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ContentsFeature: Finland: from mobiles and games to a deeptech nationDashboard: Fundraising of Finnish VC fundsProfile: 12 Finnish startups to watchFeature: Quanscient speeds up multiphysics simulation with cloud-based quantum serviceAnalysis: Early-stage deals and bargain valuations dominate Finland’s startup sector
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FEATUREFinland: from mobiles and games to a deeptech nationQuantum computing, alternative packaging and recycling technology are a few of the deeptech sectors that are emerging in Finland’s startup scene.
Finland’s technology scene used to be best known for mobile phone maker Nokia, and then for gaming companies like Angry Birds maker Rovio and Clash of Clans creator Supercell.
But its next iteration is likely to be deeptech, as a strong academic base and a batch of new hard tech-focused funds push early- stage venture activity toward edge technologies.
The country has a relatively low level of startup funding activity: figures from the Finnish Venture Capital Association record under €900m in funding for Finnish startups from seed to growth stage in 2021, in comparison to over €7bn raised by their Swedish counterparts. But a higher percentage of its early-stage companies are leaning into harder technology areas.
“When it comes to deep tech, Sweden boasts a larger number of startups while Finland stands out with approximately 30- 40% of its startup landscape dedicated to the deeptech sector,” says Inka Mero, managing partner of hard tech-focused venture capital firm Voima Ventures.
“This is the result of a long-term startup or business background but also scientific and academic backgrounds in AI, nano-electronics, advanced materials, biotech solutions, and optics and photonics. If you start looking at these core technology domains, you’re looking at the core building blocks for future businesses such as quantum computing or next-generation generative AI, or recycled materials which are needed in electronics.”
Photo courtesy of Finnish startup Bluefors Finland punches above its weight in several technology areas. Its roots are in software, starting with Assembly, a gaming and demo event that goes back to the 90s and which acted as a meeting place and proving ground for the country’s coders.
This activity led to the birth of a vibrant gaming ecosystem that brought forth a clutch of highly valued startups like Rovio and Supercell. The modern tech scene was also fuelled by the rise and fall of mobile handset producer Nokia.
“The growth and success of Nokia meant that we had a huge pool of engineers within the communications stack but also with consumer-focused hardware design capabilities,” says Juha Lehtola, director of venture capital for state-owned venture firm Tesi.
“And then when Nokia started laying off people in 2010 or so, a lot of that talent has been redirected elsewhere.”
Initially they went to consumer-facing sectors like mobile devices, digital health and mobile payment, but in recent years a clutch of specialist venture firms has sprung up to fund harder tech areas, such as Innovestor (life sciences), Vendep Capital (software-as-a-service) and Voima, which just closed its €90m third fund. This in turn is supporting developers of edge products.
Biomaterials and quantum computing head Finland’s specialist tech areas
Quantum computing is still an emerging technology, but it is increasingly standing out as a key area for Finland, which established its first cold laboratory in the mid-1960s, and which is one of the only European countries to be collaborating with the US-based Quantum Economic Development Consortium.
Bluefors, which provides cryogenic cooling technology for quantum systems, spun out of Aalto University’s low temperature laboratory in 2008, paving the way for building supercooled quantum labs in the country. The largest quantum computing company in Finland is Tencent-backed unicorn IQM, and its ecosystem is even causing other quantum-based businesses, such as Oxford University spinout QuantrolOx, which develops machine learning software to manage qubits, to relocate.
“You could, of course, associate some of this development to these early flagship companies that raised a lot of funding and created a positive momentum,” Lehtola says. “That’s the fluffier thing, but in concrete terms, they also recruit and train a lot of talent on quantum technologies, and that may then spark new companies to be founded as well.
“At least that’s the historical timeline – I didn’t see anything before 2019 in terms of company activity in the quantum space in Finland. It’s really quite recent, and it’s continuously becoming bigger.”
An area where Finland’s traditional strengths are influencing its startup scene is forestry, unsurprising for a country where forests cover more than 70% of its land mass.
While the brunt of that business involves generating wood, paper and pulp, there are plenty of side streams that can feed into areas such as alternative packaging materials or recycling technology. Sulapac and Fiberwood are among the startups that have raised corporate funding for bio-based plastic alternatives in recent months.
“There are a lot of these companies, and the reason for that is you have a concentration of talent in the Nordics that knows how to regenerate valuable products from bio side streams,” Mero says. “And then if you look at the legislative environment in Europe, we’re now moving to a place where you have to invest a lot to circle our economy, to replace plastics and any fossil-based materials, any chemical industrial products.”
