The Nordic Fintech Impact Mapping 2020 was done by the Nordic fintech cluster organisations from Denmark (Copenhagen Fintech), Iceland (The Fintech Cluster), Sweden (Findec), Finland (Helsinki Fintech Farm) and Norway (NCE Finance Innovation and The Factory).

Download the report here

The fintech start-up scene is booming in all of the Nordic countries, supported by a variety of organisations, hubs and accelerators called the Nordic Fintech Alliance. By conducting a mapping, impact fintech categories were built, showcasing the five focus areas of fintech start-ups working in the impact space.

The mapping has resulted in the finding of 183 start-ups or scale-ups across the Nordic countries in the field of impact fintech and have been organised into five impact categories. Overall, the number of impact fintechs is evenly distributed among the countries, with Iceland being the outlier due to the lower population number.

The impact fintechs have been mapped according to the five focus areas:

Financing Impact: Fintech companies making it possible to invest in or finance impact activities.
Financial Inclusion: Fintech companies helping underbanked groups get access to different financial services.
ESG Data: Fintech companies that use different kinds of datasets to analyse companies based on their ESG impact.
Energy and Climate: Fintech companies focus on developing data- driven
CO2, waste reduction or carbon offsetting products.
Anti-corruption and crime prevention: Fintech companies with solutions focusing on digital crime, anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing etc.

The report shows that the startups are primarily focusing on working towards SDG 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure) with more than 43% of the impact fintechs (#78) in the Nordics utilising their business to better the world.