Public funding for Nordic hardtech

Almi is Sweden's state-owned organization that provides loans, business development advice, and equity financing to Swedish SMEs, with its venture-capital arm Almi Invest (including the national Almi Invest GreenTech fund) making direct investments in early-stage tech, life-science, industrial and sustainability startups.

Backed Caplyzer AB, Radar Reticence, Digiclean Solutions AB

Funding for Finnish startups and scaleups, from Tempo grants to large R&D loans. Rolling applications.

EIC Accelerator is the European Commission's flagship deep-tech funding instrument under Horizon Europe, offering blended grants (up to €2.5M) and equity investments (typically €0.5M-€10M, up to €30M under STEP Scale-Up) via the EIC Fund to startups and SMEs across the EU and associated countries, including a consistent stream of Nordic recipients (Sweden and Finland regularly rank among the top countries by number of winners each cut-off, with Denmark and Norway also represented in most rounds).

Backed IQM Finland

EIFO (Danmarks Eksport- og Investeringsfond) is Denmark's national promotional bank and official export credit agency, formed by merging the Danish Growth Fund (Vækstfonden), the Export Credit Agency (EKF) and the Danish Green Investment Fund. It is Denmark's largest venture investor, deploying direct equity, loans, guarantees and fund commitments across sectors from deep tech and defence to green transition and life sciences, both by co-investing directly in companies and as an LP in venture funds.

Backed Nordic Salt Cycle, Fida Biosystems, NKT, Acodyne, Kvasir Technologies, QuNorth

The Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten) is Sweden's public authority for energy research, innovation and preparedness, providing grants and R&D funding to companies, academia and public bodies working on the transition to a fossil-free energy system.

Backed Northvolt, Azelio, Minesto, Climeon

EQT is a Stockholm-founded global investment organization managing the Scaleup Europe Fund, a €5bn public-private growth vehicle backed by the European Commission and institutions including Novo Holdings, EIFO and Wallenberg Investments, aimed at scaling Europe's most promising deep-tech companies from Series B to pre-IPO.

Backed ICEYE (Espoo-based SAR satellite constellation operator), EQT Ventures portfolio also includes The Exploration Company (aerospace/space)

EUDIS BAMM (Business Accelerator) is a public, non-dilutive funding and coaching instrument of the EU Defence Innovation Scheme, run by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space together with a Starburst-led consortium. It selects cohorts of 20 European (EU + Norway) defence-tech start-ups and scale-ups twice a year, giving each a €120,000 seed-financing voucher plus coaching, bootcamps and investor/end-user matchmaking.

Backed 3YOURMIND, Autoagri, Defensphere (Vegvisir), Edge Aerospace, Elwave, Fernride

Eurostars is a public EU/Eureka-network funding instrument (co-funded via Horizon Europe and national bodies like Vinnova, Innovation Fund Denmark and the Research Council of Norway) that provides non-dilutive grants to SME-led, cross-border collaborative R&D projects, funding roughly 20-30 Swedish companies alone every year plus counterparts across Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

Backed Epishine, BabySensor AS, Sensohive ApS, Evosep Aps, I-CONIC Vision AB

Horizon Europe is the EU's flagship research and innovation funding programme (2021-2027, ~€93.5B budget), whose EIC Accelerator and EIC Fund provide blended grant/equity financing to deep-tech and hardtech startups and SMEs across the EU and associated countries, including recurring Nordic recipients (e.g., Swedish and Danish EIC Accelerator winners) and EIC info-day activity in the Nordics (e.g. Copenhagen). Because it funds via competitive, rolling calls with only partial per-round public disclosure, no single exhaustive portfolio list exists; qualifies as a Public Funding instrument rather than a conventional VC.

InnoEnergy is the EU-backed clean tech investor founded in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, headquartered in Eindhoven with a Swedish entity, KIC IE AB, in Stockholm. It holds equity stakes in 160+ active companies and has backed Nordic hardtech names including Minesto, CorPower Ocean and Northvolt, alongside battery, hydrogen and materials plays across Europe.

