Tesi’s Impact Review: Tesi driving forward the shift in Finland’s growth company market and domestic ownership

As of 31 December 2025, Tesi’s assets under management totalled EUR 3.2 billion, and Tesi was an owner – directly or through funds – in 567 Finnish portfolio companies. Tesi’s investment activities have been profitable over the long term: retained earnings have exceeded EUR 1 billion, and shareholders’ equity has doubled to EUR 2 billion. New investments made between 2010 and 2025 have generated a net return multiple of 1.6x and an annual return of 11% (IRR). Tesi has in fact outperformed the Helsinki Stock Exchange by a factor of 1.12 (OMXHGI KS-PME).

Target: EUR 14 billion in growth capital over the strategy period

Over the 2025–2029 strategy period, Tesi’s investment mandate is EUR 1.8 billion. Tesi aims to channel a total of EUR 14 billion in growth capital to the market together with private investors – twice the pace of the previous period. During the strategy period, by 30 June 2026, Tesi had made investment decisions totalling EUR 672 million. Once realised, these decisions will channel, together with private investors’ contributions, more than EUR 6 billion in growth capital to the market.

Companies in Tesi’s startup and scaleup portfolio have grown clearly faster than the market: their revenue has grown by 21% annually on average and employment by 10%, compared with 2.7% and 0.6% for Finland as a whole. This growth is also reflected in the rising value of portfolio companies IQM, Oura and ICEYE, which Tesi owns: the combined value of the three has more than doubled over the past year, to around EUR 22 billion.

In line with its renewed mandate, Tesi aims to see six to eight new unicorns emerge in Finland’s growth company market during this strategy period, the latest of which is IQM. ICEYE, meanwhile, became a decacorn by reaching a valuation of USD 10 billion in summer 2026. The EUR 1 billion funding round is one of the largest ever raised in Finland.

Under its updated strategy, Tesi is also investing in new industrial-scale projects. Efforts to attract these projects to Finland have progressed well: Tesi has made investment decisions in five projects so far – Arctial, Blastr, Ren-Gas, Norsk e-fuel and the TNT plant project. Once realised, these projects are expected to create around 3,000 new direct jobs in Finland. Tesi now holds one of Finland’s largest industrial portfolios.

On the fund side, a significant milestone was reached when Lifeline Ventures launched a new EUR 425 million fund in 2025 which was 2.5 times larger than any previous Finnish venture capital fund. Tesi is an anchor investor in the fund, and aims to bring a total of three new internationally scaled VC & PE funds to the Finnish market during the strategy period.

“World-class companies have emerged in Finland – companies with both the capability and the ambition to grow into global market leaders. Anchoring them in Finland through domestic ownership benefits us all. This is not just something we’ve recognised; we’ve acted on it: pension and insurance companies have increased their investments in domestic growth companies, and for the first time, Finnish investors have joined Tesi in a funding round worth as much as EUR 1 billion,” says Pia Santavirta, CEO of Tesi.

Sustainability work progressing among portfolio companies, AI practices reviewed for the first time

Tesi tracks the sustainability progress of its portfolio companies through an annual survey. A total of 646 portfolio companies responded to the 2025 survey, 429 of them Finnish and 217 international. 37% of companies had an environmental policy in place, which is the highest share in the review period, and 46% of respondents still monitor their greenhouse gas emissions. 23% of companies had set an emissions reduction target, a share that has grown steadily in recent years. For the first time, the survey also looked at practices around the responsible use of AI: around a quarter of companies already had a policy or other guidance in place for the responsible use of AI.

Tesi’s Impact Review complements the Responsibility Report published as part of the Annual Report, and highlights in particular the indirect effects of Tesi’s operations on Finnish society. Tesi publishes the Impact Review in early autumn, since some of the data needed for the report only becomes available after annual reporting is complete, given the nature of Tesi’s operations. The review draws on year-end 2024 and 2025 financial statement figures, the results of a corporate survey conducted in spring 2026, and modelled data.

Explore Tesi’s Impact Review!

Some key figures on Tesi’s impact and operations:

• Tesi a direct owner in 135 growth companies, 137 VC & PE funds and 5 KRR funds-of-funds (KRR I–V) (31 Dec 2025)
• Tesi an owner, directly or indirectly through its fund investments, in 567 Finnish growth companies (31 Dec 2025)
• Assets under management EUR 3.2bn (31 Dec 2025)
• Tesi’s retained earnings have exceeded EUR 1bn; shareholders’ equity has doubled to EUR 2bn (31 Dec 2025)
• Tesi has outperformed the Helsinki Stock Exchange (OMXHGI KS-PME) by a factor of 1.12x (2010–25)
• Target for the 2025–2029 strategy period: EUR 14bn in growth capital to the market
  • Investment decisions made by Tesi per 30 June 2026: MEUR 672, which, once realised, will channel EUR 6.2bn to the market together with private investors
• In June 2026, ICEYE became Finland’s third decacorn; target of 6–8 new unicorns during the strategy period
• 5 new industrial projects confirmed (Arctial, Blastr, Ren-Gas, Norsk e-fuel, the TNT plant project), estimated to create around 3,000 new direct jobs
• 646 portfolio companies responded to the 2025 impact survey, 429 of them Finnish and 217 international
• 46% of responding portfolio companies monitor their greenhouse gas emissions; 37% have an environmental policy in place (the highest share in the review period)

Additional information:

Pia Santavirta, CEO
+358 40 546 7749
pia.santavirta@tesi.fi

Tesi (officially Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a state-owned, market-driven investment company that invests in venture capital and private equity funds and directly in Finnish startups and growth companies, and to new industrial scale businesses. tesi.fi | X (Twitter) | LinkedIn | Instagram | Bluesky | Threads | Newsletter