Its typical investments are between €100,000 and €500,000.

Country: Finland
Founded: 2015
Size of fund: €20M
Stage: Seed
SaaS Investments: Valohai, Leadfeeder, and others.

19. Takeoff Partners

Takeoff Partners is another noteworthy Finnish angel group. The team is well-versed in helping companies grow and boost their internationalization efforts. Takeoff Partners’ particular focus is on B2B software and services. They provide advisory and coaching and can serve as members of boards whenever needed. Funded companies can get their support as a team, or as individual investors and advisors.

Country: Finland
Founded: 2014
Size of fund:
Stage: Seed
SaaS Investments: Pilvi Cloud Company, LATO Tools, Enbrite.ly, and others.

20. Technology Development Fund

The Technology Development Fund is a sub-organization of the Icelandic Centre for Research. It functions as a financing institution for research and development projects and startups with the goal to help Icelandic industry innovation. The Fund provides grants for businesses that exhibit potential to bring novel solutions in their fields.

Country: Iceland
Founded: 2003
Size of fund: N/A
Stage: Early Stage Venture
SaaS Investments: Data Dwell, and others

21. Tekes

Tekes, now known as Business Finland, is a long-standing Finnish funding agency with focus on supporting research and industry innovation in the country. It provides debt financing, seed and venture funding to promising businesses in the spheres of service, design, business, and social innovations.

Country: Finland
Founded: 1983
Size of fund: N/A
Stage: Debt, Early Stage Venture, Seed
SaaS Investments: Smarp, iconicchain, Utopia Analytics, and others

22. Tesi

Tesi (also known as Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a Finnish venture capital and private equity firm that’s been around for more than 20 years. It makes investments in venture capital and buyout funds, as well as individual companies together with private investors. Tesi manages two FoF Growth funds co-founded with Finnish pension funds.

Country: Finland
Founded: 1995
Size of fund: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed
Stage: €415M
SaaS Investments: LeadDesk, and others

23. Vendep Capital

Vendep Capital is a pre-A round venture capital fund based in Helsinki. In 2017, it closed the Vendep Capital Fund II, which will provide €33 million specifically for SaaS businesses. The funding came from Finnish private and institutional investors like Tesi and The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. Vendep Capital typically invests in about four to five companies per year, which have reached €30,000+ in MRR.

Country: Finland
Founded: 2013
Size of fund: €38M
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Seed, Venture
SaaS Investments: Leadfeeder, Utopia Analytics, SumoWare, and others

24. Verdane Capital Advisors

Verdane Capital Advisors has proven itself in the test of time — it’s in the VC business since 1985. It’s one of the most notable Nordic investment groups, with offices in Oslo, Stockholm, and Helsinki. Alongside its other investment activities, Verdane Capital funds high-growth tech companies. It closed a new €295M fund, Verdane Edda, in March 2018.

Country: Norway
Founded: 1985
Size of fund: €460M
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Private Equity
SaaS Investments: inRiver, and others

25. Veturi Venture Accelerator

Veturi Venture Accelerator offers seed funding for Finnish companies, paired with expert strategic guidance and active support. Its goal is to help entrepreneurs turn their great innovative ideas into useful real-lifel solutions. Through the Finnish Vigo-programme, Veturi also can help businesses obtain government grants for R&D and go-to-market projects.

Country: Finland
Founded: 2008
Size of fund: N/A
Stage: Seed
SaaS Investments: Oppex, Blaast, and others

26. Viking Venture

Viking Venture is one of the leading VC funds focusing on technology in the Nordic countries. It invests in the region, as well as in the UK. One of its priorities is funding tech companies with a subscription-based revenue model. The businesses should have passed the seed phase and should be ready to enter full commercialization mode.

Country: Norway
Founded: 2001
Size of fund: $200M
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture
SaaS Investments: EcoOnline, Xait, and others

27. Visionplus

Visionplus invests in digital products like applications, games, and services, as well as in SaaS. It is currently backing more than 80 companies. The team behind the VC firm has rich experience in tech as angel investors and entrepreneurs. Its typical investments range from €100,000 to €1 million, with a possibility for follow-up investments of a couple of million euros.

Country: Finland
Founded: 2011
Size of fund: N/A
Stage: Early Stage Venture, Seed
SaaS Investments: Smarp, Transfluent, and others