The Importance of Private Equity Investments for the Swedish Fintech Sector (Swedish Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (SVCA))

Summary

• Stockholm attracted 18% of all European Fintech investments in 2014 and 16% over an 11-year period.p.11
• In 2016, just over 1 billion Swedish kronor was invested across 68 capital rounds in the Nordic Fintech startup scene.p.18
• Nordic Capital invested in Swedish payment firm Bambora and sold it for €1.5 billion in mid-2017.p.19

Key insights

1. Stockholm is Europe's second-largest Fintech hub after London, attracting €92 million in Fintech investments in 2016.p.12
2. Adjusted for population, Sweden led Europe in Fintech investments with 16.20 per citizen compared to 10.85 in the UK and 6.43 in Germany.p.13
3. Private equity investments between 2005 and 2016 are estimated to have increased Sweden's GDP by 0.4%.p.20
4. PE investments generated an annual growth effect of 0.49% in the ICT sector and 0.30% in the finance sector between 2005 and 2016.p.20
5. Swedish Fintech successes like Klarna benefited from sequential investment from business angels, venture capital, and buyout private equity firms.p.4
6. NFT Ventures aims to execute around 100 investments over a 10-year period to build up to ten companies worth around 100 billion Swedish kronor each.p.19
7. In March 2017, the Swedish government commissioned Finansinspektionen to explore how conditions for early-stage Fintech companies could be improved.p.12