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Helsinki

Introduction

Finland is like the world’s R&D lab: they’re building world-beating technology around climate, life sciences, and deep tech. Finnish companies need global capital to help them expand globally—if incredible tech gets stuck in Finland and never reaches its potential, that’s a problem for the world, not just VCs.

Caroline Hughes, founder of Womankind Ventures

Discover innovative companies, investors and ecosystem players in Helsinki.

Explore real-time data on the Helsinki tech ecosystem

 

Venture Capital

Discover 2K+ funding rounds in Helsinki startups.
After a record $1.9B in 2022, Helsinki startups raised $526M in 2023, mainly due to a decrease in late-stage rounds.

Below we break venture capital into three distinct stages:

  • Startup stage ($0-15M rounds)
  • Breakout stage ($15-100M rounds)
  • Scaleup stage ($100M+ rounds)

This provides more consistent and timeless segmentation of the startup & venture capital landscape (more so than self-reported round labeling, which are applied inconsistently, especially between business cycles).

Early stage

Access early-stage funding rounds into Helsinki startups here on the Dealroom platform.

Breakout stage

Access breakout-stage funding rounds into Helsinki startups here on the Dealroom platform

Scaleup stage

Access late-stage funding rounds into Helsinki startups here on the Dealroom platform.

Position in Finland

Helsinki has captured more than 85% of VC activity in Finland in the last five years. See Finland investment per region here.

By segment

This guide uses the standardized categorization and proprietary tech taxonomy developed by Dealroom.

By business model
Discover Helsinki startups by business models here.

By industry
Discover Helsinki startup by industry here.

Helsinki vs Europe
Compared to European average, Helsinki over-indexes in Deep tech, Impact and Foodtech startup investment.

By subindustry
Discover Helsinki startups by subinstry here.

Growing segments

Source of capital

Explore rounds with foreign investor participation here.

Investors

The following table showcases the most active investors in the Helsinki ecosystem.

Discover 800+ local investors active in Helsinki.

 

Unicorns and promising companies

Helsinki is the birthplace of private unicorns and $1B exits such as Rovio and Supercell. Discover Helsinki unicorns and $1B exits here and future unicorns here.

Discover the top Helsinki startups to watch based on the Dealroom signal, surfacing the most promising upcoming funding opportunities in Helsinki.

To learn more about the Dealroom signal and its latest features, consult our knowledge base.

Helsinki globally

By VC investment

Helsinki ranks within the top 10 European hubs by VC investment raised in the last five years.

By impact VC investment

Helsinki ranks as 2nd Nordic hub for impact VC investment raised in the last five years.

Ecosystem Ranking

Helsinki ranks 33th worldwide and 19th in EMEA among Dealroom’s 2022 Global Tech Ecosystem top Science Hubs. For more information, cosnsult our guide on Top tech ecosystems.

Related Content

Helsinki ecosystem: Discover Helsinki's most promising companies and put your startup on the map on the Helsinki ecosystem platform. Startup founders who claim their profile on the Helsinki ecosystem dashboard can now claim 3 months free Premium access on the Dealroom global database here.
Reports: Helsinki ecosystem report 2023
Dealroom Data: Explore all funded companies HQ and/or founded in Helsinki
Dealroom Data: Explore all funding rounds in Helsinki startups

Metholody

For the purpose of this guide, the Greater Helsinki ecosystem (referred to as Helsinki) includes: Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen.
Unless specified otherwise, this guide includes both Helsinki-based startups, with their main center of business (HQ) in Helsinki, and Helsinki-founded startups, which relocated their HQ outside of the ecosystem.