The combined revenue of Finnish companies that have received angel investment rose to nearly €6 billion in 2024. Their investment in research and development reached a record €281.5 million, and the companies employed 23,800 people in 2024. A joint study by the Finnish Startup Community and FiBAN highlights the importance of angel-backed companies to the Finnish economy.
The study covers 1,617 Finnish companies that have received angel investment, ranging from early-stage startups to established businesses.
Figure 1. The combined revenue of angel-backed companies grew from €430 million to nearly €6 billion between 2005 and 2024.
Employment at these companies has also increased significantly in recent years. They employed approximately 16,100 people in 2019 and more than 24,000 in 2025.
Figure 2. The combined workforce of angel-backed companies grew from approximately 2,100 to nearly 23,800 between 2005 and 2024.
Angel investors enable new companies to grow
Angel investors play an important role in financing new companies and renewing the Finnish economy. They invest particularly in the early stages of a company’s development, when securing external funding can be difficult. According to the study, companies typically receive their first angel investment two years after they are founded.
“Finland’s economic growth depends on the creation of new growth companies. Angel investors play a vital role in this, as securing external funding is often difficult during the early stages of a company’s development. Without early-stage risk-taking, many new companies might never get off the ground, or their growth could stall before it has even begun,” says Amir Hassan, Economist at the Finnish Startup Community.
Over the years, angel-backed companies have raised a total of approximately €6.5 billion in funding from various investors. This figure represents the cumulative funding raised by the companies.
“Angel investors take risks at a stage when a company often has only its first customers and a great deal of work still ahead. Early-stage funding helps companies develop their products, find customers and grow. Finland needs more angel investors so that more new companies have the opportunity to grow internationally,” says Ivan Helin, Data Scientist at FiBAN.
Research and development investment reaches a record high
Research and development expenditure by angel-backed companies reached a record €281.5 million in 2024, an increase of nearly 13 per cent from the previous year. R&D investment therefore grew considerably faster than the companies’ revenue.
This expenditure accounted for approximately 5 per cent of all R&D spending in Finland’s business sector. Angel-backed companies spent 4.7 per cent of their combined revenue on research and development. Investment increased even though the number of companies reporting R&D expenditure fell from 255 to 221. R&D investment is therefore becoming concentrated among a smaller number of companies.
Artificial intelligence and healthcare attract angel investors
Technology sectors are strongly represented among angel-backed companies. Software is the largest identified industry group, while healthcare is also a significant area of investment.
The proportion of angel-backed companies focusing on artificial intelligence, data analytics and healthcare has increased in recent years.
About the study
Completed in October 2026, Angel-backed Firms in Finland 2026 is a joint study by the Finnish Startup Community and FiBAN. It examines 1,617 Finnish companies that have received angel investment from FiBAN members. The dataset combines information from Statistics Finland’s registers with data from Tesi, the Finnish Patent and Registration Office and Business Finland.
In addition to startups, the study covers established companies and companies from which investors have already exited. The revenue and R&D figures relate to 2024. At that time, the financial statements register contained data on 1,239 of the companies in the dataset, with revenue data available for 1,126 of them.
The group of companies has been updated since the previous study, meaning that the headline figures in studies published in different years are not directly comparable. The growth rates presented in this press release are based on time series from the updated dataset.
Read the study >>
Further information
Amir Hassan, Economist, Finnish Startup Community
amir@startupyhteiso.com
Ivan Helin, Data Scientist, FiBAN
ivan@fiban.org