497 million of euros is the investment amount raised by Finnish startups in the first half of 2024
The Finnish Venture Capital Association (FVCA) reported on November 18 that the investment amount reached, close to half a billion euros, is at similar levels to what happened in 2023; based on the contributions developed by VCs, angel investors, CVCs, and other sources.
In this context, VC investments represented 137 million euros of the total raised, a pace that has a path aligned with last year, when total funding for startups reached 871 million euros.
Among the main beneficiaries of investments in the first six months of 2024 are the hospitality tech company Bob W, the biotech company Enifer, the satellite company ICEYE and the food tech firm Onego Bio.
During the boom years of 2021 and 2022, large funding rounds drove annual totals close to 1.5 billion euros. As of early 2024, we are seeing fewer large rounds in advanced stages.
Anne Horttanainen, Managing Director of FVCA.
"However, early-stage investments have remained strong, supporting a new generation of potential success stories," added the executive from the FVCA.
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Historical Highs and Lows: International Investment and Sales.
According to the association, Finnish venture capital investors allocated a total of 200 million euros to national and international startups from January to June of 2024. In this section, investments in international startups reached a historic high of 89 million euros, while investments in Finnish startups exceeded the average of recent years, with 110 million euros.
"The growth of international investments suggests that our VC market is maturing and becoming more globally oriented, with funds seeking opportunities in the Nordic countries and Europe. We are also seeing more specialized funds that often need to look globally to meet their investment criteria," Horttanainen highlighted.
The problem during the current course was located in the sales or exits (from the English word exit), which faced various challenges due to a slow flow in the mergers, acquisitions (M&A) and initial public offerings (IPO) market, with only five successful cases in the first half of 2024, a historic low.
Despite this, the collection among Finnish VC funds secured 198 million Euros at the beginning of 2024.
A Market in Recovery?
During the first semester of 2024, various new funds have been launched: Nordic Science Investments and Equilibrium VC have started their first funds. On the other hand, Maki.vc, has begun operations of its second fund (which was introduced a few days ago).
All of this, along with a market sentiment survey that tracks the opinions of Finnish venture capital investors, revealed that future expectations have predominantly turned positive.
According to investors, there are now more high-quality opportunities available than before, with further improvements expected in the next six months. Although exit markets remain challenging, the overall outlook shows a positive momentum.
"The exit market is clearly improving. Lower interest rates have boosted activity, and successful acquisitions like those of Silo AI and M-Files this summer indicate a shift in sentiment. We expect the gradual recovery of the market to continue, with optimism toward 2025," commented Jussi Sainiemi, Deputy Managing Partner of the venture capital firm Voima Ventures and Chairman of the Venture Capital Committee of the FVCA.
Here is the full study Acá el estudio completo
