American funds are moving fast in the Nordics, with some flying in and pushing term sheets within 24 hours, forcing European investors to keep up.

Sara Rywe, General Partner at byFounders, says speed and community now decide the best early-stage rounds. More experienced founders are also paying closer attention to values alignment and local support, not just brand.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel - check them out here:

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: The multi-model database for AI agents. Check them out here: https://surrealdb.com/

Omni: The AI analytics platform trusted by fast-growing companies like Perplexity, Synthesia, and dbt Labs. Check them out here: https://omni.co/

Venture Comet: The platform that gives startups and scale-ups real-time equity tracking, daily business insights and automated management information. Check them out here: https://venturecomet.com/

Timestamps:

0:33 - Sara Rywe on her path into venture

5:02 - How byFounders won the Lovable deal

6:41 - Why speed and community now decide rounds

8:40 - Why American funds are competing harder in the Nordics

11:32 - Why some founders choose local, values-aligned investors

13:51 - Why the Nordics keep outperforming

17:00 - Why Finland stands out in deep tech

18:46 - Verda’s growth and the case for a European hyperscaler

20:37 - Sovereignty and why enterprise demand is rising