Northern Lights: 27 Nordic SaaS Companies Shining Bright
By Christine Oddy
The Nordic countries are no strangers to the explosive development of SaaS.
While previously the region was often connected with consumer-focused businesses, more and more startups focus on crafting enterprise and B2B solutions. The categories that get the most attention are development, collaboration and productivity, and marketing tools. Similarly to the French SaaS landscape, in the Nordic countries SaaS businesses tend to be horizontal rather than vertical.
In the light of SaaStock on Tour Helsinki coming up on May 23rd, here is a list of the most notable Nordic SaaS companies, whose lights are shining bright. Get your early bird ticket before Thursday, April 26th and come meet them in Helsinki.
Finland
Pilvi Cloud Company
Pilvi Cloud Company combines the power of a sales and marketing tool into one. It enables cloud commerce for small and enterprise-grade SaaS companies. The Pilvi platforms eases the processes of online sales and recurring billing and reseller channel automation.
CEO: Tapio Talvisalo
Founded: 2012
Based in: Espoo, Finland
Funding to Date: Private equity from Takeoff Partners
Sympa
Sympa is an HR solution that offers new and more efficient ways for managers to handle their organisational tasks. It provides HCM, mobile HR, talent development, and reporting and HR analytics tools. The pioneering SaaS HR platform offers an overview on the full employment cycle data of each team member and helps businesses save time and money on HR.
CEO: Keijo Karjalainen
Founded: 2005
Based in: Vantaa, Finland
Funding to Date: $4.4M from Alfvén & Didrikson
Smarp
Smarp defines itself as an employee advocacy SaaS provider. It enables employees of a company to become brand ambassadors by allowing them to easily distribute branded content via their networks. They can then measure and analyze the impact of their sharing. Smarp has been used by leading companies such as Unilever, KPMG, Nissan, and Deloitte.
CEO: Roope Heinilä
Founded: 2011
Based in: Helsinki, Finland
Funding to Date: $5.7M from Visionplus, Tekes, and others
Frosmo
Frosmo helps businesses improve the online experiences of their clients with the help of its JavaScript solutions. The platform enables companies to modify any and all aspects of their websites without complicated processes. In this way, Frosmo can boost segmentation and personalization, and can help achieve higher conversion rates and revenue.
CEO: Mikael Gummerus
Founded: 2008
Based in: Helsinki, Finland
Funding to Date: $8.5M from First Fellow Partners, European Investment Bank, and others
Sparkwork
Sparkwork is a knowledge-sharing and online training platform for remote companies. It enables seamless communication for dispersed teams that helps managers and leaders create consistency and increase productivity in their companies. Sparkwork is the platform of choice for companies like Oriflame, Inhouse Group, and Fysios.
CEO: Bijay Baniya
Founded: 2015
Based in: Helsinki, Finland
Funding to Date: $500,000
Transfluent
Translation for social media feeds and websites gets easier with Transfluent. The human-powered platform allows businesses to get almost-instant professional translation of their postings from English to a number of other languages. For example, it powers translation for Zendesk support messages, allowing businesses to translate and answer to their customers in their native languages.
CEO: Jani Penttinen
Founded: 2011
Based in: Helsinki, Finland
Funding to Date: $3.3M from Visionplus and Aloitusrahasto Vera
Oppex
Oppex is a platform for public procurement in Europe. It provides companies with comprehensive data that allows them to find new sales in the public sector. They can access relevant public tenders and bidding contests, with currently 150,000 live opportunities in more than 200 industries.
CEO: Alexis Hue
Founded: 2009
Based in: Helsinki, Finland
Funding to Date: $4.1M from Veturi Venture Accelerator, OpenOcean, and others
Smartly.io
Smartly.io is maker of Facebook and Instagram performance marketing platform. It gives businesses the necessary tools to automate and optimize their social media advertising efforts. With the help of Smartly.io’s optimization, retargeting, and prospecting features, brands can easily grow their audiences on Facebook and Instagram.
CEO: Kristo Ovaska
Founded: 2013
Based in: Helsinki, Finland
Funding to Date: $22.8M from Lifeline Ventures and Highland Europe
Vainu
Vainu is a sales intelligence and prospecting platform that organizes and turns large databases of information into leads. It currently has data for more than 108 million companies. Businesses can gather valuable account insights that can direct their prospecting efforts, so that they bring the highest returns.
