Automatic translation: Originally published in Finnish 18/10/2026, 06:00 GMT. Give feedback here.

I took a break from publishing the blog last week because I was on the HS Vision Podcast discussing the activation of the Hesuli IPO scene with Elina Lappalainen.

In the podcast, I floated my estimate publicly for the first time that Nasdaq Helsinki could have 400 companies in ten years' time. This would mean doubling the number of listed companies and making Finland, alongside Sweden, one of Europe's leading "capital markets for everyone". By this I mean that instead of small circles or foreign capital, domestic capital—including ordinary citizens—would more strongly own domestic growth companies and their success.

Behind my optimistic view is the cultural shift I have witnessed over 15 years. Today, going public is at least one option for many entrepreneurs, and for many, it is a dream.

This was not the case in September 2012, when a journalist from Taloussanomat called me and wanted to interview me about Siili Solutions' listing on First North. I was just as bewildered by the subject as the journalist. First North, meaning that junk list where you can find Eirikuva Digital Image Oyj? Siili Solutions, an IT consultancy with a bit over EUR 10 million in revenue that no one has heard of? Planning to raise only EUR 1.5 million by listing on the stock exchange?

In 2012, few growth entrepreneurs considered the stock exchange as an option. The perception was roughly that the company's size needed to be close to Wärtsilä's and its annual dividend distribution EUR 100 million for an exchange listing to be realistic.

Exactly ten years from that moment, 70 new companies had been listed on Nasdaq First North Helsinki, 14 of which had already moved on to the main market. The growth company marketplace had come to life. What was needed were the first trailblazing companies to go and break the ice.

I am talking about First North and the listings of small companies because they play a central role when discussing the growth in the number of listed companies. In my view, the first First North wave went down in history for the years 2012–2022. After that, the market froze due to the post-bubble hangover that followed the events of 2021. But if things go well, the next cycle is now beginning, and it will be stronger than the previous one.

What is it that attracts growth entrepreneurs to the stock exchange? I speak for myself and many other entrepreneurs when I say that behind it is the idea of retaining a certain amount of control and independence. If the company needs credibility, capital, and extra muscle for its growth, the stock exchange is a mechanism by which this can be done without losing extensive control over the company. The company gets a diversified ownership base, and it can be developed with a timeless philosophy compared to, for example, an investor who comes along with a pre-defined time horizon to develop the company. The stock exchange also provides a mechanism where the ownership base can live its own life and renew itself naturally along with the company's development phases. Life on the stock exchange naturally brings its own challenges and burden, which I have written about in previous parts of the blog.

In addition to the cultural shift, this development is fueled by the rapid evolution of our growth company ecosystem. In ten years' time, Hesuli will certainly feature many listed companies that have not even been founded yet. Platforms like Springvest have also emerged in Finland to finance growth companies, which in turn helps lower the threshold for going public. There is also more information and a broader range of service providers available for executing an IPO, although admittedly, we advisors still have a tremendous amount of work to do on our end to lower the threshold regarding costs and complexity.

Fortunately, Finland has an increasing number of innovators, such as Siili's team at the time and CEO Seppo Kuula, who have the courage to do things differently from everyone else. As a company, Siili was a stock market success, and during the ten years following its listing, its size increased tenfold. In practice, the stock exchange enabled Siili to implement an acquisition-driven strategy and gave the company an unfair competitive advantage over unlisted players in the IT service provider consolidation game (Siili's difficulties after the IT market boom ended in 2022 are a different story, but that does not erase the success of the previous decade).

Let's double-check the math – is my calculation realistic? Growing the number of listed companies to 400 from the current level would require an average of 25 listings per year, assuming that 1.5% of listed companies also exit each year. The figure is undeniably ambitious, but I believe Finland has a sufficient number of growth companies, as well as enough investors and capital, to make this possible. If, on top of this, taxation, political decisions, lower listing costs, and technological development were to slightly smooth the path to the stock exchange, the idea is not entirely impossible. Stockholm, with its thousand listed companies, has already shown that it is possible.