Number Crunch 2021Analysis of the Nordic PE market per Q3

The uncertainty created by the pandemic last year led several Nordic VCs to postpone the fund closing until 2021. At the beginning of this year, we estimated that they would raise around 1.6 billion euros in 2021. This estimate has been exceeded by the end of the year, as 24 funds have raised over 2 billion euros in total.

See an overview of the funds that closed in 2021 below.¹⁸ Still, there is a record amount in the pipeline for 2022. As the graph above shows, funds targeting 8 billion euros in total are raising capital.

By mid-December, Nordic buyout funds had raised 12.1 billion euros in capital, almost three billion more than expected at the beginning of the year.

2021 will stand as a good year for fundraising in the buyout segment, even though it is far from the peak years 2018 (22.4 billion euros) and 2020 (26.5 billion euros) when many significant funds closed. Fundraising is usually cyclical, with high amounts some years and lower in subsequent years. As the graph below shows, there is a record amount of capital in the pipeline for 2022.

See an overview of Nordic buyout funds that have closed further down.¹⁹