Nordic Science Investments (NSI) has closed the first round of its €60 million fund, aimed at investing in innovations emerging from research in the Nordic countries. The fund will be used to provide growth capital and strategic support to early-stage spinout companies from universities. NSI aims to help these companies commercialize their breakthrough technologies and build successful businesses. They plan to work closely with universities and researchers to identify and develop investment targets, with the goal of attracting late-stage capital investors. The fund has already attracted institutional investors and aims to attract more international investors to the Nordic research market.
Founded by Alexandra Gylfe, Anssi Uimonen, Jari Strandman, and Matti Hautsalo, Nordic Science Investments (NSI) is a capital investment fund specializing in university spinout companies during pre-seed, seed, and Series A funding rounds. NSI is committed to advancing scientifically-driven research with the goal of fostering economic growth and societal improvement. The firm focuses on supporting outstanding teams and projects within universities, assisting them in bringing innovative ideas and inventions to market.
NSI provides financial capital, mentorship, networking opportunities, and assistance with commercialization efforts to help universities’ Innovation Offices and research teams transition their groundbreaking discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. The company’s mission is to facilitate the commercialization of research results, encouraging partners to envision and achieve ambitious goals in unlocking the potential of scientifically transformative research.
“Nordic universities constantly produce world-class innovations and breakthrough technologies that can at best solve even major social problems. However, research-oriented deep technologies face common early-stage commercialization challenges. Also, many investors may shy away from projects that they perceive to be complex, for example in terms of transferring intangible rights or forming teams. We want to be involved in turning the revolutionizing insights of researchers into commercial success stories,” says Jari Strandman, CEO of Nordic Science Investments and one of the founders.
“We are very happy with the results of the first round of fundraising. The round includes prominent institutional investors, which shows that there is clearly a great need for this type of fund operating at the university interface,” says Matti Hautsalo, founder of Nordic Science Investments and investment professional.
“For us at Tesi, it is important to support the commercialization of innovations and research, especially because the financial situation of Finnish deep technology startups has weakened and new companies are not being established at the same pace as before. Nordic Science Investments brings significant new capital and know-how to the benefit of Finnish science and research-oriented companies. It can also potentially turn the eyes of new international investors towards Finland and the Nordic countries,” says Samuel Wendelin, Tesi’s investment manager.
“We have done a huge amount of background work and utilized our own and our partners’ experiences of the best science investment funds in Great Britain and the United States. We believe that our strategic business model built on the basis of these principles will revolutionize the commercialization of research results in Finland and elsewhere in the Nordic countries,” says Alexandra Gylfe.
Originally published on ArcticStartup : Original article