The state of Nordic private equity 2021

Among the largest PE-backed IPOs in 2021 we find the following companies:

• The Norwegian-based robotics company Autostore, backed by EQT and THL Partners and valued at €10.6 bn, was the largest. The offering value of €2.1 bn made it the fifth largest European IPO of 2021, and the second most valuable IPO in Norway of all time.
• Oat drink producer Oatly were listed on Nasdaq Global Market. The company is backed by Orkila Capital, Oyster Bay and Blackstone. The IPO was valued at €8.2 bn.
• The Danish ICT-company Truecaller was listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm and was valued at €1.9 bn upon listing. The company is the leading global caller ID and call blocking app, backed by Sequoia Capital, Open Ocean Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers and Atomico Ventures.
• Swedish biotech company Olink Proteomics was listed on Nasdaq Global market, valued at €1.7 bn in March. The company is backed by Summa Equity. Olink Proteomics provides a platform of products and services which are deployed across major biopharmaceutical companies and leading clinical and academic institutions.
• The cleantech company OX2 was listed on Nasdaq OMX First North. The company is backed by Altor Equity partners and was valued at €1.6 bn.
• Swedish online property marketplace Hemnet was listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm in April. The company, backed by General Atlantic and Sprints Capital was valued at €1.1 bn upon listing.
• Online review site Trustpilot was successfully listed on London Stock Exchange in March. The company was valued at €1.1 bn and backed by several fund managers, including Index Ventures, Northzone Ventures, Draper Esprit, Vitruvian Partners and Seed Capital Denmark.

In addition to being one of the largest venture investment rounds in 2021, IO Biotech was listed on Nasdaq in the start of November last year, at a market cap of 378 million euros. Among the exiting investors were Eir Ventures, a new Nordic life science fund.

"In 2021, there was a global boom in biotech companies that went public, but the outlook is darker now. Since the companies got listed, the share value has fallen drastically for most of them, and some are trading 50 % below their IPO price. This will lead to a pause in IPOs, I believe, to adjust people's expectations. The war in Ukraine has strengthened this notion. In short, we are in a period of transition in the markets, which might last for a couple of years," says Stephan Christgau, founding partner at Eir Ventures.⁹³

In the ICT sector, the outlook is not so gloomy, according to Lars Dybkjær of Denmark-based GRO Capital. They were invested in Trifork Technologies that was listed on Nasdaq OMX Copenhagen in Q2.

"If the companies are ready, like Trifork was, there is high demand and little supply for tech companies. As the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, says: The IT spend as percentage of GDP will double in the next seven years", he says.