Nordic Science Investments launches university-focused €60M fund

Finland’s Nordic Science Investments (NSI) has announced the first closing round for its €60 million fund. The fund will be used to provide growth capital and support to the deeptech spin-out startups from universities across the Nordics.

• Founded by Alexandra Gylfe, Anssi Uimonen, Jari Strandman, and Matti Hautsalo, NSI is a capital investment fund specializing in university spin-out companies during pre-seed, seed, and Series A funding rounds. NSI is committed to advancing scientifically-driven research with the goal of fostering economic growth and societal improvement.

• NSI provides financial capital, mentorship, networking opportunities, and assistance with commercialization efforts to help university teams develop their inventions into viable market solutions. The company’s mission is to facilitate the commercialization of research results, encouraging partners to envision and achieve ambitious goals in unlocking the potential of scientifically transformative research.

Nordic universities constantly produce world-class innovations and breakthrough technologies that can at best solve even major social problems. However, research-oriented deep technologies face common early-stage commercialization challenges. Also, many investors may shy away from projects that they perceive to be complex, for example in terms of transferring intangible rights or forming teams. We want to be involved in turning the revolutionizing insights of researchers into commercial success stories,

Jari Strandman, CEO and co-founder of NSI, says.

• Tesi, a Finnish Industry Investment firm, was among the LPs who participated in the first closing. The firm claims that NSI not only fills a financial gap but also has the potential to attract new international investors who have previously overlooked research-based innovations in the Nordic region.