The Nordics are home to plenty of wealthy families who’ve made their money from everything from fisheries and oil to manufacturing and technology — and many of them have developed a strong appetite for investing in startups.
Although these family offices don’t often make a lot of noise, they’ve played a crucial role in building local startup ecosystems. Some have even made their money from startups — such as Finnish investment company Illusian, founded by Supercell cofounder Ilkka Paananen — and are now leveraging their expertise and capital to give back.
Sifted lists 11 Nordic family offices investing in startups in the region.
First Fellow Partners, Helsinki
First Fellow Partners is a family office founded by Risto Siilasmaa and long term investor Kim Groop in 2016. Siilasmaa is the founder and former CEO of the anti-virus company F-Secure Corporation, which he still owns 40% of. First Fellow Partners invests in seed to early-stage companies in SaaS and AI, focusing on the Nordic region, particularly Finland and Sweden.
Notable investments: Quantum computer startup Quanscient, AI startup Vuo AI, healthtech Kilo Health and carbon storage startup Paebbl.
Walerud Ventures, Stockholm
Walerud Ventures was founded in 2016 and is the family office of Jane Walerud, the first investor in Klarna, her husband Bengt Walerud and daughter Caroline Walerud. Both Jane and Caroline have invested and gone in as operational cofounders at some of the startups that they have backed. The family office focuses on pre-seed investments in deeptech startups in the Nordics.
Notable investments: Paebbl, drone startup Airforestry, AI startup Ekkono and algae startup Swedish Algae Factory
Gullspång Invest, Stockholm
After investing in the Swedish company Axis in 1989, Christer Brandberg received SEK 3.4bn (€314m) when Canon acquired the company in 2015. Since then, his three sons—Erik, Magnus, and Gustaf Brandberg—have managed this capital through the family firm Gullspång Invest. Of late the family office has focused on impact and invests at pre-seed to Series A, writing tickets of around $10-20m across Europe and North America.
Notable investments: Oatmilk maker Oatly, food tech LUB Foods, discount grocery store Matsmart and heat pump startup Qvantum
DIG Investment, Stockholm
DIG Investment was founded in 2011 and, according to media reports, was originally financed by the Persson family (founders of Swedish fashion giant H&M), through Stefan Persson’s daughter, Charlotte Söderström. Since then, other wealthy families have joined as investors, according to the family office. The company is run by Martin Söderström, husband of Charlotte Söderström. It focuses mainly on Series B investments in Swedish startups.
Notable investments: Fintech Klarna, music tech Soundtrack Your Brand, audio tech Dirac, dining booking platform Velocity
Stephen Industries, Espoo, Finland
Stephen Industries was founded by Finnish entrepreneur and businessman Kustaa Poutiainen in 1992. However, it wasn’t until Poutiainen sold Picosun, a developer of thin film coating technology, to the American semiconductor giant Applied Materials in 2022, that the family office got a lot more capital to invest. Stephen Industries focus on pre-seed to Series B in healthtech, climate tech and deeptech writing tickets from €300k to €3m.
Notable investments: Hydrogen startup Hycamite TCD Technologies, biotech company TILT Biotherapeutics, thermal energy storage startup Polar Night Energy
Illusian, Helsinki
Illusian is the family office of Supercell cofounder Ilkka Paananen. Having pulled together founders and operators from other Finnish scaleups, Illusian has a team of people like Marianne Vikkula of Wolt, Oskari Saarenmaa of Aiven, and Miika Huttunen of Realm. It was founded in 2014 and focuses on early-stage software and AI startups in Europe, particularly in Helsinki, London and Berlin.
Notable investments: Social gaming startup Slay, hygiene product startup Droppe, performance management startup Taito.ai
Heartland, Aarhus, Denmark
Heartland is the family office of billionaire businessman Anders Holch Povlsen, the CEO and owner of global retail chain Bestseller, with a net worth of $12.5bn. Holch Povlsen is also a large shareholder in fashion brands ASOS and Zalando as well as in fintech Klarna. The family office invests from seed to late stage.
Notable investments: Fintech Lunar, energy storage startup Hyme Energy, delivery startup Cloud Retail, sports tech Eyeball
Inbox Capital, Stockholm
Inbox Capital, previously called IKAB, was founded in 1985 as the family office of John Wattin, one of the founders of IT consulting firm Enator. The money he made from the company’s exit to Finnish IT company Tieto, alongside the returns from an early investment in the database company MySQL, makes up the bulk of capital that Inbox now invests, through his son Martin Wattin. The office invests from seed to Series C.
Notable investments: Micromobility startup Voi, electric car reseller Carla, fintech Lysa, social platform Fishbrain
Sagitta Ventures, Copenhagen
Sagitta is a family office of the Clausen family, founded in 2022. The family made its fortune when Mads Clausen founded the now multinational company Danfoss in 1933. Sagitta focuses primarily on healthtech and B2B scaleups.
Notable investments: Hybrid plane manufacturer Heart Aerospace, electric surfboard maker Awake and healthtech Ward24/7
Chr. Augustinus Fabrikker, Copenhagen
This Danish family office dates back to 1750 and is a notable fund of fund investor, being an LP in funds run by 2150 and Pale Blue Dot. It has a large investment team and also invests in scaleups with Danish roots.
Notable investments: Fintechs Zenegy and Lunar, podcast platform Podimo, sports tech Veo Technologies
Stratel, Oslo
Stratel is a family-owned investment company founded in 1976. It invests in pre-seed and seed-stage companies.
Notable investments: Tablet unicorn ReMarkable, carbon removal startup Inherit
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/nordic-family-offices-to-tap-into/
