It’s been 10 years:

2026 marks ten years since the inception of Copenhagen Fintech, the innovation hub created to accelerate fintech innovation in Denmark and later expanded the mission to the Nordics. But this anniversary is about more than a single organisation reaching a milestone. It is a 10-year marker for Nordic fintech as a system, a decade of collective effort that has transformed Nordic fintech from a tech vertical into a core part of our societal infrastructure.

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The courage to Start Building Together (2016 – 2018):

In 2016, a group of early partners placed a bold bet on what would become a decisive moment for Nordic fintech: the creation of an ecosystem builder like Copenhagen Fintech, designed to institutionally support a tech vertical which, at the time, existed largely on the margins of European finance.

FinansDanmark, Finansforbundet, Københavns Kommune, SDC, NETS, Sparekassen Sjælland & Spar Nord where the frontrunners that chose collaboration as the starting point: bringing startups, incumbents, investors, regulators, and talent into the same water-font building, now known as the Copenhagen Fintech Lab. With Chainalysis and CrediWire as the first residents, more startups made the Lab their home, while across the Nordics Enfuce launched in Finland, early crypto, payments, and digital finance ventures emerged, and Copenhagen Fintech’s first international delegations signalled a clear ambition: Nordic fintech had global ambition from the start.

By 2017–2018, the ecosystem began to take shape through tangible signals across the region. Klarna received a banking license, MobilePay became national infrastructure in Denmark, Vipps BankAxept and BankID merged in Norway, reshaping the payments landscape.

The first local fintech mapping exercises made the ecosystem visible, Copenhagen Fintech Week launched as a shared meeting place, and Nordic fintech exits and unicorns such as iZettle and Tradeshift proved that scale was possible.

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Scaling and proving the Model (2019 – 2020 – 2021 - 2022):

This period validated what is now widely recognised as the Nordic model for fintech growth: trust-based regulation, strong public-private collaboration, incumbents acting as partners rather than opponents, and global ambition from day one.

These were the years where the Nordics were proving that they didn’t just launch fintech companies, they were building digital infrastructure. National solutions like MitID illustrated how technology, regulation, and trust could and should work together at scale. Collaboration became the defining keyword, with Nordic Fintech Week serving as the stage where the ecosystem came together to share knowledge, challenge assumptions, and learning from one another.

The result was an explosion of partnerships, investment, and talent. Danish fintech employment surpassed traditional financial sectors, funding volumes accelerated dramatically, and Nordic fintech companies increasingly moved from promising startups to system-critical platforms.

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Maturity, infrastructure & geopolitics (2023 – 2024 –2025)

By 2025, major exits, IPOs, and consolidations - including Klarna’s public listing, Flatpay’s unicorn milestone, and strategic acquisitions - coincided with the launch of Recommendations for a National Fintech Strategy for Denmark and the Nordic Fintech Center, marking a clear transition: Nordic fintech had matured from a growth story into a strategically important layer of economic and digital sovereignty.

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Where do we go from here?

If Denmark and the Nordics are to maintain global competitiveness, we must continue to build stronger bridges between research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Copenhagen Fintech remains the meeting point of this community and the largest centre for Nordic fintech, with Nordic Fintech Week as the stage: broader in scope, deeper in content, and more international in reach than ever, reflecting the strength and maturity of the ecosystem.

Looking ahead together with Industriens Fond, the Nordic Fintech Center represents the next step: a new, research-driven partnership platform designed to strengthen talent, deepen collaboration between academia and industry, and accelerate the creation of the next generation of fintech startups across Denmark and the Nordics.

At the same time, long-term thinking becomes essential. Through initiatives such as the Future Scenarios Report developed with PA Consulting, we connect Nordic and European perspectives with global thinking—at a moment when finance, technology, and geopolitics are increasingly intertwined. And as fintech companies scale, robust governance and proactive board engagement are recognised as critical forces for resilience, responsibility, and sustainable value creation.

The lesson of the past ten years is clear: progress in fintech is built block by clock, together.

So let’s keep building the next ten years, together.

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