CEO: Mikko Honkanen
Founded: 2013
Based in: Helsinki, Finland
Funding to Date: N/A
LeadDesk
LeadDesk provides businesses with a cloud-based contact software to help them better handle sales, service, research, or appointment calls. The web-based automation platform keeps data about leads organised, and provides campaign management and reporting for coordinators. Every week, more than 6 million calls are made via LeadDesk.
CEO: Olli Nokso-Koivisto
Founded: 2010
Based in: Helsinki, Finland
Funding to Date: $6.8M from Dawn Capital and Tesi
Analyse²
With Analyse², food retailers and suppliers get a powerful assortment management platform. The merchandising solution analyzes product attributes, consumer trends, and sales data to empower retailers to create the winning product mix. Analyse2 provides assortment planning, pricing, campaign planning, and category analytics capabilities.
CEO: Janne Anttila
Founded: 2004
Based in: Espoo, Finland
Funding to Date: N/A
Denmark
Falcon.io
Falcon.io offers a one-stop-shop social media marketing solution. The SaaS platform provides businesses with tools to conduct social media listening, as well as to publish content, engage their audiences, and manage customer data. Coca-Cola, Carlsberg, Columbia University, and Momondo are just a few of the global companies that are clients of Falcon.io.
CEO: Morten Søderquist Li
Founded: 2010
Based in: Copenhagen, Denmark
Funding to Date: $40.7M from Target Partners, Prime Ventures, Cipio Partners, and others
Templafy
Templafy is a dynamic template system that aims to solve the document anarchy for enterprises. It brings simplicity and ease-of-use in the creation and management of business document templates across devices and office locations. Some of the pioneering Templafy clients include Pandora, Stanton Chase, and Aarhus University.
CEO: Jesper Theill Eriksen
Founded: 2014
Based in: Copenhagen, Denmark
Funding to Date: $21.4M from Seed Capital Sunstone Capital, Insight Venture Partners, and others
Archii
Archii takes document handling from the 90s into the new millenium. It’s an assistant powered by Artificial Intelligence that automates the management of business documents. In this way, it saves companies a ton of time — and prevents misplacement and loss of important data.
CEO: Christian Schjørring
Founded: 2015
Based in: Copenhagen, Denmark
Funding to Date: $659,000 from Seed Capital
Queue-it
Queue-it provides users of online ticket sales, retailers, and public sector services websites with a virtual waiting room at high-peak sales and registration times. In this way, it enables businesses to never lose a sale, while keeping their websites up and running.
CEO: Niels Henrik Sodemann
Founded: 2010
Based in: Ballerup, Denmark
Funding to Date: $428,480 from Innovation Fund Denmark
Traede
Traede offers wholesalers and retailers an easy tool to streamline their B2B sales and communication. Furniture, fashion, and jewelry brands are just some of the types of businesses that can benefit from the platform. It optimizes the sales process and provides inventory, CRM, and invoicing features. Retailers from 80 countries and over 20,000 brands use Traede.
CEO: Christopher Heilmann
Founded: 2012
Based in: Copenhagen, Denmark
Funding to Date: $3.2M from PreSeed Ventures, Seed Capital, and Stairways
ChurchDesk
Who said church management was easy? ChurchDesk is here to help out church staff and volunteers optimize their productivity. The cloud-based platform reduces time spent in organizing church activities by streamlining processes and ensuring better coordination between staff. ChurchDesk can also help churches raise necessary funds.
CEO: Christian Steffensen
Founded: 2010
Based in: Copenhagen, Denmark
Funding to Date: $3.3M from Accelerace and Mangrove Capital Partners
Sweden
Wint
Wint solves the accounting needs of Swedish companies. It is a SaaS accounting solution that automates the handling of ongoing accounting tasks, VAT and bank statements, and invoice payment. By streamlining tedious administrative processes, Wint helps entrepreneurs focus on what’s really important.
CEO: Bjorn Elfgren
Founded: 2011
Based in: Göteborg, Sweden
Funding to Date: $2.4M from Collector Ventures, and others
Funnel
Funnel provides businesses with automated marketing data collection and reporting. It allows companies to analyze the effectiveness of their campaigns across channels, pulling data from around 400 integrated data sources. Spotify, Zenefits, and FreshBooks, among others, have trusted Funnel with the optimization of their online advertising and marketing efforts.