Will a strong education system overcome a funding gas and looming skills gap?
Although Finland’s edge technology startups are thriving at seed and series A stage, particularly with more specialist investors entering the arena, there is a question about whether they can make the next step in scaling. Funding often dried up from series C onwards.
“Your first €10m round, that’s the toughest one,” says Mero. “When you need to build your first satellite and get that to the sky, for instance, it gets narrow. That’s also why the Scandinavian and Baltic startups – and the Finnish ones of course – need to raise from global markets from the start.”
And Finland has not traditionally been a strong market for global investors, despite its technology prowess. That, however, could be changing, according to Panu Maulaheimo, venture advisor at VC firm Helsinki Partners.
“Foreign venture capital flowing into Finland has more than doubled in two years,” Maulaheimo says. “I would say that it’s not a very well-kept secret anymore, so it’s definitely now something that is on the radar for some people at least.”
International corporates are investing in Finland – Samsung Next, Sumitomo’s Presidio Ventures and E.ON’s Future Energy Ventures are among the foreign CVC units to have backed Finnish startups of late – but the move to ‘harder’ tech is also being supported by local groups in infrastructure-heavy areas that are increasingly exploring early-stage investment.
Illustration of IQM quantum computers in a supercomputing facility. Image courtesy of IQM Quantum Computers The list includes forestry companies Stora Enso and Huhtamaki, which has set up a CVC arm under Tuikku Alaviitala, as well as oil supplier Neste and energy providers Fortum and Helen, which can not only invest but help as an early customer.
“There are several interesting large companies in the energy, chemicals – let’s say the harder tech space in general – that can partner with the startups and provide early venture client opportunities,” says Antti Ritala, who heads venturing and acquisitions for Neste. “So, companies like Neste or Fortum with ambitious climate targets are collaborating with startups. I think they play a role.”
Finland’s move towards more deep tech startups is supported by a strong academic grounding, boasting some 35 universities across a population of less than 6 million, while state-owned research institute VTT has in recent years spun out startups such as sustainable texture developer Spinnova and Solar Foods, which is working on technology that promises to create nutritional protein out of air.
The system has paid off so far, boosted by substantial government investment in education and free tuition fees for students from the European Union, though there are concerns it may not do so as much long term.
“For several decades, Finland consistently achieved top rankings in PISA assessments, particularly in mathematics and biosciences,” Mero says. “However, over the past five years, there has been a slight decline in these rankings, raising considerable concerns within the country about the current trajectory.”
Another issue the country may struggle with in future is that declining birth rates mean it is effectively losing thousands of people from the workforce each year, and it may have to begin importing qualified workers. There are warning signs emerging already.
“I think every Nordic country is fighting for global talent,” Mero adds. “We have the most challenging demographics in the whole of Europe here. We would roughly need something like 150,000 to 200,000 talent immigrants to the country by 2035. That’s a lot of people.
“We like to talk a lot about the Scandinavian and the Finnish miracle in terms of our startups, and I totally agree with that. I think we have massive opportunities. But if we don’t solve this one, big pressing problem, which is talent immigration, we’re not going to be the country where the money flows and the investments will happen, because in today’s global economy, if you think about where corporations establish their operations or where the money flows in terms of the startups, it’s where the talent is.”
Startups to watch1 of 12
Doublepoint
- Based: Helsinki, Finland
- Founded: 2020
- Funding to date: $3.2m
Increasing numbers of electronics devices require touch interfaces, and Doublepoint is developing more intuitive and versatile options for manufacturers.
Doublepoint’s wristband technology combines algorithmic programming and proprietary hardware, which measures gestures through small vibrations generated by a user’s touch.
It can also be combined with eye-tracking systems to allow users to select something on screen by looking at it and pinching their fingers.
The startup’s debut product is a machine learning algorithm that uses extremely sensitive smartwatch sensors to detect micro gestures. It also offers a free software development kit that can turn existing smartwatches into input devices.
Doublepoint emerged from stealth in May this year, having accumulated approximately $3.2m from backers such as FOV Ventures, Superangel VC and Superhero Capital.
2 of 12
Exolyt
- Based: Helsinki, Finland
- Founded: 2020
- Funding to date: $480,000
Exolyt has created an artificial intelligence- equipped analytics tool for social media platform TikTok that helps businesses monitor accounts and trends.
The product offers tools covering account management, data synchronisation and the monitoring of videos and influencer advertising campaigns. It also tracks how individual music tracks perform on the platform.
