Nordic seed funding in Q1 2026: what the numbers tell us

We tracked every publicly announced seed round in the Nordics during Q1 2026. The short version: deal count is up, round sizes are bigger, and fintech is back.

The headline numbers

74 seed rounds closed across Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland between January and March. That's up from 58 in Q1 2025 and 51 in Q1 2024. Total capital deployed hit approximately €310M — the highest Q1 figure since 2022.

Median round size came in at €2.8M, up from €2.1M a year ago. The floor is rising too: only 9 rounds were below €1M, compared to 17 last year.

Where the money went

Fintech led the pack with 18 rounds, after two quiet years. Most of these weren't consumer plays — they were infrastructure and B2B payments companies. Climate tech held steady at 14 rounds. Developer tools and AI infrastructure accounted for 12, though the category is getting harder to define as AI touches everything.

Healthcare and biotech were quieter than expected at 7 rounds, despite strong activity at Series A and beyond.

Who's writing checks

Local funds dominated. Creandum, byFounders, and Inventure were the most active Nordic seed investors by deal count. But cross-border participation increased — 23 of the 74 rounds included at least one investor from outside the Nordics, mostly from the UK and Germany.

We also noticed more solo GP funds participating in rounds, often alongside a larger lead. That's a pattern we expect to continue.

What this means for founders raising now

More capital and more active investors should make the process faster, but it cuts both ways. VCs are seeing more deals too, which means the bar for getting a first meeting hasn't dropped. If anything, the volume of startups raising has made investor screening tighter.

Founders raising in Q2 should expect a 3-4 month process for a well-run seed round. Build your target list early, get warm intros lined up, and make sure your financial model can handle scrutiny. We wrote about the most common model mistakes here.

A note on methodology

We sourced data from public announcements, press coverage, and our own deal tracking across the four main Nordic markets. Rounds that weren't publicly disclosed aren't included, which means the real numbers are higher. We'll publish a full breakdown with charts and fund-level data later this month.