Backed Minesto, Hardt Hyperloop, Verkor, CorPower Ocean, GravitHy, Skeleton Technologies

Innovation Norway is Norway's state-owned industrial bank and national development bank. It offers grants, risk loans, guarantees and advisory support to Norwegian companies, from startup grants of NOK 150,000 and up to large green industrial loans. It has funded battery makers such as Morrow Batteries, Beyonder, Vianode, Cenate and Freyr, and robotics and deeptech scaleups such as Zivid and Wheel.me. Startups apply year round.

Backed Morrow Batteries, Beyonder, Freyr Battery, Vianode, Cenate, Zivid

NATO's Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) funds dual-use deep tech companies with EUR 100,000 in contractual funding, and its Mission Track adds EUR 300,000 in non-dilutive funding for selected companies. The 2026 cohort has 150 companies, chosen from more than 3,600 proposals. 14 of them are Nordic: five Swedish, five Norwegian, two Danish and two Finnish. DIANA has Nordic accelerator and test sites, including Copenhagen's Niels Bohr Institute and VTT's site in Otaniemi, Finland.

Backed AegisX, AdamantQ, Safety Bolt AB, Exeger Operations AB, BruhnBruhn Innovation, Testnor AS

A standalone venture capital fund backed by NATO Allied nations that invests in deep tech startups strengthening defence, security and resilience.

Backed Terasi (Sweden), Laki Power (Iceland), Kongsberg Ferrotech (Norway), Kelluu (Finland)

Nefco, the Nordic Green Bank, is a Nordic-owned international finance institution founded in 1990 by the five Nordic governments and headquartered in Helsinki. It provides loan financing, EIF-backed guarantees and Nopef feasibility funding to Nordic SMEs scaling green, climate and environmental solutions internationally, alongside financing for municipal and public projects in Eastern Europe and beyond.

Backed Bawat, MASH Makes, SolarLab, Racell, Aeromon, Coolbrook

State-owned Norwegian climate investment company, headquartered in Stavanger and owned by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, backing hardtech and climate technology companies and funds.

Backed Morrow Batteries, Hystar, Cenate, Alva Industries, Lace Lithography

Scaleup Europe Fund is a EUR 5 billion growth fund managed by EQT, targeting European technology scaleups from Series B through pre-IPO in sectors including AI, quantum, space, clean energy and biotech. It was founded by the European Commission alongside investors including Novo Holdings, Allianz, APG, EIFO, CriteriaCaixa and Santander/Mouro Capital, and made its first investment in August 2026, co-leading ICEYE's EUR 1 billion Series F round.

Backed ICEYE

Technology transfer office and venture arm of SINTEF, based in Trondheim, Norway. It manages seed and early-stage funds (SINTEF Venture IV, V and VI) that invest in spin-offs from SINTEF and NTNU research. SINTEF Venture VI was established in 2022 with NOK 517 million and has backers including the European Investment Fund, KLP and Investinor. Recent hardtech investments include Sonair, Cartesian, Hystar and sensiBel.

Backed Aidee Health, Cartesian, HYDROGEN Mem-tech, Hystar, Minuendo, Nomono

Iceland's national competitive fund for technology-driven innovation, administered by Rannís (the Icelandic Centre for Research). Issues grants twice a year across four company grant categories (Seed/Fræ, Sprout/Sproti, Growth/Vöxtur, Market/Markaður) plus patent and applied research grants for R&D projects aimed at commercialization in Icelandic industry.

Backed Navis (electric line-fishing boat design)

Tillväxtverket is the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, a government body that distributes EU structural funds, national grants and regional investment support to strengthen competitiveness and regional development across Sweden. It runs broad instruments such as regional investment aid, business-development checks and innovation support, open to companies in any sector, not a hardtech-specific fund with a public portfolio.

Vinnova is Sweden's government innovation agency, funding research and innovation projects that strengthen sustainable growth and competitiveness. It runs continuous, sector-agnostic calls for proposals, including a recurring deeptech acceleration programme, but does not publish a company-level portfolio list.