The company targets brands, marketing agencies, product developers and researchers. It has racked up more than 100 customers. Its three cofounders previously set up digital experience agency Perfektio in 2016.
Exolyt secured $480,000 in pre-seed financing from local venture capital firms Trado Capital and Founder’s Edge in March this year.
3 of 12
Flowrite
- Based: Helsinki, Finland
- Founded: 2020
- Funding to date: $5.1m
Flowrite has developed an AI-powered tool that helps users write emails and messages on Google Chrome. The startup instantly converts sequences of words into ready-to-send emails, messages and posts whilst maintaining users’ personal writing style.
The startup was founded in 2020 by Aaro Isosaari, chief executive; and Karolus Sariola, chief technology officer. The two met at Finnish accelerator programme Kiuas before joining forces to create Flowrite. Isosaari worked at Kiuas for three years, holding positions such as programme lead and board member. Sariola founded the Helsinki-based student data organisation platform Railo.io in 2018.
The startup has raised $5.1m. In 2020 it raised $594,660 in a pre-seed round that included investors Lifeline Ventures, Seedcamp and Unity founder David Helgason. The company has also attracted other venture capital investors including Moodfire Ventures and Project A.
4 of 12
Kelluu
- Based: Reijola, Finland
- Founded: 2018
- Funding to date: $4m
Kelluu has built an unmanned aerial vehicle that is powered by hydrogen energy for use in monitoring environmental conditions, transport and electricity infrastructure in remote areas.
The company’s drones are intended to collect high-quality aerial data that is then processed through its cloud software and sent to clients. The product has been developed with the Finnish climate in mind: it is designed to work in snow, ice and high winds.
The company brought its eastern Finland factory online in 2020, and its airships were completing 12-hour flights by September 2022 under the leadership of new CEO Janne Hietala. It has raised approximately $4m, according to Crunchbase, but has not revealed the identity of its investors.
5 of 12
Origin by Ocean
- Based: Raseborg, Finland
- Founded: 2019
- Funding to date: $5.5m
Origin by Ocean has created bio-refining technology that can create bio-based chemicals from invasive algae and ecologically farmed seaweed.
The company can not only remove the invasive algal blooms that are causing eutrophication of the oceans but turns these into valuable chemicals that can be used in food, cosmetics, agriculture and more.
The company was founded in 2019 by chemist and environmental activist Mari Granström after witnessing first-hand the degradation of the marine environment while diving. It has since built a team of a dozen chemists, biologists and engineers.
The startup received debt funding from Business Finland and raised a €3m seed round in May backed by Lifeline Ventures and Voima Ventures.
6 of 12
Nordic Umami Company
- Based: Espoo, Finland
- Founded: 2021
- Funding to date: $2.8m
Nordic Umami Company’s technology enables users to extract umami, the savoury taste sensation, from plant waste side streams.
The company’s microbial fermentation technology is intended to help create a circular food system, which reduces waste while allowing new vegetarian products to be created. It formed a collaboration agreement with healthy food producer Raisio last year. The partnership has resulted in the creation of a tomato sauce which makes use of broad bean hulls and oat milling waste from the corporate.
Food and beverage group Heino contributed to a $1.9m seed round led by VC fund Nordic Food Tech VC in January this year, which also featured Holdix, Vaens and angel investor Anne Soininen. It came nine months after Nordic Umami Company received a $870,000 grant from Business Finland and NextGeneration EU.
7 of 12
Onego Bio
- Based: Helsinki, Finland
- Founded: 2022
- Funding to date: $15.6m
Onego Bio is a fermentation company that develops animal free egg whites. The company, which was spun-out from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, uses trichoderma technology to produce egg proteins through fermentation that replicates identical egg white proteins.
Founded in 2022 by Maija Itkonen and Christopher Landowski, the duo has around 23 years of combined experience in the food industry. Landowski worked for 15 years as principal scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland on the trichoderma (a type of fungi) technology. Itkonen cofounded and spent six years at sustainable plant protein food developer Gold&Green Foods.
Onego Bio has raised $15.6m, with its most recent round in 2022 when it received $4.8m from Business Finland. Other investors include global venture capital firm Agronomics and Maki VC.
8 of 12
Pixieray
- Based: Espoo, Finland
- Founded: 2021
- Funding to date: $4.4m
Pixieray combines optics, hardware and software to develop eyeglasses that remove the need for multifocal lenses. The company creates adaptive lenses that provide both a wide and clear field of vision for near and mid- range distances.
