Nordic VC Voima Ventures Unveils €90M Fund for Deep Tech Startups Across the Science Realm

Nordic venture capital firm Voima Ventures has launched its third fund, with initial closing at €90 million and a final target of €120 million. The investment is dedicated to early-stage deep tech startups across various fields of science.

Established in Helsinki, Finland, in 2019, Voima Ventures focuses on pre- and seed-stage companies, mostly those emerging from university research labs and affiliated institutions. The VC firm also invests occasionally in later-stage ventures, particularly if there is a connection to their existing portfolio. Voima Ventures' typical targets are companies working on sustainability, life science and health, and other innovative technologies like quantum computing.

The first two funds of Voima Ventures were introduced in 2019. The €20 million Fund I was a spin-off portfolio from the state-owned technical research center VTT, which is one of the fund's limited partners (LPs) to this day. The second €60 million fund was announced together with the new Voima Ventures brand and several more LPs. The first two funds supported approximately 30 companies, including Solar Foods, Dispelix, Betolar, and MVision, with a few exits like Minima, which was acquired by Bosch last year.

The latest fund of Voima Ventures comprises capital from the European Investment Fund (EIF), Finland's Tesi, VTT, the Swedish-based Saminvest, and several pension funds, foundations, and family offices.

In recent months, Europe has been fertile ground for early-stage VC funds. For example, the UK-based Amadeus Capital collaborated with Austria's Apex Ventures to create an €80 million ($86 million) deep tech fund, building on the footsteps of IQ Capital, launching their own $200 million fund for early-stage deep tech startups. Moreover, Moonfire VC and Playfair Capital revealed their second and respective funds at $115 million and $70 million, while Emblem and Ovni Capital from France announced separate €50 million ($54 million) funds each.

Similar to its past funds, Voima Ventures' third fund primarily targets Nordic and Baltic countries, with the occasional venture into other Northern European countries, as they aim for ticket sizes ranging from €200,000 to €3 million across approximately 25 companies.

A distinctive feature of the Voima Ventures' fund is their active collaboration with several Northern European universities, in addition to their partnership with VTT, one of Europe's largest research institutes. Nearly three-quarters of its portfolio stems from academia, including quantum chip startup Semiqon, which was spun out from VTT as an independent entity, and Cellfion, a clean energy materials company originating from Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Linköping University (LIU).

Voima Ventures founding partner Inka Mero stated that they maintain strong connections with all Nordic and Baltic universities, achieved through frequent visits to science teams and incubation workshops, as well as providing coaching and support to the most promising projects.

Despite the significant changes in the global landscape since Voima Ventures' inception in 2019, including the COVID-19 pandemic and other macroeconomic factors, Mero claims that their approach to investment remains largely unchanged. She said, "Our investment strategy has remained the same — we continue investing in science-based and deep tech in the Nordics and Baltics. With Fund III, we are even more thesis-driven and invest in companies tackling pressing global challenges."

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