As we start the new year, many are reflecting on the last one. Recently, a report from Pitchbook highlighted the impact niches that attracted the most capital in 2025, and now the investor collective By Founders has released a report on VC activity in the so-called New Nordics, with data from Crunchbase.
The New Nordics refers to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and the three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
In summary, the report points to increased activity in 2025, but also to a market where capital is increasingly concentrated in a smaller number of companies.
Early-stage startups in the region raised a total of SEK 15.8 billion in 2025 (€1.4 billion). This marks a 19% increase compared to the previous year, spread across 234 funding rounds. The rounds were relatively evenly distributed throughout the year.
"In a more selective market, investors prioritised AI companies that are hard to outcompete. Meanwhile, global participation decreased slightly, but the strongest startups continued to attract significant capital. This reflects both the region's resilience and a growing maturity," they write in the report.
Impact companies retained capital
Most capital went, perhaps unsurprisingly, to the developer and design tools sector. Here, the Swedish AI company Lovable's first round of the year, amounting to just under SEK 2 billion, contributed to boosting the sector's total investment volume. (Lovable raised an additional SEK 3 billion in December, which is not included in the report.)
In general, impact companies continued to attract capital during the year. Even though the number of rounds decreased compared to the previous year, the capital was there for the companies that managed to stand out, the report authors note. However, the report does not specify exactly how much money went to impact startups.
Looking at capital rounds over the entire year, about one in four (approximately 23 percent) went to impact startups. This is a clear decrease from about 38 percent the previous year, although there were significant variations between quarters.
The energy and climate segment stands out. It accounted for a total of 23 rounds with a combined value of 1.2 billion kronor. This places the sector in fourth place in terms of invested capital, after "developer and design tools", "biotechnology" and "deeptech".
Capital for gender-diverse founding teams decreased by 13 percentage points during the year, and only 8 percent of the rounds went to founding teams with at least one woman.
Sweden on top
Sweden stands out as the region's most active ecosystem, both in terms of total invested capital and number of rounds. In 2025, investments amounted to approximately SEK 5.5 billion (€486 million).
Denmark follows in second place with investments of around SEK 4 billion (€358 million), while Finland lost ground after a decline in both invested capital and number of rounds.
There is dry powder – for the right companies
"There is dry powder for the right companies," the report authors state. Despite a more selective investment environment, there is still plenty of capital for startups that manage to convince investors. This is clearly visible in the spread of both seed and Series A rounds in 2025.
In early stages, investments range from around €250,000 to well over €14 million, with several clear outliers. Even in the Series A stage, the range is wide – from smaller rounds of around €2.3 million to individual mega-rounds exceeding €160 million.
The wide range shows that the capital hasn't disappeared, but rather concentrated in fewer companies.