The startup was founded in 2021 by CEO Niko Eiden, COO Rebecca Xu, CTO Klaus Melakari and Ville Miettinen, chief algorithm officer. Eiden previously launched other vision- based startups such as Varjo, a Helsinki-based VR and AR headset producer, which has raised more than $165.8m.
Since its launch, Pixieray has raised $4.4m in a seed funding round in 2021, which saw participation from venture capital firms such as Maki.vc and First Fellow Partners. Corporations also provided financing, including Amazon’s Alexa Fund, which typically invests in smart electronics, artificial intelligence and ambient computing.
9 of 12
P2X Solutions
- Based: Helsinki, Finland
- Founded: 2020
- Funding to date: $16.1m
P2X Solutions produces green hydrogen and power-to-x technology, which turns electricity into carbon-neutral synthetic fuels. In 2022 P2X Solutions announced plans to build an electrolysis plant in Harjavalta, a town in Finland.
Herkko Plit founded P2X Solutions in 2020 and now serves as the startup’s chief executive. Plit worked for nearly four years at Nordic clean energy producer Fortum, where he was the president and general manager of expert solutions. He also served four years in the Ministry of Employment and the Economy’s energy department as a deputy director general.
The startup has raised $16.1m. It received $10.7m in a capital loan in 2021 from the Finnish Climate Fund. Energy corporations such as Enersense and venture capital firms, including Prime Capital and Lifeline Ventures, have also provided funding. Finnish governmental body Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has also backed the startup.
10 of 12
Return Entertainment
- Based: Helsinki, Finland
- Founded: 2019
- Funding to date: $5.7m
Return Entertainment develops cloud-native technology and games for SmartTV gaming. Its technology makes gaming entertainment instant, shareable and allows users to experience high quality game visual effects.
Return Entertainment was launched in 2019 by cofounders Antti Sartanen, head of user experience, Miikka Huttunen and Tuomas Paavola. Huttunen served eight years as the editor in chief at Pelaaja magazine, a Finnish video games publication. Paavola worked for three years at metaverse mapping and visual positioning tools developer Immersal. Sartanen cofounded gaming studio Hipfire Games.
The startup has raised $5.7m through pre-seed and seed funding rounds. Corporate investors include Samsung Next, the investment arm of South Korea electronics conglomerate Samsung. A range of venture capital firms also provided investment, including SMOK Ventures, Sisu Game Ventures and Vgames.
11 of 12
Steady Energy
- Based: Espoo, Finland
- Founded: 2023
- Funding to date: $2.1m
Steady Energy develops safer and more efficient 50MW nuclear heating reactors that have the potential to heat a small city.
The Espoo-based startup’s low temperature nuclear reactors generate carbon-neutral heat specifically for district heating and industrial applications. The technology can operate at lower temperatures and pressures compared with traditional nuclear reactors.
Tommi Nyman launched the startup in 2023 and now serves as chief executive. Nyman has more than 25 years of management experience in the scientific and nuclear power sectors, having previously been the vice president of nuclear energy at Finland’s research and technology company VTT Technical Research Centre.
Steady Energy recently began raising funds. This year it raised $2.1m in a seed funding round. Participating investors include VTT and venture capital firms Yes VC and Lifeline Ventures.
12 of 12
Veil.ai
- Based: Helsinki, Finland
- Founded: 2019
- Funding to date: $1.4m
Veil.ai is an online platform that offers health data anonymisation and synthetisation services to pharmaceutical companies and hospitals. The Helsinki-based company allows teams to secure and protect data and manage data knowledge using machine learning technologies. This further enables the better use of data for research, development and innovation.
Spun out of the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland in 2019, Veil.ai was cofounded by Tuomo Pentikäinen, chief executive; Mehreen Ali, research director; and Robert Mills, the spinout’s data engineer. Pentikäinen is an experienced executive of data intensive growth companies and was the chief executive of several companies, including Espoo-based manufacturing and software seller BiiSafe.
The spinout has raised $1.4m. Investors include the University of Helsinki and life science accelerator Terkko Health Hub.
STARTUP PROFILEQuanscient speeds up multiphysics simulation with cloud-based quantum serviceTampere-based startup Quanscient is developing new simulation algorithms designed to run over the cloud and eventually on quantum computers.
Want to develop a new electric motor or plan how your 5G network should be optimised? You will need to run a multiphysics simulation of that on a computer to check how things are likely to work.
