A Frontline x Northzone collaboration.
The Nordics lead Europe in value creation. With a smaller population, less capital, distributed across 5 countries, the Nordics have produced some of the most successful companies in Europe. These are often not just regional champions, but companies that win on a global scale. In this presentation you will learn about:
- Charting funding, and startup success in Nordic countries
- An index of global champions: 23 of the Nordics most successful startups
- Total funds raised by VCs and internet investors in the Nordics
- Investors by stage, seed to growth, including international investors
- Late stage funding detail of Nordic participants
- US investors who participate in the Nordics
- Economic, cultural, and legal strengths and weaknesses
- Who to know: 34 partners of VC funds who shape the region
- Detailed profiles of 5 VC’s based in the Nordic region
- 8 success stories operating in 4 market sectors
- 16 rising stars in the Nordics
- Exit values and takeaways
Tampa BSides - Chef's Tour of Microsoft Security Adoption Framework (SAF)
Startups and Venture Capital in the Nordics
1. 1
frontline.vc
Startups & Venture Capital in the Nordics
Big things from small places
A PAN EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
northzone.com
2. 2
The Nordics
Denmark Finland IcelandNorwaySweden
9.6m 5.6m 5.4m 5.2m 330k
Stockholm 1.3m Copenhagen 1.2m Helsinki 1.1m Oslo 950k Reykjavik 200k
POPULATION
LARGEST CITIES
LANGUAGES
Swedish Danish Finnish Norwegian Icelandic
3. The Nordics lead Europe in value creation
3
0
13
25
38
50
€21b
€37b
€40b
€42b
0
5
9
14
18
3
6
10
18
CUMULATIVE VALUE OF €1bn+ STARTUPS # OF €1bn+ STARTUPS
GP Bullhound 2016 Unicorn Report, (even more so per capita!)
4. With less capital than European peers
4
0
225
450
675
900
Q3 2014 Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015 Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016
Sweden Germany UK Nordics (Aggregate) Denmark Finland Norway Iceland
The Nordic Web, Northstack, Gil Dibner Slideshare Presentations
QUARTERLY FUNDING EX-MEGA (€100m) ROUNDS
Quarterlyfundsraised($1m)
7. 7
The Nordics have a diverse venture capital scene
0
250
500
750
1,000 Northzone
EQTVentures
Creandum
Industrifonden
Almi
SeedCapital
SEBVC
Sunstone
Montenero
Inventure
AllianceVenture
OpenOcean
ConorVenture
Lifeline
NorthCap
Conor
eEquity
NSA
Accelerace
Frumtak
3040506070708090100100
120
185200
250
270
300
400
427
566
1,000
Northzone, Creandum, Industrifonden3, Monterro, Sunstone2, Seed Capital, Inventure, Conor, Open Ocean1, Nordic Venture Partners?, Northcap1, NSA2, Partner Invest Norr,Viking, Alliance Venture
TotalFundsRaisedorSimilar(€1m)
1Latest Fund, 2Estimate, 3Evergreen. Norway Startup Scene
Funds domiciled in the Nordics
or primarily do business there
8. 8
Healthy funding options across the spectrum
Pre-Seed/ Seed Series A - B Late Stage
Note: approximation, many investors participate across different stages
Vostok New Ventures, Kinnevik, EQT, eEquity, Neqst, Butterly, Spintop, The Nordic Web
9. 9
Active late stage funders
0
2
4
6
8
Northzone
Creandum
Sunstone
Index
FinishIndustry
Industrifonden
SEB
Dawn
Intel
OpenOcean
DFJEsprit
SeedCapital
3333333
44
6
88
# OF $10M+ FUNDING ROUNDS 2014-16
Nordic Web, January 1st 2014 - June 30th 2016
0
10
20
30
40
Sweden
Finland
Denmark
Norway
Iceland
35
13
16
34
$10M+ NORDIC FUNDING ROUNDS BY COUNTRY
11. Mature ecosystem with many
successful exits behind it
11
Strengths
Startups target early global
expansion
Strong technical design
heritage and focus on R&D
drives innovation
Culture that values work life
balance
Successful exits breed serial
entrepreneurs, and angels
Flat organisational structure
to drive positive outcomes
