Finland Scripting a Silent Story to Become Europe’s Startup Capital

HELSINKI, July 11, 2025 — A journalist and content strategist, living in Finland for the last eight years, recently posted his experiences on a digital networking platform.

Praising the country for its warm hospitality, he said that Finland had tremendous untapped potential.

Notably, despite being a small country with a population of 5.5 million, Finland has seen growth of 12 unicorn startups – businesses worth $1 billion or more. These include several gaming companies and the food delivery platform Wolt, which was acquired by its US rival DoorDash in 2022.

As per Work in Finland, the country’s startup ecosystem has seen evolution of startups such as Rovio Games (the creator of the Angry Birds franchise), Wolt (a food delivery technology company), and Supercell (which creates gaming experiences for tablets and touch devices).

Most of these unicorns are headquartered in the capital city of Helsinki, which is the leading startup hub in the country. Oulu, Tampere, and Turku cities follow Helsinki. According to the StartupBlink report, both Helsinki and Oulu rank in the top five cities of Nordics.

Oura’s Success Story

Finnish company Oura, joined the Unicorn Club on April 6, 2022 after raising an undisclosed Series C funding round, valuing it at $2.55 Billion.

The developer of health-tracking smart rings and related biosensors is keen on growing its customer base by millions of people, Tom Hale, CEO of Oura in an interview told Fortune.

Notably, Oura has announced the AI-powered Personal Health Companion earlier this year.

The company designs and manufactures wearable technology that collects and analyzes various biometric data, including sleep, activity, heart rate, and glucose levels.

This data is provided to users through a mobile application, offering insights into their overall health and wellness.

Oura also develops accompanying software and integrations with other health applications. A subscription service provides additional features and data analysis.

Finland’s popularity as a startup hub is much lesser than other European start-up hubs like Sweden and the UK. 

However, Finland has been gradually carving a niche for itself in the tech scene over the last two decades.

Factors Boosting Startup Ecosystem

Most startup founders appreciate the business-friendly measures in Finland. Women-led startups have seen huge success in the country. In terms of sector-specific startups, the most popular ones in Finland have ventured into sectors ranging from industrial equipment to SaaS and business software. Some other startups, which have firmly established their presence in Finland, cater to a global clientele across sectors such as automotive, education, healthcare, and more.

Finland’s diversity is exemplary in Europe. It’s gender balance and avenues for women’s empowerment have been lauded globally.  

30 percent of all Venture Capital (VC) raised by Finnish startups in 2024 went to companies founded or led by women, as reported in the Female Innovation Index.

This figure far exceeds the European average of 12 percent and sets a new benchmark for the region.

As per Work in Finland, business-friendly policies, a stable environment, and a society that is safe, transparent, and has relatively low levels of bureaucracy contribute to Finland's attractiveness for startups.

Startup heads are appreciative of the people in Finland for their mannerism, driven by high literacy rates in the country.

The country has the best expertise in digital technologies, which have driven the startup ecosystem's success. Industry-academia collaboration is also a key driver of Finland’s startup success.

Support from Government

The administrative support from Finland’s right-wing coalition has helped startups to formulate ambitious plans.

The coalition, which came into power in 2023, is on a mission to push the country even further up global indices.

Its official government programme, has asserted that it wants the Nordic nation to become a leader in fostering a dynamic start-up and growth company ecosystem.

“It's not just about rankings,” Marjo Ilmari, who runs the start-up services team at Business Finland, the government agency that promotes investment and innovation told BBC.

In 2024, Business Finland alone invested €112m in start-ups, an increase of 30 percent compared to the previous year. “The real goal is to create an environment where our ground-breaking start-ups can emerge and really tackle global challenges,” Marjo told BBC.

The agency hopes this will help drive growth in the Finnish economy, which went into recession in 2023 and is currently making a sluggish recovery, with the Bank of Finland forecasting an increase of less than one percent this year.

Despite being a small country with a population of 5.5 million, Finland has seen growth of 12 unicorn startups.

Inputs from Saqib Malik

Editing by David Ryder