The only problem is that the more complex these simulations become, the harder and more time-consuming they are to run on a regular computer. But what if you could run this on a quantum computer capable of handling calculations far beyond the capabilities of a classical computer?
That is what Tampere-based Quanscient is aiming to do, offering customers access to quantum computing-powered multiphysics simulation technology through the cloud.
Quanscient team At the moment the company offers quantum-native algorithms harnessed to the power of cloud computing — already something that can cut down the time to run a simulation from several days to just a few hours. It has experimented running its algorithms on several different quantum machines such as IBM, Quantinuum, Rigetti and simulators from Atom Computing and Intel.
Juha Riippi, cofounder and CEO, says the incorporation of cloud-based software already makes Quanscient stand out from competitors. “The multiphysics simulations industry is quite conservative as most of the solutions out there are still desktop or workstation-based. Our competitors’ algorithms date back to the ‘80s and ‘90s, so they were designed to be distributed in that mode,” says Riippi.
Courtesy of Quanscient “Quanscient, on the other hand, is a cloud-first company, which means we can easily distribute and run limitless numbers of simulations and this provides greater speed, time efficiency and, in turn, more accurate and complex simulations,” he says.
Riippi founded Quanscient in 2021 together with Alexandre Halbach, chief technology officer and original creator of the algorithms, as well as chief software architect, Asser Lähdemäki and Valtteri Lahtinen, chief scientific officer.
Investing in the quantum industry
Quantscience is a beneficiary of the wave of investment that quantum computing has attracted over the past few years — some $2.35bn went into the industry globally in 2022, according to a report from McKinsey.
Quanscient raised $4.2m in a seed funding round earlier this year, led by Maki.vc. Despite the tougher economic climate, it is still getting interest from potential backers.
Image courtesy of Quanscient “There is a lot of interest in the quantum computing industry,” says Riippi. “I get a lot of connection requests from investors even though we are not actively fundraising.”
Finland is carving its own niche in the quantum computing ecosystem, says Riippi.
“Quantum is booming in Finland right now. The leading European leader in quantum technology, IQM, is based in Finland. Finland has also produced Algorithmic, a life sciences-focused quantum software company,” he says.
“So new quantum companies are being established all the time in Finland. Finland is also a country with a small population of around five million people so quantum startup innovation in relation to the population size is quite high.”
Many Finnish universities have launched quantum programmes to further boost innovation in this sector.
Corporate connections
Quanscient is using its seed round to further its quantum research, as well as for expanding its sales team.
It plans to start the fundraising campaign for its series A this fall, in the hope of closing the round in 2024.
Juha Riippi, Quanscient’s founder and CEO The startup has yet to include any CVCs though Riipi is keen to participate in corporate collaborations.
Although it has not received any corporate investment, it has been able to work with corporations such as Intel through the Intel Ignite Accelerator.
“They helped us raise our seed round by providing connections to investors, fundraising lessons and lessons in pitching, as well as stemming a continuous collaboration with Intel on our research with access to labs and working on our quantum chip,” he says.
ANALYSISEarly-stage deals and bargain valuations dominate Finland’s startup sectorFinland’s venture funding doubled in size between 2021 and 2022 but corporate investors continue to play only a small role in fundraising rounds.
With a population of just above 5.5 million people and consistently ranked as one of the happiest nations in the world, Finland has a budding innovation ecosystem with great potential. But is it still being somewhat overlooked by corporates?
Finland is well known in the VC world for its gaming industry, but it’s actually punching well above its weight in a number of deals in all things IT, in addition to life sciences, consumer and services technologies.
In 2022 venture funding totaled €402m, up 50% year-over-year from the €268m in 2021, data from the Finnish Venture Capital Association show.
Median deal size and valuations, though growing, have been low in absolute dollar terms, as most of its venture scene is still dominated by early stage and seed stage businesses.
Despite the growth in Finland’s venture scene, corporate investors are few. CVCs have participated in roughly one out of every ten recorded deals. Most of the corporates participating in some of the biggest deals are foreign multinational players.
Beyond gaming
Finland’s startup ecosystem is known for games and gaming technology developers like Supercell (developer of mobile device game Clash of Clans) and Rovio (AngryBirds), and this space did see growth in number of rounds between 2012 and 2018. Between 2019 and 2022, however, rounds raised by Finnish gaming companies plateaued.
In fact, it’s information technology that looms large in the country’s innovation ecosystem. Historically, nearly half (47%) of all VC-backed deals have been in the broader IT space. Other prominent sectors are life sciences (13%), services (13%) and consumer (10%).