The three secrets to building your startup the Swedish way
12. Stock option programmes
are taxed as income, at a rate
of up to 57%1
12
Challenges
In Sweden1,Tech.eu Interview with iZettle2,Analysing Iceland’s Venture Capital Scene3.Iceland has a tech-sector strategy problem4
5 countries, languages,
currencies and cultures
Better opportunities abroad
for some entrepreneurs4
Domestic market is relatively
small
Real estate is scarce, difficult
to find homes for talent2
Icelandic capital controls and
small exits to date3
14. 14
Who to know
Shay Garvey
Will Prendergast
William McQuillan
Stephen McIntyre
Fredrik Cassel
Daniel Blomquist
Johan Brenner
Staffan Helgesson
Hans Otterling
Jessica Nilsson
Pär-Jörgen Pärson
Jeppe Zink
Bjørn Stray
Juha Lindfors
Timo Ahopelto
Petteri Koponen
Patrik Backman
Tom Henriksson
Richard Muirhead
Ralf Wahlsten
Hjalmar Winbladh
Kees Koolen
Lars Jörnow
Carsten Schou
Ulla Brockenhuus-Schack
Niels Vejrup Carlsen
Ulf Rosén
Lars Andersen
Max Niederhofer
Christian Lindegård Jepsen
Jari Mieskonen
Manu Mäkelä
Jarkko Penttilä
Chris Barchak
creandum.com
@creandum
northzone.com
@northzone
lifellineventures.com
@lifelineventures
eqtventures.com
@eqtventures
opeanocean.vc
@openoceanvc
frontline.vc
@frontline
conor.vc
@conorvc
seedcapital.dk
@seed_capital
sunstone.eu
@SunstoneVC
15. Series A and beyond investor with offices in Stockholm, London, Oslo, New York
Investor in Spotify, Trustpilot, Avito, Stepstone, Tobii and iZettle
Focus on consumer and software
15NZVIII
NZVIII
€300m
NZVI
€130
NZVII
€250m
FOUNDED
1996
OFFICES
London, New York, Oslo & Stockholm
FUNDS
8
RAISED
€1b
# OF INVESTMENTS
120+
EXITS
25+
16. Seed and Series A investor based in Stockholm and Palo Alto
Investor in Spotify, Vivino, Cint, iZettle, Videoplaza, Xeneta and others
Focus on consumer, software and hardware
16TechCrunch, AltAssets
Creandum IV
€180m
Creandum II
€80m
Creandum III
€135m
FOUNDED
2003
OFFICES
Stockholm, Berlin & Palo Alto
FUNDS
4
RAISED
€427m
# OF INVESTMENTS
65+
EXITS
25+
17. Seed and Series A investor based in Helsinki, Finland
Investor in mySQL, EyeEm, Citymapper, Transferwise, import.io, data loop and others
Enterprise SaaS, market networks, cloud infrastructure, big data/ ml & mobile
17Open Ocean Closes New €100M Fund
Fund 4
€100m
Fund 3
€40m
FOUNDED
2008
OFFICES
Helsinki
FUNDS
4
RAISED
€140m
# OF INVESTMENTS
28
EXITS
5+
18. Seed & Series A investor based in Finland
Investor in applifier, callstat.io, supercell, wolf and NonstopGames
Health, games, mobile and general high technology sectors
18
FOUNDED
2009
OFFICES
Helsiniki
FUNDS
3
RAISED
€87m
# OF INVESTMENTS
55
EXITS
5+
Fund 3
€57m
Fund 2
€20m
19. Early stage Life Sciences and Tech investor based in Copenhagen, Denmark
Investor in Prezi, Dubsmash, GetYourGuide, Natural Cycles, TravelPerk, Aire and others
LPs include EIF, Industriens, ATP, Nordea Liv, Vaeksfonde and Dansk Vækstkapital
Focus on software, mobile, internet and life sciences
19
FOUNDED
2007
OFFICES
Denmark
FUNDS
4
RAISED
€189m
# OF INVESTMENTS
50
EXITS
10+
Tech
€100m
Life Sciences
€89m
21. Four sectors where Nordic startups have succeeded
21
FinTech
• Global payments
• Invoicing & ERP
• Checkout, POS financing
Gaming
• Social and mobile gaming
• Early adopters of new technology
• Strong design heritage
Consumer
• Success requires early global expansion
• Low touch scalable software
• Global category leaders
Enterprise
• Software development tools
• Customer support
• Many of these companies relocate
22. 22
FinTech
CEO & Co-Founder
Jacob de Geer
Formerly Ameibo, TradeDoubler
Stockholm School of Economics
Founder
Christian Lanng
Formerly Danish Ministry of Science
Aalborg & Københavns Universitet
Linkedin Information, Crunchbase
