Untapped potential, an investment opportunity in the Nordics and the US

Untapped potential, an investment opportunity in the Nordics and the US

In an article by Forbes it is said that the next global influential tech profile like Steve Jobs will be a woman, because “she understands how to solve a specific problem facing this world by leveraging tech. She knows the diverse and inclusive team it will take to build the product and implement solutions. She’s an experienced entrepreneur who knows how to operate with the leanest resources because, let's face it, she’s had no choice considering how VCs have invested 98% of their capital in startups led by men*.”

The Nordic countries are often viewed as forerunners on gender equality and women’s labor force participation. However, there are far fewer women than men starting businesses in the Nordic countries and less than 1 % of the risk capital goes to female founders. Lack of equality and diversity in the Nordic innovation ecosystem is a missed opportunity for value creation, therefore Nordic Innovation started the initiative Nordic Task Force for Diversity, an initiative that seeks to diversify the Nordic innovation ecosystem and harness the innovation potential of underrepresented founders.?

In the Nordics the investments for mixed teams are slowly rising. The startup community has realized that when both women and men are onboard the business performs better. We have for long known that diversity and inclusion are important elements to unlock innovation and promote new solutions to the challenges we face, such as the climate crisis, but are also fundamental factors in making sure policies reflect the actual needs of all global citizens, leaving no one behind, and by so realizing societies and business full innovation potential.?

Many of the most innovative impact startups also happen to be led by women today, why investors now have an enormous market opportunity to invest and make profit*. This also gives that impact startups are more gender balanced than others. Furthermore gender equality, diversity and inclusion should be understood as some of the most powerful tools we have to achieve the transformation towards a sustainable world. Therefore should goal number 5 and 10 in Agenda 2030 be seen as goals themself, but also as enablers of the other 15 goals.?

Events highlighting the importance of investing in women and underrepresented founders in the Nordics and beyond

There is great potential and need for the US and the Nordics to join forces and combine the skills to scale impact startups, and in an innovative way challenge the status quo when it comes to making a more gender equal and inclusive startup ecosystem and society. During the spring 2023 the Nordic Task Force for Diversity therefore arranged and participated in three different events highlighting these matters in the US.

Changing the startup and investment landscape one step at a time

The first event was arranged on Women’s international day 8 March during Nordic Innovation House in Silicon Valley's largest summit per year; Bifrost. The event was named “Women innovators are game changers” and was built around three approaches: NOW, HOW, WOW*.?

Where the NOW was focusing on the current state and highlighting statics today where it is very clear that there is untapped potential in the Nordics, but also that numbers show that women and underrepresented founders are leading the way when it comes to starting impact companies. The HOW was focusing on discussions and collecting ideas on how to move forward from the participants. Ideas that were lifted were such as the need of training investors in implicit bias, organizing reversed pitching and lifting role models in an early stage of founders journey. The WOW part was focusing on visualizing the future we want to reach and was represented by first listening to three Nordic Startups pitching, a fire chat with an American founder that managed to raise a big amount of VC Capital, and an investor panel with only women investing in impact driven startups.?

Building and scaling businesses with inclusive design methods

Silicon Valley is home to some of the most important tech profiles, influential startups, and growth companies are headquartered here in Silicon Valley. There is a high concentration of venture capital, a unique ecosystem and culture as well as the highly skilled tech labor force that continuously graduates from prestigious universities like Stanford. Needless to say, there is much to learn from Silicon Valley, and at the same time the Nordics have a lot to bring to the US and the Valley when it comes to building sustainable business models from the beginning and working with norm critical innovation. This is the reason why the second event was arranged at Stanford focusing on how to scale a business with Inclusive Design Methods. Participants were offered a unique opportunity to gain insight in norm-creative and intersectional design and run your business case through the lens of design tools in co-creation with experts from Nordic Innovation House and Stanford University.

Implicit bias training as key to sustainable investment choices

This led up to the third event in the US where Moa Persdotter from the task force participated in the 2023 'UNLOCK YOUR STARTUP - Nordic Inclusive Investor Summit' and held a workshop training for investors in implicit bias and one for startups on intersectional design methods. The Summit was hosted by the Nordic Consulates General in the #2* largest tech hub in the world, New York City, to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the startup ecosystem and to foster shared learnings on best practices between investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, game changers, and thought leaders from the Nordic countries and United States.

Results and next steps

The results and insights from the events and workshops organized through out this spring has made it clear that the innovation and startup ecosystem in the Nordics and the US needs to become better at intersectional analysis, meaning considering overlapping or “intersecting” factors - including gender, ethnicity, age, geographic location, that might affect your end users and customers needs and experiences in different ways.

By doing so, intersectional analysis becomes a powerful way to mitigate biases and unlock potential when building a startup and investing in one.

We know we need to move forward, and a great way to do that is to learn from existing examples from different actors of the ecosystem. The aim of the task force is therefore to be a positive force in moving the Nordic startup and investment ecosystem from an unequal one with a lot of untapped potential to a more inclusive one with unlocked innovation potential. To do this we need to focus on the HOW and join forces across borders and continuously spread, share and scale best practices on bias training and intersectional design methods - so that we can reach the WOW.??

Authors: Annie Lindmark & Moa Persdotter , Task Force members

*?10 Stats That Build The Case For Investing In Women-Led Startups

* Annual Nordic funding report - Unconventional Ventures

* Women Innovators are Game Changers

* Startup Genome