CEO: Fredrik Skantze
Founded: 2014
Based in: Stockholm, Sweden
Funding to Date: $13M from Balderton Capital, and others
Quinyx AB
Quinyx AB is a leading Scandinavian web-based workforce management system. It brings efficiency for companies in handling their employee scheduling, time logging, and task management, as well as in budgeting and forecasting. The platform is well-adapted for the retail, healthcare, hospitality, and transportation industries. Decathlon, Subway, Burger King, and Gant are part of the customer roster.
CEO: Erik Fjellborg
Founded: 2005
Based in: Stockholm, Sweden
Funding to Date: $26M from Alfvén & Didrikson and Battery Ventures
Starcounter
Starcounter is an Artificial Intelligence and in-memory computing technology built by Joachim Wester, a self-taught developer and entrepreneur. It’s a revolutionary software platform that allows enterprises to create their own software ecosystems. IIt is also a place for software developers to sell their enterprise solutions. Alongside its HQin Sweden, the company boasts an office in Poland, and in Palo Alto, U.S.
CEO: Per Edström
Founded: 2006
Based in: Stockholm, Sweden
Funding to Date: $24.9M from Industrifonden
Fieldly
With Fieldly, construction companies can improve their project management and make their processes smoother and easier. The online service provides 24/7 support for supervisors and field workers alike. Decreasing administration needs by half, the platform also helps construction companies with handling salaries and invoicing.
CEO: Daniel Krusenstråhle
Founded: 2013
Based in: Helsingborg, Sweden
Funding to Date: $1.5M from K5, Lund University, and others
Tacton
Tacton is a smart manufacturing platform, which functions as an extension for Salesforce. It aims to improve sales productivity by helping manufacturers solve difficulties with aligning product development and sales. Tacton reduces costly mistakes, enables the sale of customized items, and maximizes profitability.
CEO: Frederic Laziou
Founded: 1998
Based in: Stockholm, Sweden
Funding to Date: $12M from GRO Capital
Mentimeter
Mentimeter offers speakers and facilitators an interactive tool for delivering powerful presentations. Its goal is to make meetings, workshops and lectures engaging. Mentimeter provides the audience with a tool to answer questions and vote on the presentation in real time. Microsoft, Intel, and Uber have used the platform to create corporate presentations.
CEO: Johnny Warström
Founded: 2014
Based in: Stockholm, Sweden
Funding to Date: $625,000 from 500 Startups
Norway
Xeneta
Xeneta is a pioneering logistics SaaS solution that provides freight pricing transparency. It allows ocean transportation providers to benchmark their container freight rates. Unilever, Electrolux, Brother, and Continental have already explored the benefits of Xeneta’s platform for their shipping needs.
CEO: Patrik Berglund
Founded: 2012
Based in: Oslo, Norway
Funding to Date: $20.5M from Creandum, Alliance Venture, Smedvig Capital, and others
Documaster
Documaster defines itself as the cloud compliance company. It spun off from the venture studio NorseLAB in 2014. Documaster is a platform for information governance and archiving for both public and private sector organisations. It employs natural language processing, machine learning, and graph databases to deliver minimalistic records management.
CEO: Pål Reinert Bredvei
Founded: 2014
Based in: Oslo, Norway
Funding to Date: $14.2M from Summa Digital, and others
Iceland
Data Dwell
Data Dwell provides businesses with a feature-rich platform for sales and marketing. It enables digital asset management with indexing, image recognition, and auto-tagging. Data Dwell also offers sales enablement in Salesforce that helps companies prioritize their deal pipelines. Vodafone, Coca-Cola, and Revlon are a few of the platform’s prominent customers.
CEO: Olafur Helgi Thorkelsson
Founded: 2012
Based in: Reykjavik, Iceland
Funding to Date: $1.3M Technology Development Fund and Frumtak Ventures
Whether you are one of these 27 companies or a contender we are yet to hear about, come join us in Helsinki on May 23rd and learn how to grow your SaaS from the likes of David Cancel, CEO of Drift, Steli Efti, CEO and Co-Founder of Close.io and Marta Sjogren, Partner at Northzone. We also have exciting partnership opportunities if you want to showcase your SaaS more prominently to 200 attendees. Just ask sponsors@saastock.com.