Buy, pay and manage risk using Tradeshift next gen ERP
23. 23
Enterprise
CEO & Founder
Mikkel Svane
Formerly IT Consultant, CAPUT
Århus Købmandsskole & Sorbonne
$632m IPO
Linkedin Information, Crunchbase
Customer experience, support, and relationship building platform
Co-Founder & CTO
Michael Widenius
Formerly TCX Datakonsult, Tranor
Teknillinen korkeakoulu-Tekniska
Acquired
for $1b
The world’s most popular open source database
24. 24
Gaming
CEO & Founder
Ilkka Paananen
Formerly Digital Chocolate, SUMEA
Korkeakoulu-Tekniska högskolan
CEO & Co-Founder
Riccardo Zacconi
Formerly uDate, BCG,
Benchmark, Spray Network
LinkedIn Information, Crunchbase, Apax Poised to Score 10,000% Gain on ‘Candy Crush’ IPO
Game development studio
25. 25
Consumer
Jonas Nordlander
Founder & CEO
Formerly eBay Sweden, Tradera
Maastricht, Uppsala University
Trivago, auf leisen Sohlen, LinkedIn Information, Crunchbase
Acquired
for $1.2b
Russian Classifieds
Daniel Ek
Founder
Formerly Tradera, Advertigo, μTorrent
Royal Institute of Technology
Discover new music
26. 26
Rising stars
Brand ambassador customer acquisition
Companies founded after 2014 that have raised over $3m, companies founded after 2013 that have raised over $5m, other notable
Small business invoicing solution
Fleet management Optimising waste collection
Home Automation
Games for brands
Wine ratings and reviews
Employee management software
Crowdsourcing street view and photos
Employee scheduling software
Fertility tracking made easy
Learning games
Mobile app for anglers
Wifi sharing communitySee a doctor online anytime Global sea freight market info
27. 27
Exit values in the Nordics growing steadily for 15 years
Creandum Nordic Exit Analysis 2015
29. The Scandinavian ecosystem
is amongst the most mature
in Europe
29
Takeaways
Nordics exits have been
increasing over a long
period of time
Success stories have been
transcontinental, not just
Pan-European
Work life balance and flat
corporate hierarchies are
attractive for employees
Produces much more value
per capita than anywhere
else in the EU
International participation
varies across countries
The three secrets to building your startup the Swedish way
32. 32
Source Links
Online Content
GP Bullhound 2015 Unicorn Report
GP Bullhound 2016 Unicorn Report
The Nordic Web
Northstack
Gil Dibner Slideshare Presentations
Norway Startup Scene
Tech.eu Interview with iZettle
Analysing Iceland’s Venture Capital Scene - The Nordic Web
Creandum Nordic Exit Analysis 2015
Data Services:
CBInsights
Pitchbook
Crunchbase
LinkedIn
33. Slide 5 - Global Champions
Discretionary selection of successful companies founded, domiciled or with otherwise Nordic origins
Slide 7 - Diverse funding scene
Funds in the Nordics or that primarily do business there
Slide 8 - Spectrum
Notable participants by stage, discretionary selection
Slide 14 - Who to know
Discretionary selection of investing partners in the Nordics
When more than 5 partners at a firm, prioritised by longest tenure
Slides 14-18 - Notable players
Discretionary selection of well known investors
Slides 21-25 - Successful startups
Discretionary selection of successful startups
Many startups have multiple co-founders that are not included here
Slide 25 - Rising Stars
Companies founded after 2014 that have raised over $3m
Companies founded after 2013 that have raised over $5m
Other notable
33
Methodology
34. Breakdown by Country
34
0
50
100
150
200
Q3 2014 Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015 Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016
Sweden Denmark Finland Norway Iceland
QUARTERLY FUNDING EX-MEGA (€100m) ROUNDS
Quarterlyfundsraised($1m)
The Nordic Web, Northstack, Gil Dibner Slideshare Presentations