According to a new survey by Danmarks Statistik on behalf of the capital region Hovedstadsregionen, a third of Danes are strong interested in investing part of their pension savings into startup companies.

Malene Haugaard, the head of Væksthus Hovedstadsregionen, the growth advisers for businesses and startups in the capital region, was pleased the Danes were keen to use their pension savings to support growth and job creation.

“I think that the prime reason is people want to support society development,” Haugaard said. “Really, you see the same thing within crowdfunding.”

“There is a growing need for alternative ways to raise capital, so this could be the answer to the problems many companies face when their plans are ready, but the last funds are lacking.”

According to the survey, men are more interested in investing some of their pension savings in startups. Some 37.8 percent said they approved, while just 20.9 percent of women said the same. Overall, 29.2 percent were positively inclined to do so.

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Indomitable Endomondo
Haugaard underlined that success stories involving startups – such as with Endomondo and Universal Robots, which were both sold recently – has sparked the interest in startup investment.

“For some it can perhaps make it more interesting to save up for their pensions,” Haugaard said.

“There are already pension schemes that enable you to focus on CSR and social responsibility, so pension savings focusing on startups isn’t a far-off notion,”

In February, the Danish IT company Endomondo sold its flagship mobile phone sports app to American sportswear manufacturer Under Armour for 575 million kroner, while the Danish robots company Universal Robots was sold to US automatic test systems firm Teradyne for close to 2 billion kroner in May.