Finland eyes Qatari investment to fuel €250bn tech ecosystem

Finland is actively pitching Qatari institutional capital to help build a €250bn startup and growth ecosystem by 2035, unveiling a three-pronged co-investment strategy to channel Gulf capital into European tech scale-ups and large industrial projects. The proposal was presented in Doha during a bilateral trade delegation hosted by Qatar Chamber, where Samuel Wendelin, director at Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment), outlined how the state-owned investor manages roughly €4bn across nearly 140 funds and indirectly in close to 1,500 companies.

"We are return-driven, invest on market terms, and always alongside private investors as a minority owner," Wendelin emphasised. "Our job is to bring in capital, not to compete with it."

Wendelin set out three primary "doors" for Qatari participation. The first is direct co-investments in growth-stage scale-ups alongside international institutional partners, leveraging the long-term ownership perspective commonly associated with Qatari sovereign capital. "When we invest in a company, we welcome partners who share a long-term view, and few investors in the world have practised long-term ownership longer than those in this room," he said.

The second route is participation through venture funds. Wendelin highlighted that Finnish venture funds raised a record €700mn last year, including Finland’s first fund exceeding €400mn, with Tesi acting as anchor investor for a large share of these vehicles. "Tesi is an anchor investor in a large share of Finnish funds, so we can help you identify good managers, and we co-invest with international LPs to those funds," he told assembled Qatari business leaders.

The third route targets industrial-scale projects, with Wendelin stressing Finland’s competitive advantages: some of Europe’s cleanest and most competitively priced electricity, stable regulation, available land, and existing cooling infrastructure. These attributes are tailored to energy-intensive sectors such as data centres, hydrogen production, battery manufacturing and sustainable aviation fuel. "Under our new strategy, Tesi is mandated to invest in these large-scale industrial projects alongside private capital, and we’re actively looking for partners," Wendelin said.

Ecosystem scale and recent milestones

• Finland ranks as the seventh most innovative economy globally and Helsinki is described as the EU’s most innovation-intensive cluster.
• The country of 5.6 million has produced 18 unicorns to date and Tesi says it is "investing in the next generation" emerging from universities and R&D facilities.
• Finnish startups raised a record €1.9bn last year, with roughly 75% of that funding coming from international investors.
• Notable exits and raises include radar satellite company ICEYE, which raised over €1bn at a €10.5bn valuation in June, joining Supercell and Wolt as Finland’s third decacorn.

Wendelin identified priority technology areas where Finnish companies lead: "Quantum computing, health technology, space, clean transition, defence, and dual use are sectors where Finnish companies now lead rather than follow." He added that Tesi maintains state shareholder positions in companies including Nokia, defence firm Patria, and space technology vendor ReOrbit, positioning the organisation as a partner for long-term, diversifying capital aligned with strategic national objectives.

Outlook

With a stated target of achieving a combined ecosystem valuation of €250bn by 2035, Tesi is pitching a partnership model aimed at matching Qatari patient capital with Finnish innovation and industrial projects. The multi-tiered approach—direct co-investments, fund-level participation, and industrial asset partnerships—seeks to translate Doha’s long-term capital into both venture-scale upside and large-scale, energy-intensive infrastructure investments across Finland.