ImpactEducation Co-investing

Startup investing has established itselfas a vital part of the Finnish andNordic economy.

Startup Investing Landscape in Finland

The whole Finnish startup ecosystem has developed hugely positively over the last ten years. This is a joint effort by entrepreneurs, business angels, venture capitaland other investors, governmental institutes, universities, hubs, accelerators, startup events, and others who advance the future for startups and growthcompanies. Building startups is people's business and the work is done genuinely together. We believe this trend of working together will accelerate in the future. Finland's capital city Helsinki is known for innovative boosters such as Slush - one of the world's leading startup events, and Maria 01 - the biggest startup campus inthe Nordics. A vibrant and multifaceted startup ecosystem around the country foster startups in the path of becoming the next big success stories.

Startup's funding path in Finland

Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN) andFinnish Venture Capital Association (FVCA) havecollected their annual statistics of investmentsinto Finnish startups and early stage growthcompanies in 2018. A record amount of 479 million euros wasinvested into Finnish startups and early stagegrowth companies in 2018. Finnish VentureCapital (VC) funds invested 101 million eurosand business angels invested 36 million euros. The total funding amount has doubled in threeyears and is over four times higher than in2011. Foreign investments accounted for 291million euros in 2018 and their share of thetotal amount invested is over 50 %. The foreigninvestments have tripled in the last three years.

Finland in the Nordic Landscape

FiBAN is connected to other business angelnetworks through its umbrella organizationEuropean Business Angels Network (EBAN). In theNordic level, FiBAN is part of the Nordic AngelProgram (NAP) with three other angel networks inthe region that foster co-investing in cross-borderangel syndicates. In the past 18 months, NordicAngel Program has accelerated investments madein the New Nordic area with 411 angel investors,including 75 cross-border angels.

FVCA and its Nordic colleagues launched a newonline resource Nordics.VC dedicated to providinginformation about the Nordic VC scene. Recentyears have seen a revival of the Nordic venturescene with more than €3 billion raised by VC fundsin the Nordic region over the last five years. Overthe past five years, a total of 2.7 billion euros wasinvested into Nordic startups, out of which non-Nordic VCs’ contribution amounts to a whopping 1billion euros. Find out more about Nordic successstories from our new website Nordics.VC.

More information

Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN) is a non-profit association ofprivate investors on a mission to inspire private investments. The network isone of the largest and most active business angel networks in the world withover 650 approved members. FiBAN is a member of the European BusinessAngels Network (EBAN), and was chosen as the Business Angel Network of theYear in 2012 and 2014. FiBAN received the esteemed InternationalizationAward of the President of the Republic of Finland in 2017. FiBAN - Inspiring Private Investments. www.fiban.org FiBAN media bank: www.fiban.org/media FiBAN in social media: Twitter.com/FiBANorg | Facebook.com/FiBANorg| Linkedin.com/company/FiBANorg | Instagram.com/FiBANorgResearch and statistics: www.fiban.org/research

Finnish Venture Capital Association (FVCA) represents venture capital andprivate equity industry in Finland. At FVCA we work to improve the positiveimpact that the industry has on Finnish economy, society and environment.We thrive to be the forerunner on transparency and sustainability amongeuropean organizations. Our actions are focused on communications withthe public and various stakeholders, researching the industry, developing thebest practices and organizing seminars, events and education. FVCA – Building growth. www.paaomasijoittajat.fi/en (www.fvca.fi) FVCA media bank (latest press releases):https://paaomasijoittajat.fi/en/media/#tiedotteetFVCA in social media: twitter.com/FVCAfi | linkedin.com/company/fvcafi| instagram.com/FVCAfiResearch and statistics: paaomasijoittajat.fi/en/news/research/

A record-breaking amount of investments in 2018: funding for Finnishstartups doubled in three years.

Startup looking for funding

Exit

Business Finland is the Finnish governmentorganization that offers funding forresearch, product development, and manykinds of business development needs.

Finnish Venture Capital Association(FVCA) is the industry body representingventure capital and private equityinvestors in Finland.

Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN)is one of the largest and most activebusiness angel networks in the worldconnecting private investors with startups.

