Norrsken Evolve closes €62 million fund and expands to Amsterdam

Norrsken Evolve has completed the final close of its first investment fund at €62 million, exceeding its original €40 million target while confirming a stronger presence in the Netherlands through a new base in Amsterdam. According to EU-Startups, the Swedish venture capital firm will use the capital to invest in early-stage startups focused on climate, health and resilience, addressing one of Europe's largest funding gaps at the pre-Seed stage.

The fund will officially establish operations at Norrsken House Amsterdam when the innovation hub opens on September 1, 2026. The facility, covering 3,600 square meters, will become the largest Norrsken House in Western Europe and serve as the company's second permanent base after Stockholm.

The fundraising attracted support from the European Investment Fund (EIF), Saminvest, SmartCap, and technology entrepreneurs including Taavet Hinrikus and Sten Tamkivi, co-founders of Wise and early Skype engineers, through their family office Skaala.

General Partner Alex Bakir said the Netherlands represents an attractive market because institutional investors still provide limited financing for companies at the earliest stages of development.

"We have been backing Dutch founders for a while now. Formalising that commitment in Amsterdam makes sense. The Dutch pre-Seed ecosystem has real gaps, and we are here to back founders at the stage where most institutional capital still steps back," Bakir said.

According to EU-Startups, the fund's closing reflects a broader expansion of specialized venture capital across Europe during 2026. Together with several recently announced climate, DeepTech, health and resilience funds, more than €1.35 billion has been raised or targeted for investment in the sector this year.

Norrsken Evolve expects to allocate approximately 5% of the fund, or around €3 million, to startups based in the Netherlands. The strategy includes between five and eight investments throughout the life of the fund, with initial investments of up to €500,000 per company and additional capital reserved for the best-performing portfolio businesses.

The firm has already completed two Dutch investments. It became the first institutional investor in New Dawn Bio, an Amsterdam-based biotechnology startup developing wood alternatives that grow without trees. It also co-invested in Spiral Hydrogen, a company developing green hydrogen infrastructure at the Port of Rotterdam.

A third Dutch investment is expected before the end of 2026.

The expansion comes at a time when the Dutch startup ecosystem continues to face a shortage of early-stage capital. According to the State of Dutch Tech 2026 report published by TNO, access to pre-Seed and Seed funding remains one of the country's biggest structural challenges, as most institutional investors continue to focus on later-stage companies.

Despite that market gap, no Dutch institutional investors participated in the fund.

"Dutch LPs told us we invest too early. Every piece of analysis on the Dutch ecosystem says early-stage capital is the critical gap. It didn't discourage us to fulfil our mission – we kept going regardless, and closed the fund oversubscribed," Bakir said.

Founded in 2025, Norrsken Evolve forms part of the broader Norrsken ecosystem, which manages nearly €876 million across five investment funds while operating innovation hubs in Stockholm, Barcelona, Brussels, Kigali and Amsterdam.

The company says its long-term objective is to support founders developing technologies that address climate change, healthcare and resilience challenges while strengthening Europe's innovation ecosystem through earlier access to venture capital.