About a year ago, we launched Creative Angels, a FiBAN initiative focused on mapping and unlocking the investment potential of the creative industries and on actively connecting angel investors with creative entrepreneurs.
It was born after discussions with members, VCs, and creative organisations. Multiple issues to tackle were recognized:
- Where to find the relevant companies to invest in on the creative sectors? Where should the investors turn to seek them?
- How to build a business culture of not just grants for the creative industries, but scalable growth and a culture of growing ambitiously with private capital?
- How to teach investors to look at new industries outside of traditional tech companies, and recognize scalability in other industries?
- How to ensure that creative companies become aware of different funding instruments?
The Creative Economy: is there a culture for seeking investments?
As FiBAN joined the Advisory Board of Creative Economy of Finland, clear signals from sectors such as film, games, TV, fashion, design, music, and other IP-driven businesses arose that there’s an urgent need for private capital and other new funding mechanisms, and a new kind of thinking.
What we found out is that no structured angel-investor-focused initiative exists at this level, not even at a broader European level. Some exist in the US. There are some VCs in the creative landscape, but very few, mostly focusing on very specific niches and growth stages, usually at later stages.
But who can take the lead on early-stage funding opportunities? Angels can. If we dare to discover these new opportunities.
There’s a huge gap in funding in the creative industries, which means that our most promising and growth-ready creative companies have to seek capital outside Finland.
Now, this is a recognized issue in the startup sector, where companies relocate abroad due to capital needs (and other regulatory issues we have). But this issue is even bigger in the creative industries. Finland doesn’t offer enough options, incentives, or an environment that would make scalable growth a beneficial direction.
If a creative company doesn’t have a clear tech focus, Finland can only offer support, typically through grants, sales, or individual angel investors. But what happens when those are no longer enough? How does growth happen after these stages?
The investment culture in these industries is still very young, so a lot of cross-industry and founder-investor collaboration is needed to build something similar to what the startup sectors already have: a clear pathway to growth and cooperation between different funding stages and industries.
Milestones of Creative Angels: How has the initiative evolved at FiBAN so far?
- At the end of 2024, FiBAN joined the Advisory Board of the Creative Economy of Finland and contributed to shaping the national growth strategy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Ministry of Education and Culture.
- In Spring 2025, the first Creative Angels investor meetups were held with introductions from creative investments specialists.
- In 2025, we established a monthly member-and-partner working group, Creative Angels®, to gather angels and partners interested in these sectors to move this initiative forward.
- Since the initiative began, we’ve built an active dialogue with international investors, creative funds, multiple creative industry organizations, and our angel members – and mutually organized events in the horizon.
”Investing in Creativity: Rethinking Value and Growth in Startups” panel discussion at Polar Bear Pitching, Oulu. Victoria Fäh (IPR VC), Milja Mäkelä (FiBAN, Creative Angels), Kati Uusi-Rauva (EIT Culture & Creativity) Jukka Vidgren (Whatever Pictures). Photo: Polar Bear Pitching, BusinessOulu.
On the deal flow side, we’ve moved from discussion to execution:
- Last autumn, we organized our first Creative Pitch Finland, a fully creative-industry-focused pitching event featuring game and fashion companies. The event was fully booked, clearly demonstrating investor and founder appetite for the topic.
- In May, our flagship event, Pitch Finland, takes place in Tampere, where we are running a dedicated film/audiovisual/creative tech track, introducing other interesting companies from Tampere. The event is organised with the Startup.Tampere‘s most promising startups and Film Tampere‘s ambitious companies in the intersection of game, film, transmedia, and creative technology from the Nordic-Baltic region.
- We are also planning another creative-focused pitching event for next autumn to further strengthen the pipeline.
- These have already led to startups/companies applying to us from these sectors. For example, we’ve had music tech, fashion/design, and even a film-trilogy pitch at our events in the last year.
We’re at the beginning of this movement, but it looks promising: knowledge is being shared on both sides, and we’re building a new ecosystem collaboration to increase awareness among creative entrepreneurs of angel funding and among angel investors of the possibilities and mechanisms for creative industry investment.
Through conversations with angels, VCs, and ecosystem players, there is increasing alignment around the idea that IP-driven and creative sectors may represent one of the next major waves in angel investing.
This has also been recognized by the European Commission as a significant direction: that creative industries hold major, untapped growth potential. Not a niche topic but a forward-looking angel-investment trend that deserves prominent attention.
If you’re interested in seeing how this proceeds, keep following Creative Angels and related events. If you’re a member or partner, you can join our Creative Angels working group at FiBAN Events.
Milja Mäkelä
COO of FIBAN
Creative Angels
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