These are the findings of our first Deal Pulse survey, conducted in February 2025. The Deal Pulse aims to gather investors’ insights and provide a report on the current state, trends, challenges and opportunities shaping the Nordic venture landscape.
This is the first edition of the Deal Pulse – the survey will be released periodically, so that you can keep track of the changes in the ecosystem over time.
The survey has been prepared by the ArcticStartup team: Jan Ameri, Bikash Gurung and Jakub Florczak.
Nordic VC Investors were the majority of respondents
Most of the respondents were VC investors (over 60%). We have also received input from a number of Angel Investors (over 30% of respondents), and some Family Offices and LPs. Please note that since the respondents were able to select multiple investor types (for example being both VC and Angel Investor simultaneously), the values in the chart add up to more than 100% naturally.
Almost half of the respondents are based in Finland, and another 35% in other Nordic countries. This makes the survey Nordic-focused (as was the original intention) and ensures results relevant for the local ecosystem.
Early-stage investors dominate the scene
Most of the respondents are early-stage investors, investing from Pre-Seed to Series A. The proportions are corresponding between the previous year’s investments and plans for investments in 2025, which means that we shouldn’t expect any major shift in investment approach in the Nordics, for example, towards later-stage funding.
The local ecosystem is the main investment target
Over 90% of the responding investors are looking to invest in the Nordics. The Baltic region is in a strong second place as a region of interest with 69% of the respondents pointing to them, while the rest of Europe follows. These results are of course not shocking, given that a large majority of respondents are Nordic investors, but it also means that Nordic investors strongly believe in the local startups.
It is interesting to note, that while the Baltics are rated above Western Europe, the CEE countries are below it on the chart. Perhaps the geographical and cultural proximity of the Baltics is appealing to Nordic investors, while the CEE ecosystems are considered not yet mature enough.
Deep Tech and AI are the hottest verticals
While AI is expectedly high on the chart, it is interesting to note that most investors (over 50%) responded that they are looking to invest in Deep Tech. This confirms Finland and the Nordics as an emerging hub for Deep Tech startups and innovations.
Following Deep Tech and AI, there is a suite of resilience and impact-oriented verticals, like Climate Tech, Cybersecurity, Energy and Healthtech. It is interesting to see B2B SaaS quite far on the chart, with just over a quarter of respondents expressing their interest. Based on the next surveys, it will be possible to establish if this is an anomaly or a sign of a larger shift in mindset and approach.
80% of investors want a strong founding team
The age-old question: “What are investors looking for in a startup?”
80% of our respondents are looking for a strong founding team – which was by far the most popular answer. Competitive advantage / IP came in second place, with 46% of the answers, and Traction and revenue growth in the third, with 31%. Such a strong preference towards “people over numbers” might be surprising, but we must remember that most of the respondents were early-stage investors – which would at least partly explain why measures like traction, scalability or product-market fit are not higher on the chart.
Investors are optimistic
The key part of the Deal Pulse is checking the investors’ predictions for the coming months and their optimism about the venture capital and startup ecosystem in general.
Most of the investors are keeping their investment outlook balanced, meaning that they intend to keep investing at the same rate as they have invested previously. They also predict a visible increase in deal flow, but the valuations of companies should generally stay on similar levels, with a moderate increase if at all.
In general, the investors are optimistic about the ecosystem in the coming months – with over 50% expressing optimism, 25% being neutral, and 20% somewhat pessimistic. No one responded that they are ‘very pessimistic’.
Lack of exits is the biggest challenge
When it comes to the biggest challenges that investors face, number one is, perhaps not surprisingly, the lack of exits in the current market. In this context, it is interesting to notice that “exit potential” was in last place on the chart of Key factors driving investment decisions. Perhaps a slight change in investors’ mindsets and considering paths to an exit already at the early stages could be helpful in this case.
Other major challenges are economic uncertainty and access to capital. Economic and geopolitical uncertainty has often been quoted as the reason for investors to decrease (or not consider increasing) the amount of capital they are looking to invest in the coming months. Access to capital is of course, partly tied to the previous two. LPs are harder to convince in an economically uncertain time, while the lack of exits is preventing sufficient returns from previous funds.
It is good to see that competition from other investors is not considered a challenge. It suggests that Nordic investors are rather focused on cooperation than competition, which should help the startups and the ecosystem grow.
Summary
Based on the results of the survey, it is clear that the Nordic investors believe in the local startup ecosystem and are optimistic about its future.
While the lack of exits and broader economic and geopolitical uncertainty remain a challenge, and the amount of invested capital looks to remain on similar levels, the valuations of companies and the dealflow should be increasing, which should ultimately lead to an improvement in the situation.
Sectors like Deep Tech and AI are the ones to watch most closely for funding opportunities, and a strong founding team remains the best asset, at least at the early stage.
A warm thank you to all the respondents for participating in the Deal Pulse! We will be sending another installment in the coming months – keep your eyes peeled.
Thank you for reading the article until the end! I hope you found it useful. If you have any questions or comments, please send them directly to jakub.florczak@arcticstartup.com.
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Read the orginal article: https://arcticstartup.com/arcticstartup-deal-pulse-survey-2025-results/
