For most companies attending, Nordea Investor Speed Dating events are a fast track to one or more meetings with a global venture capital fund. Deal Flow Manager Teija Nousiainen handles all aspects of the match-making process, from applications to investor relations, so we caught up with her to find out how it all began and how startups and scaleups can benefit.
“The idea actually came from a single person, the Head of Startup & Growth Finland, Vesa Riihimäki, back in 2020. Seeing as we had thousands of startup and growth companies as customers and a wide network of investors around the world, he wondered ‘why not try to help match the two?’ We’ve been organising investor speed dating events ever since.
Our role in the speed dating is to curate the deal flow, i.e. match the ideas of the startup with type of investors and funding. The aim is to pre-match the interests of companies and investors beforehand to make sure that the one-to-one meetings in the event are as effective as possible. This pre-matching is actually where we get the best feedback. We want to make sure no one is wasting their time and the meetings can eventually lead to an investment.”
“Companies apply through our website to attend one of our closed speed dating events. As Nordea Startup & Growth is a house bank for thousands of startups and scaleups across the Nordics, we also check the fundraising plans of our customers and see if any could benefit from attending. Our Startup & Growth teams in each of the Nordic countries select which companies take part. Before each event, we share the data on the chosen companies with investors, who then get to choose which companies they would like to have a one-to-one meeting with on the day.”
The aim is to pre-match the interests of companies and investors beforehand to make sure that the one-to-one meetings in the event are as effective as possible.
“We have events for different growth stages: pre-seed events, seed-stage events and events for scaleups (A round and beyond). For seed-stage events, the companies typically have an annual turnover of around EUR 500k, while for scaleup events company turnovers usually run into the millions of euros. All our events are open to companies from different industries and categories across the Nordic countries. Companies should be operating in the tech space but hardware plus software combinations could be applicable as well.
The optimal time to apply is of course when you’re starting your fundraising. We organise investor speed dating events several times a year, so there’s no need to rush – but it’s always good to start early with fundraising.”
We have events for different growth stages: pre-seed events, seed-stage events and events for scaleups (A round and beyond).
“For each event we typically receive around 200 online applications – and we go through our own Startup & Growth customers as mentioned. We tend to take in around 30 companies in total. For attendees, there’s a high probability of getting at least one meeting with an investor: over 90% have got a meeting in the past.
Almost 70% of attendees say they continued discussions with investors after the Nordea Investor Speed Dating, and there have been various success cases, where companies landed an investment from a venture capital fund they met at the event.
Almost 70% of attendees say they continued discussions with investors after the Nordea Investor Speed Dating
Last year, we conducted a study where we analysed whether companies who had attended Nordea Investor Speed Dating had been able to successfully close a round afterwards. We found that 31% had done so, which is a good indication of the quality of the deal flow. What’s more, companies that were handpicked have been able to deliver results.”
“Perhaps the biggest benefit is the investor contacts they get through the events. Nordea Startup & Growth has a really broad network of investors; we’re currently working closely with over 300 venture funds/growth funds globally. You can’t overstate the importance of contacts and feedback.
We all know how time-consuming and frustrating fundraising can be – that’s what we want to help with. If you secure an investor meeting at one of our events, that means you’ve already met some criteria and an investor thinks you might be a good fit for them. So if you’re thinking of applying, check out the upcoming dates on our website.”
