Nordic Life Science 1
“IN GENERAL THERE IS A LACK OF EARLY-PHASE VENTUR
E CAPITAL, WHICH LEADS TO THE FORMATION OF FEWER START-UPS THAN WE’D LIKE TO SEE.” TERO PIISPANEN Tero Piispanen, Senior Executive, Business Turku T 72 | NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG ERO PIISPANEN, Senior Executive at Business Turku, who primarily works with life science companies in the start-up or growth phase, laments the lack of funding for young companies in his region of Finland. “It looks to me like this year has not been as successful as earlier years,” Iris Öhrn, Investment Advisor, Business Region Göteborg he says. “In general there is a lack of early-phase venture capital, which leads to the formation of fewer start-ups than we’d like to see.” Early-phase funding and seed rounds generally tend to be too small, and the funding sector is not well developed enough, neither in Finland nor in Europe, according to Piispanen. On the bright side though, crowd-funding has been a positive addition to venture capital in Finland, and new angel investors are starting to emerge. “I am always complaining about the funding but luckily the situation in Finland is starting to improve,” Piispanen says, and continues: “The Finnish government has decided to establish a national drug discovery center, called Finnish Drug Discovery Center (FDDC) to function as a venturecapital actor and help bring innovations further towards company formation.” On the other side of the Baltic Sea, in Sweden, Business Region Göteborg’s life science investment advisor, Iris Öhrn, muses over recent challenges for Swedish companies. “The financial situation in Sweden has been tough, since there are so many listed companies here. When the financial markets started to turn, a lot of the investors pulled out their money as stock markets went down, which put many companies in a precarious situation,” she says. “It’s been a bit chaotic, but things are starting to look up now.” Nordic Life Science asked Tero Piispanen and Iris Öhrn to share their top advice and things to avoid, for companies trying to attract investment and secure their path to market. NLS FINANCIAL LANDSCAPE // FASTER TO MARKET PHOTO FRIDA WINTER