Five ways Scandinavian family offices lead the world

Scandinavia is increasingly becoming one of the most interesting locations for family investment groups, with a growing number of them at the forefront of investing and at the same time doing it in a very 21st century way. Family Capital looks at five ways they’re leading the world. (For the sake of brevity, Scandinavia for this article also includes Finland.)

Transparency

Many Scandinavian family offices are often very transparent. Some report their annual performance numbers on their websites, which many of them have. Ferd, the family investment group of Norway’s richest family, the Andresens, reports its annual results, so does Kirk Kapital and Kirkbi, two family offices that manage different branches of the family that own Lego.

Others might not report their numbers, but most of them have websites, which disclose more than just a page with a contact number and email. Most are communicating what they are about, what their values are, and what they invest in better than many other family offices in other parts of the world.

Venture investing

Scandinavian family offices like venture investing. Indeed, in Europe, they are the most adventurous when it comes to investing in startups. Smedvig Capital, the family investment group of the Norwegian Smedvig family, is one of the most venture-orientated family offices anywhere. It’s made more than 50 investments in startups, five in the last year.

First Fellow Partners, the family office of the Finnish tech entrepreneur Risto Siilasmaa, has also been very active in venture. It’s made around 12 investments since 2016, including one just this week.

Kinnevik AB, the investment group owned by Sweden’s Stenbeck, Klingspor and von Horn families, is also very active in venture investing, having invested in eleven startups since 2017. Swedish EQT Ventures, which is partially owned by the Wallenberg family, is also been very active in the sector.

Impact investing

Scandinavian family offices are also often at the forefront of impact investing and promoting social entrepreneurship. Norway’s Ferd is leading the pack with its various social entrepreneurial efforts. It has a whole division – Ferd Social Entrepreneurs – committed to the sector. Denmark’s Kirkbi has also committed to investing a big part of its assets into renewable energy.

Localism

Pretty much all Scandinavian family investment groups have a big focus on local investing. They all like to invest in businesses and assets close to home. And many of those opportunities turn out to be hugely successful. But not only that, the fact that many of them are investing locally helps to build better relations with the communities they invest in. Of course, this isn’t just particular to family offices in Scandinavia, many family investment offices across the world invest locally and benefit from good community relations because they do. But perhaps Scandinavian family offices do it better than most – and that, in turn, encourages them to be more transparent with their activities.

Innovative

All the above points show Scandinavian family offices are innovative. This will help them prosper in the years ahead. But sometimes one or two of them go a step further than might happen in other parts of the world. And perhaps the best recent example of this is Kirk Kapital’s new headquarters in the Danish city of Vejle. Fjordenhus was designed by one of the world’s most acclaimed artists, Olafur Eliasson. Not only will Fjordenhus operate as the headquarters of one of Scandinavia’s biggest family offices, it will also act as an art gallery for some of the works of Eliasson, and, together with its striking design, will attract cultural tourists to Vejle from all over the world.