Population
10.6M
Online population
10.2M
Currency
SEK
Population - 10.6M
At the start of 2023, 88.6% of Sweden’s population lived in urban centres, while 11.4% lived in rural areas.
Internet penetration - 97.2%
There were 8.7M social media users in Sweden in January 2023.
In 2022, the country was home to 332 FinTech companies, representing 27.5% of all FinTech startups across the Nordics and Baltics, a report by FinTech Mundi and Mastercard says. Sweden is home to one of Europe’s largest and most diverse FinTech clusters, ranking third in Europe based on a three-year average of FinTech investments, and is home to over 500 FinTech, including some of Europe fastest growing and highest valued companies.
⭕️ Over half of FinTech deals in the Nordics since 2015 have been completed by Swedish companies. Though there has been a slight decline in deal activities, Sweden’s share of deal flow in the Nordics was at a stable level reaching 50–60% until 2019 before a slight decline. Nevertheless, in terms of total investment values, Sweden accounts for approximately over 90% of all FinTech investments in the Nordics.
⭕️ According to our investment review, categories like Payments & Transfer, Wealth & Cash Management and Capital Debt & Equity have dominated the FinTech scene since 2015.
⭕️ Klarna alone raised roughly €750M in one round in 2022. Even if this investment round is smaller than the two rounds during 2021, it accounts for around 40% of the total investment value in the Nordics.
⭕️ Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and an incipient recession, the Swedish and Stockholm FinTech investments still show strength. 2021 set a record high level with almost €2B invested capital. Although 2022 did not set a new record, it was a year with many large investment rounds to a value of over €1B in a broader range of FinTech categories. This positions Stockholm as a top FinTech Hub.
<aside> ♻️ A green wave of Sweden FinTech
Sweden has combined a vibrant FinTech ecosystem with an ambitious national climate agenda, creating an optimal environment for FinTech companies to develop green innovations, apps, and solutions.
The extensive Swedish FinTech ecosystem, combined with impact investment and a national sustainability agenda has given rise to over 53 FinTechs dedicated to pursuing one or more Sustainable Development Goals. Sweden’s green model of integrating sustainability with business impact has paved the way for climate FinTech, a sub-group of green FinTech. This sub-group currently has over 25 companies and growing. Swedish climate fintechs are most active in the categories of green digital payment and account solutions, and green ESG data and analytics
A list of the Swedish green FinTech companies, along with additional statistics, can be found here.
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In December 2022, Sweden had a total of 123 banks. They can be divided into four main categories: commercial banks, foreign banks, savings banks and co-operative banks. Out of the 123, 77 are commercial. More than a half of them are Swedish banks. In December 2022, the foreign banks amounted to 36.
<aside> 💡 Swedbank has over 7M customers, which is the most out of all Swedish banks. Svenska Handelsbanken (SHB) has 214 branch offices in Sweden. The bank has operations in several countries, including a subsidiary in the United Kingdom and bank branches in Norway and the Netherlands.
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