Nordics
Continent / region · Europe · Pop. 28.3M · #17 region by EV
* C→Unicorn and Unicorn→Decacorn rates are derived from current counts (no founding-cohort data); the four mid-funnel rates use Dealroom's cohort tracking.
01 VC investment
How much venture capital flows into the Nordics
VC investment into the Nordics-headquartered, VC-backed companies, broken down by round size, company location, sector and funding stage.
02 Top hubs
Top startup hubs in the Nordics
The Nordics’ leading ecosystems — switch between metro areas (HQ regions) and countries, and rank by VC funding, newly minted unicorns, all-time unicorn and thoroughbred counts, combined enterprise value or EV growth. VC funding, new unicorns and EV growth all follow the period slider (EV growth re-windows an annual 2015–2025 EV series) plus the round-size bands.
03 Outcomes over time
How the Nordics compound: unicorns and enterprise value
Cumulative unicorns & $1B+ exits, decacorns ($10B+), or combined ecosystem enterprise value — all VC-backed companies founded since 1990, the same lens as the hubs ranking — stacked by country or metro since 2015.
05 Global comparison
Unicorns, decacorns and centicorns — a global comparison
Companies count where they were founded or are headquartered. Values are per 1M people or totals, as a share of the US (US = 100%) or absolute; bars scale to the largest value in each column. Hover any value for the per-1M rate and absolute count.
06 EV constellation
The Nordics’ VC-backed companies, sized by value
One bubble per company — area is current enterprise value, grouped by country or metro (HQ region), counted where founded or headquartered (a company that moved appears in both clusters). Covers every VC-backed company founded since 1990 — the shaded cluster totals follow the platform’s HQ lens; Spotify, Genmab and Visma anchor the map. Switch Counting to “Unicorns & thoroughbreds” to keep only the named outcomes.
07 Largest rounds
Largest funding rounds in the Nordics
A live treemap of the largest VC rounds. Each cell is one round into Nordic-headquartered companies, filterable by round size and grouped by Dealroom sector.
Largest rounds in the Nordics - 2025–2026
08 Academia
The Nordics’ academic flywheel
Companies founded by university alumni or spun out of research, plus the institutions producing the most founders tied to the Nordics.
| # | University | City | Founders | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Copenhagen Business School | Frederiksberg | 2,445 | 2,824 |
| 2 | KTH Royal Institute of Technology | Stockholms kommun | 2,020 | 2,184 |
| 3 | Stockholm University | Stockholms kommun | 1,450 | 1,691 |
| # | University | City | Founders | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | KTH Royal Institute of Technology | Stockholms kommun | 2,020 | 2,184 |
| 2 | Stockholm University | Stockholms kommun | 1,450 | 1,691 |
| 3 | Lund University | Lund Municipality | 1,199 | 1,378 |
| # | University | City | Founders | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Copenhagen Business School | Frederiksberg | 2,445 | 2,824 |
| 2 | Technical University of Denmark | Lyngby | 1,261 | 1,287 |
| 3 | University of Copenhagen | Copenhagen | 1,155 | 1,266 |
| # | University | City | Founders | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norwegian University of Science and Technology | Trondheim | 966 | 906 |
| 2 | University of Oslo | Oslo | 602 | 689 |
| 3 | University of Bergen (UiB) | Bergen | 236 | 263 |
| # | University | City | Founders | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aalto University | Espoo | 1,261 | 1,321 |
| 2 | University of Helsinki | Helsinki | 780 | 860 |
| 3 | University of Oulu | Oulu | 244 | 265 |
| # | University | City | Founders | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reykjavík University | Reykjavík | 171 | 187 |
| 2 | University of Iceland | Reykjavík | 19 | 31 |
| 3 | Agricultural University of Iceland | — | 2 | 3 |
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British-founded unicorns: 41% built in the US, 48% in the United Kingdom
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British founders: $319.2B of unicorns abroad, $490.3B at home
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German founders: $342.5B of unicorns abroad, $144.7B at home
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The most valuable companies in the German Diaspora Index
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The most active venture investors in the Nordics, H1 2026
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Analysis
Sweden Ranks #2 Globally for Unicorns per $T GDP
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More data
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Live company-by-company deal flow, full cap tables, founder pedigrees, hiring signals and revenue trajectories.