Frumtak Ventures closes fourth fund to invest in local innovation with global potential

Iceland-founded early-stage investor Frumtak Ventures has raised a $87M fourth fund, Frumtak IV. The fund was oversubscribed and is a successor to 2021’s $57M Frumtak III.

Frumtak Ventures’ high-conviction, concentrated investment philosophy is based on backing entrepreneurs solving difficult real-world problems using cutting-edge technologies, unafraid of combining software and AI with deeptech or hardware components. While being sector-agnostic, the fund has previously placed most of its investments in B2B SaaS startups at the seed or Series A stage.

International attention is starting to flow to Icelandic companies and uplifting an emerging innovation sector renowned for its resilience. Iceland’s startup ecosystem now boasts the highest invested capital per capita of all Nordic countries. A 2023 report from the Icelandic Angel & Venture Capital Association, Framvís, in collaboration with KPMG, found that foreign investment in Icelandic startups was up threefold year over year.

The country’s thriving tech landscape features standout companies like digital therapeutics pioneer Sidekick Health and pharma supply chain innovator Controlant. Frumtak Ventures invested early in both companies.

Sidekick Health (first investment made in 2017) works with five of the world’s largest healthcare companies and has strategic partnerships with industry behemoths including Pfizer, Bayer, and Eli Lilly. As part of its latest stage of expansion of services and markets, the company recently acquired cancer support and women’s health specialist PINK!. Sidekick Health recently disclosed an 80% compound annual growth rate as a result of successful expansion, deals, and partnerships.

Controlant (first investment made in 2011) is currently ranked by the Financial Times as one of the Top 25 fastest growing companies in Europe. The scaleup’s Icelandic headquarters supports a global network, with offices in the US, Denmark, Poland, and the Netherlands. Controlant partnered with Pfizer at the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic and played a crucial role in the distribution of vaccines.

Frumtak Ventures co-founder and managing partner Svana Gunnarsdóttir: “Frumtak Ventures was founded by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs. We’re proud of our portfolio companies: their success validates our belief that Frumtak Ventures offers a unique toolkit to empower ambitious founders to thrive and scale their companies. Iceland has endured and thrived in spite of challenges, both man-made and natural, and we have correspondingly developed expertise in several homegrown industries - as well as learned to future-proof them by embracing innovation. Frumtak IV will be supporting the next stars from these sectors as a sector-agnostic fund. I’d like to thank our investors, new and existing, for their continued support. We are proud to have closed four funds in 15 years and provided support to some of Iceland’s most successful companies, and the Frumtak Ventures team is excited to deploy Frumtak IV within the Nordic ecosystem, helping support the next wave of winners.”

Frumtak Ventures portfolio companies are: 50skills, Abler, Alda, Ankeri, Activity Stream, Arctic Trucks International, Controlant, Data Dwell, Kaptio, Meniga, Plaio, Sidekick Health, Sweeply, Treble and Tulipop.