It is not hard to find Finnish unicorns in these sectors either. Last year, food ordering and delivery platform Wolt was acquired by DoorDash in a $2.4bn all-shares deal. Oura, a developer of a wellness wearable ring designed to track and improve the quality of sleep, has raised more than $405m in VC funding to date, according to PitchBook.
Finland boasts a vibrant innovation ecosystem, which is shown by the number of VC-backed deals in Finnish companies. It has grown quickly over the past decade, from 32 deals in 2013 to 210 in 2021. But it did drop to 173 rounds in 2022.
Notably, the estimated total dollar value of VC rounds continued to grow through 2022, reaching $1.29bn, suggesting the global correction in VC valuations may have been a little slower to reach the Finnish venture scene.
Valuations and deal size
In fact, the median deal size and median post-money valuations for Finnish startups have been modest but on an upward trajectory since 2020, according to PitchBook.
The relatively low median deal size and valuation figures make sense in light of the fact that, over the past decade, more than half of the raised VC rounds by Finnish companies have been early stage, seed and pre-seed.
This coincides with findings of the Finnish Venture Capital Association (FVCA) that the average size of VC investments in Finnish companies has increased over time in both early and later stage deals, with the average size of seed investments having risen 67% to €1m in 2022, up from €0.6m in 2021. This finding is also consistent with our data that show corporate investors, overall, have shifted their focus toward earlier and seed-stage investments, as valuation corrections began to take place last year.
The role of CVCs
Despite the attractive valuations and vibrant ecosystem in place, the presence of corporate VC investors in deals seems to have been modest. Even in the peak year of 2021, corporate backers were part of investment syndicates in only 25 rounds out of the total of 210, according to PitchBook’s data.
On a percentage basis, the proportion of corporate-backed rounds has fluctuated between 7 and 12% over the past decade. Corporates participate in roughly one out of every 10 deals in Finnish startups.
What is noteworthy about corporates, however, is that – even though fewer of them invest in Finland, most of those have been foreign such as 3M Ventures, Bonnier Ventures, Telia Ventures and Repsol Corporate Venturing. This is partly due to the fact that there are few corporate VC investors based in Finland (only seven, according to PitchBook).
The leader was, however, local corporate VTT Ventures with 20 deals in local startups in the past decade. It is the corporate venture capital arm of VTT Technical Research Centre, based in Espoo, Finland. The firm invests in imaging and optics, the internet of things and electronics, life science, materials and manufacturing, sensing and diagnostics, software and ICT sectors.
The bulk of funding in Finnish VCs is raised either through public sector sources (30%) or institutional investors like insurance companies, funds of funds and pension funds (33%). Corporate investors accounted for an estimated 1% of the total funds raised in 2022.
Recent top deals
As valuations fall globally due to rising interest rates, creeping inflation and fears of a looming recession, fewer names have attained unicorn or near-unicorn status. Participation of corporate VC in some of these large deals is also notable.
One of those is Relex, a developer of retail software designed to help retailers and consumer brands optimise sales. The company raised €500m of venture funding in a deal led by Blackstone in 2022, reportedly putting its pre-money valuation at €4.5bn. Other undisclosed investors also participated. The company’s software makes retail operations data-driven, autonomous and adaptive, and uses retail expertise and technology to improve competitiveness through accurate forecasting and replenishment.
Another good example is cloud database software developer Aiven, which raised $210m in 2022 via a combination of debt and series D venture funding, in a deal led by Eurazeo and featuring Salesforce Ventures. The transaction reportedly put its pre-money valuation at $3.04bn. The company’s software leverages the power of logs, metrics, and dataflow or replication integrations for hosting and managing an open-source database and messaging systems, enabling small and large-scale organisations to solve complex database issues.
Some Finnish tech goes beyond the limits of this planet. Satellite tech developer ICEYE raised $136m in a series D round, led by Seraphim Space, in 2022, allegedly putting its valuation at $591m. The round also featured BAE Systems. ICEYE develops a radar satellite imaging technology, employing commercial SAR satellite constellation that uses microwave radar technology to help in imaging in all conditions.
Being historically strong in IT, Finnish innovators have naturally been drawn to quantum computing as well. Quantum tech developer IQM raised €128m in a series A2 round, led by the World Fund and featuring Tencent Investment. The company specialises in high-speed quantum computers with application-specific processors using superconducting qubits. It provides quantum computers for research laboratories and supercomputing centres to help tackle the climate crisis.
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