The Nordic region continues to produce some of the most successful fintech companies in the world. Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland have built strong ecosystems that support global growth in payments, open banking, digital banking, analytics and crypto intelligence.
This article brings together every confirmed fintech unicorn originating from the Nordic countries. For each company, you will find the founding year, the year they reached unicorn status, their highest known valuation and their current status today. Some now have moved to the US, but their origins and early development are firmly Nordic.
Sweden
Klarna
Founded: 2005
Unicorn year: 2012
Peak valuation: 45.6 billion USD in 2021
Current status: Public (NYSE: KLAR)
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Klarna became one of Europe’s best known fintech companies through its checkout and buy now pay later services.
Trustly
Founded: 2008
Unicorn year: 2020
Peak valuation: around 2.0 billion USD in 2020, with a later IPO plan targeting 11 billion USD in 2021 that was cancelled
Current status: Private (owned by Nordic Capital)
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Trustly provides account to account payments for merchants and consumers across Europe and North America.
iZettle (Zettle by PayPal)
Founded: 2010
Unicorn year: 2018
Peak valuation: 2.2 billion USD in 2018
Current status: Acquired by PayPal
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Zettle helped small merchants digitalise payments and point of sale before being acquired by PayPal.
Tink
Founded: 2012
Unicorn year: 2021
Peak valuation: 2.15 billion USD in 2021
Current status: Acquired by Visa
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Tink became one of Europe’s leading open banking infrastructure providers before joining Visa.
Bambora
Founded: 2014
Unicorn year: 2017
Peak valuation: around 1.7 billion USD in 2017
Current status: Acquired by Worldline
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Bambora grew rapidly in the payments market and later became part of Worldline through acquisition.
Denmark
Pleo
Founded: 2015
Unicorn year: 2021
Peak valuation: 4.7 billion USD in 2021
Current status: Private
HQ: Copenhagen, Denmark
Pleo offers a company card and expense management platform used widely across Europe.
Lunar
Founded: 2015
Unicorn year: 2021
Peak valuation: 2.2 billion USD in 2022
Current status: Private
HQ: Aarhus, Denmark
Lunar is a digital bank that provides payments, savings, investments and other everyday financial services.
Tradeshift
Founded: 2010
Unicorn year: 2018
Peak valuation: 2.7 billion USD in 2020
Current status: Private
HQ: San Francisco, USA
Tradeshift started in Copenhagen and scaled into a global platform for digital invoicing and supply chain payments.
Chainalysis
Founded: 2014
Unicorn year: 2020
Peak valuation: 8.6 billion USD in 2022
Current status: Private
HQ: New York, USA
Chainalysis provides blockchain intelligence tools used worldwide by financial institutions and public sector agencies.
Flatpay
Founded: 2020
Unicorn year: 2025
Peak valuation: around 1.7 billion USD in 2025
Current status: Private
HQ: Copenhagen, Denmark
Flatpay reached unicorn status after rapid expansion in merchant payments across Europe.
Finland
Epassi
Founded: 2007
Unicorn year: 2023
Peak valuation: above 1.0 billion USD in 2023
Current status: Private (PE backed)
HQ: Helsinki, Finland
Epassi is one of Europe’s largest employee benefit payment platforms.
AlphaSense
Founded: 2011
Unicorn year: 2022
Peak valuation: 4.0 billion USD in 2024
Current status: Private
HQ: New York, USA
AlphaSense was founded in Finland and has grown into a global search and market intelligence platform.
Special mention to Wolt, which is best known as a global food delivery company but has roots in digital banking and payments. Today Wolt runs extensive internal payment and settlement processes across its markets. The company reached unicorn status in 2020 and was acquired by DoorDash in a deal valued at around 7 billion USD, announced in 2021.
Norway
Dune
Founded: 2018
Unicorn year: 2022
Peak valuation: 1.0 billion USD in 2022
Current status: Private
HQ: Oslo, Norway
Dune provides a community driven analytics platform for exploring and visualising blockchain data.
More Nordic Fintech Highlights at the Nordic Fintech Summit
The companies on this list show how much talent and ambition the Nordic region holds, and the next wave is already forming across both fintech and the wider financial industry. That is why the theme for the Nordic Fintech Summit 2026 is Highlighting the Best of Nordic Fintech. The summit brings together the top companies, financial institutions and industry leaders from across the region, and our goal is to feature at least a third of the Nordic fintech unicorns on stage. If you want to experience where the real momentum of Nordic finance and technology comes together, this is the place.
Learn more about the Nordic Fintech Summit 2026 here.
You can also stay updated throughout the year by following our monthly Nordic Fintech Highlights newsletter.
