Grid.vc

Grid.vc invests into early-stage energy companies.

They’re often the first fund investor of a company and the only one on a round with angels and other non-institutional investors, leading the round. On later rounds they often co-invest with other funds.

They have a global mandate, but focus on investing into companies in the New Nordics and Germany.

Norrsken VC

Impact fund. Focuses on continental Nordics: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, with some emphasis also on Baltics. Prefers co-investing outside Sweden, but has also led rounds outside their home market.

Invests €0.5-1M on early stage companies. They exceptionally invest up to €2M initial tickets on later stage companies. Looking for a 5-10x return.

Fiil Good

Impact investment fund by a group of angels. FIIL = Finnish Impact Investment Limited (Vaikuttavuussijoitus in Finnish). Investments have to fulfill UN SDG (sustainable development goals) criteria.

All members are active angel investors, who see themselves more as co-founders than just financial investors.

Prefer companies with traction and product-market fit (or very close). Occasionally also do pre-revenue investments.

MVP with traction (seed): €50k-200k, rounds €50k-€400k. Valuations below €2M.

Pre-seed (idea testing stage) €5k-20k, rounds max. €50k.

When lead investing, they take board chairperson position. When co-investing, prefer board membership.

 

Innovestor

Innovestor offers co-investing (syndicate forming) as a service. They also do solo investments.

Prefer B2B, but open to any business types. Drug development is not currently interesting for them, but digital health and medical technology is.

Funding applications can be filled at https://innovestorgroup.com/growth-companies/#applyfunding.

Trind Ventures

€23M fund focusing on software technology in Finland and Baltics. Can invest also elsewhere in Europe. Hardware can be a minor component of an invested company’s offering, but software has to be the main part. Commonly co-invests with other funds. Can lead rounds in their focus geography.

Prefer B2B and B2C. B2G investments would require significant indications that the sales cycle is much faster than average in that area.

They look for traction before investing. In B2B there has to be revenue, in B2C traction can be proven in other ways as well.

They prefer to participate in companies at the board level.

Karma Ventures

Karma Ventures invest into early-stage deep tech software in Baltics, Nordics, and in especially strong cases also elsewhere in Europe.

They’re looking for companies with technological advantage. Doesn’t have to be IPR, but something valuable and very hard to imitate. They look for companies with traction, first clients validating the demand, but in exceptional cases pre-revenue can also be considered.

In terms of sectors, life sciences are not their focus, but deep tech B2B health software can be interesting.

They prefer to lead, co-lead or invest solo.

Contrarian Ventures

Contrarian Ventures is a European fund investing into companies transforming the energy sector, including where and how it is used, with an emphasis on sustainability. They are also interested all energy tech, e-mobility, automation, AI, hydrogen, energy grids, and energy storage. They have an especial liking for software and hardware-enabled software.

They focus on B2B, but are interested in especially strong B2C and B2G cases as well.

The partners have extensive expertise and networks in energy and its associated sectors in addition to startups and venture capital. They have a singular focus on helping the best energy-related startups succeed.

They prefer to lead or co-lead in deals. They’re an active investor, seeking to add value through their network, expertise and services for all portfolio companies. They often look for a place on the board, at least as an observer. Their HQ is in Vilnius with partners based in London and other key European cities.

Helen Ventures

Helen Ventures is the €50M energy CVC fund of Helsinki energy company Helen. Their investments are connected to energy: production, storage, transmission, usage, saving, carbon neutrality, digital and other operational solutions for a large energy company, and related solution areas like mobility and circular economy.

NordicNinja

Nordic Ninja is funded by large Japanese technology companies, but investment decisions are made locally. They have connections to large companies especially in Japan, having partnerships with global giants such as Panasonic, Omron and Honda.

They don’t invest in games, crypto or pharma. They’re widely interested in everything else, including but not limited to robotics, automation, health tech, AI and mobility.

They prefer to co-invest with a local investor, but can also lead or be the sole investor on a round. They’re often willing to serve on company boards.

 

Wave Ventures

Wave Ventures specializes in millennial solutions, but not exclusively. In terms of sectors they look at everything except games and pharma. Their investment focus is further described here: https://link.medium.com/tXSCKREFN4

They prefer contacts at team@wave.ventures.