Finland is home of 219 scaleups, about 4% of the total amount that we tracked in Europe. They cumulatively raised $1.9B in funding since inception, which is 2.3% of the total capital raised by European scaleups to date. The Finnish ecosystem is in the ninth position of the European Scaleup Country Index, between the Netherlands and Denmark. If absolute numbers suggest that Finland is really far from UK, Germany, France, and Sweden, the conversation changes in relative terms. Starting this year we introduced two indicators to better understand the efficiency of a scaleup economy as it relates to the size of the country in question. Finland outperforms the rest of the continent re: the “Scaleup Density Ratio”, by producing an average of 4 scaleups per 100,000 people. Finland scores well against the “Scaleup Investing Ratio”, with 0.75% of GDP dedicated to scaleup innovation, 1.7x more than the European average.
Though the scaleup population of Finland has been growing a consistent 15-17% since 2013, adding on average 30+ scaleups per year, we measured a slower growth in 2017 in comparison to the European continent as a whole. Similarly on the funding side, where we registered a decrease in terms of capital invested by 20% compared to 2016. On the contrary, M&A activity is de nitely seeing momentum as we are observing a literal turning point in 2017, with 45 M&A transactions (3.5x more than 2016 and prior years).
All these data require to be monitored to understand which kind of growth trajectory can be expected for Finland. As said, Finland is denitively a key scaleup ecosystem for Europe with a still unexploited potential. To further improve, our data suggest that three areas required to be addressed.
By Alberto Onetti,
Chairman, Mind the Bridge