Tesi is a state-owned investmentcompany that accelerates companies’success stories by investing in them, bothdirectly and via funds.

Private funding

Public funding

Flagship initiatives

FiBAN educates both experienced andaspiring angel investors with high Finnisheducational standards. We have recentlytaken our world class angel education onlinewith the launch of our FiBAN Academy Online,which currently has a significant amount ofinternational participants. Our five moduleFiBAN Academy was created in the early2010's and hundreds of angels havecompleted the trainings. The newest additionto our educational offering is Business AngelsAcademy, which is joint educational programwith Aalto ENT.

We speak for diversity, in every sense of theword, and work hard for having more talentswith diverse backgrounds in the investingscene. We are proactive in making thishappen through education and severalinitiatives.

FVCA helps to create the next generation ofinvestment professionals. Our wide range ofinitiatives include a thesis competition forgraduates, private equity education programtogether with Aalto University EE education,and events for professionals consideringstarting a VC fund. FVCA supports diversityinitiatives such as Level20 and Inklusiiv andeducates investors to boost diversity in the VCteams as well as in the Finnish startups andgrowth companies.

Co-investing, in its many forms both innational and international level, bringsinvestors better deal flow, higher returns anddiversification. At the same time startups getstronger support through investors’ diverseknowledge base and networks.

FVCA is boosting an international, networkedand diverse VC market. That is a prerequisitefor making the most out of Finland’s strongtechnical know-how. In 2018 already 92 % ofthe 479 million Euros invested in Finnishcompanies were invested together withFinnish VCs. Furthermore, foreign targetcompanies received 30 % of Finnish VCs’investments and the amount is steadilygrowing.

In the Nordics we have high-qualitytechnology and investors that can be part ofsolving the world’s biggest problems. Webelieve that investing in agile impact startupsis an efficient way to have an influence onhow the future looks like.

FVCA sees that impact investing is the fastestgrowing strategy in the private equity industryglobally. Our message is “Go impact or gonowhere”!  To support our members withtheir impact activities and share bestpractices we launched two new studies aboutimpact investing in Autumn 2019; The firststudy covers 22 European impact investingfunds and 415 startups and the second studyfocuses on Finnish impact investinglandscape.

FiBAN members invest in syndicates.According to our study over 80% ofinvestments are co-investments. One of oursteps to ease the process has been to launcha new investment model FiBAN Follow. Themodel enables angels to make smoother,faster and more straightforward investmentsinto growth companies. The structure isunique in the world and has gained significantattention. Active angels can gain leverage forinvestments whilst follower angels have achance to participate in bigger investmentrounds.

FiBAN wants to ease business angels onmaking more impact conscious investments.We provide them guidance, practical tools,trainings and inspiration for positiveoutcomes. Our new Impact investing toolboxfor business angels, launched in November2019, promotes meaningful impact workcreated by relevant organizations. The opensource toolbox includes impact measurementand management tools, worksheets, reportsand studies, and other impact investingmaterial to advance sustainable innovationsin the startup scene.

Finland has a mutually supportive entirety of private funding from angelinvestors and VC's, combined with public funding by the government.

Highlights from Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN) and Finnish Venture Capital Association (FVCA)

Broadening the pool of talents Diverse know-how and funding models Providing tools for impactful investments

As one of the biggest and most active business angel networks in theworld with over 650 members, FiBAN investors have shared bothcapital but also an innumerable amount of their time and knowledgeto startups. FiBAN business angels invested in 435 startups in 2018.The average number of investments per investor was 1.9 annually.There is strength in collaboration, and according to a recent study, over75% of companies who received angel investments, also receivedfunding from Business Finland.

The high quality of Finnish startups and funding ecosystem has resulted toFinland heading the charts in European venture capital investments instartups and early stage growth companies as percentage of GDP between2014-2018. Sweden and Denmark are the other Nordic countries in the top 4.Nordic angel and venture capital investments have been a key factor increating 15 Nordic unicorns with a market cap exceeding € 1 billion. In total,these 15 companies have a market cap equal to 6% of the GDP of the Nordicregion.

FiBAN and FVCA have selected three core strategic focus areas to advanceour missions and to keep in line with the current investing trends.

Investments in numbers