VC deals in the Nordics
In total, 212 transactions were completed in the venture segment (venture, VC). This is the first time in our monitoring that there are more than 200 investments of venture funds in Nordic companies in a half-year period. According to our estimates, the amount invested in the Nordic venture has also skyrocketed; a total of 1.9 billion euros have been invested. This is five times higher than the average for the first half of the last five years.
The number of investments in H1 2021 has increased by 59% compared with the average for the corresponding period over the past five years. If we look at H1 in 2020, which was affected by the corona pandemic, the number of investments increased with 57%.
In the past five years, the number of investments in H1 has been stable between 110-150. In 2021, we see over 200 investments in H1 for the first time in our market monitoring. The increase affects all countries and sectors that we follow (see sector and country distribution).
The amount invested in the Nordic venture has never been higher, either in a half-year period or during a calendar year. To illustrate, the same amount of capital invested in all H1s combined between 2016-2020 was invested in H1 2021 alone. The amount was high both in Q1 and Q2, and no outlier transactions drive the development.
Sector and country distribution
The strong growth applied to all sectors we follow, so everyone experienced increased investment activity. It's still the ICT sector that has the largest share of investments (51%), even though it has gone down compared to the average. In other words, transactions are spread more evenly across several sectors.
Technology still has the largest share of investments. However, the percentage is somewhat lower than in the same period in recent years, and transactions are spread more evenly between sectors.
Health care and life sciences attracted 17 per cent of investments, and the number is up 97 per cent compared to the average for the last five years. In the consumer sector , which has a share of 12 per cent, the growth is even more prominent: the number is up 131 per cent against the average. The financials and renewables sectors, with shares of 5 and 4 per cent of investments in the first half of the year, are attracting more and more investors.
In the first half of 2021, there was high activity in all Nordic countries, with an increase compared to previous years:
- In Denmark, the number of investments increased by 154 per cent compared with the average for the last five years. Danish companies attracted 27 per cent of the venture trransactions, a higher level than they have usually been at.
- However, it is Swedish companies that still attract the most investments. Sweden accounted for 37 per cent of the market, also with a significant growth compared with the corresponding period last five years (up 59 per cent).
- Activity in Finnish VC has had a more moderate upswing with an increase of 16 per cent compared to the average for H1 in the last five years and accounted for 20 per cent of the market.
- Norwegian companies attracted 15 per cent of Nordic VC investments. The number of investments in Norwegian companies in the first half of the year was 54 per cent higher than the average for the last five years.
In the first half of the year, the number of investments in the venture segment increases in all the Nordic countries, compared with the average over the past five years. In Denmark, it increased by a whopping 154%. Swedish companies still receive the largest share of the investments.
If we look at the share of the invested amount, it primarily reflects the number of deals without any large individual transactions driving the level of the invested amount. Thirty-six per cent of invested capital in the venture segment was invested in Swedish companies. The second-largest share went to Danish companies with 27 per cent, closely followed by Finnish companies with 25 per cent. Norwegian venture companies attracted the smallest amount of capital with only 12 per cent.
The invested amount distributed by land primarily reflects the land distribution to the number of investments, without any large individual transactions driving the level of the invested amount.
Large single transactions
There is a selection of substantial transactions, and all of them are either in the ICT or tge health and life sciences sectors. Below are the ten largest ones.
Technology
- In January, the Finnish home delivery app Wolt, a competitor to Foodora, raised 432 million euros from eleven investors. Five of them, including EQT Growth (SE), were new investors (read more).
- Stockholm-based Epidemic Sound, a company that produces copyright-free music for creators on the internet, acquired EQT Growth (SE) and Blackstone Growth (US) on the owner side in March. The investments totalled 383 million euros, with the company priced at 1.4 billion dollars (read more).
- Most wine connoisseurs actively use Vivino. In February, Sprints Capital (GB) invested in the Danish company in a finance round that totalled 128 million euros. Creandum (SE) also made a follow-up investment (read more).
- Norwegian Cognite raised 126 million euros from TCV. The SaaS company that analyses and compiles data from the industry was valued at $ 1.6 billion (read more).
- Eloomi, a Danish company in HR technology, received 45 million euros in a round led by Great Hill Partners right before the summer (read more).
- Copenhagen-based Ageras, which matches companies with accountants and auditors, raised 60 million euros from Lugard Road Capital (US, read more).
Health care and life sciences
- The Danish oncology company IO Biotech raised 127 million euros in January from a range of investors. Several venture funds participated in the financing round: Avoro, EIR Ventures, Idinvest Partners, Kurma Life Sciences Partners, RA Capital, Samsara BioCapital, Soleus and Vivo Capital (read more).
- Nordic Bioscience, a Danish company that develops biomarkers used in diagnostics, received 83 million euros in funding from KKR's Health Care Strategic Growth Fund (read more).
- Adcendo raised 51 million euros in April. The Danish biotechnology company that develops cancer medicine now has Ysios Capital (ES) and Gilde Investment Management (NL) on the owner side (read more).
- Lenus eHealth, a Danish SaaS solution for health and fitness instructors, received an investment from EQT Ventures of 50 million euros (read more). This is, by the way, the most significant investment in EQT Ventures’ history.
The ten companies mentioned above raised 62 per cent of the capital invested in the first half of the year, which shows that there were many small- and medium-sized transactions in the period.