Some of the Nordics' biggest corporates and leading investors are drafting a plan for a fresh vehicle designed to fill the financing shortfall that pushes promising firms to seek expansion capital abroad. Housed within Nordic Compass, the concept mirrors the European Union's €5 billion Scaleup Europe Fund but extends beyond technology, say people familiar with the talks who requested anonymity because the discussions are private. At this preliminary stage, the vehicle would be smaller than the EU counterpart, with size, structure and prospective backers still to be determined.
That push comes as Europe tries to keep standout companies from heading to the U.S. for deeper capital markets. Spotify Technology SA and Klarna Group Plc chose New York listings, and just last week, the Finnish smart ring company Oura Oyj submitted an IPO filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In an email, Christian Clausen, who serves as BlackRock Inc's Nordic chairman and is the former CEO of Nordea Bank Abp, said the capital-markets workstream he heads is building a pan-Nordic fund. The aim is to bolster access to financing at every stage "as well as liquidity and the ecosystem for Nordic listings," he said.
"The Nordics represent a globally leading innovation region that has created more than 100 unicorns and thousands of venture-backed companies, but growth and scale-up funding remains inadequate," Clausen said. "Our initial findings and dialogues show that there is a clear need for a Nordic growth scale-up fund in order to finance Nordic growth companies."
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Guided by Mario Draghi's two-year-old competitiveness report, Nordic Compass is outlining specific steps across four areas: the capital markets, deep tech, defense, and energy. The alliance is also studying closer market integration, including a single Nordic stock exchange, as reported last month. Participants include Wallenberg Investments AB, EQT AB, Nordea, Nasdaq Inc, SEB AB, Nokia Oyj and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. In defense, Kongsberg ASA, Saab AB and Patria Oyj are members.
While early-stage money exists in the region, many startups hit a wall when they need larger checks to scale. A dedicated scale-up fund is one idea to direct more of the Nordics' savings into homegrown growth. According to Nordic Compass, pension investors and sovereign wealth funds in the region manage almost $4 trillion and take in more than $175 billion in yearly inflows. The alliance intends to unveil its broader vision at a gathering in Gothenburg in November, though the proposals are still being worked on and could change.
If you follow Nordic markets through regional funds or pensions, this is essentially a conversation about whether more of the region's own savings will back local scale-ups. Organizers say the goal is to expand access to capital across all stages and to enhance liquidity and the listings ecosystem. Keep an eye on November for how far those ideas have progressed and what a fund might look like.
