Oskar Lund has spent much of his career in places where consequential decisions are made: major financial institutions, investment ventures and high-growth companies navigating pivotal moments of expansion. Now, after more than two decades in finance, investing and business strategy, he has joined UIC, where he will work with Swedish scale-up companies looking to grow faster and compete more effectively in international markets.
Oskar Lund Brings a Global Investor’s Perspective to UIC
Over the years, Oskar has worked with companies at nearly every stage of development, from early startups to established multinational businesses in periods of rapid growth. The through line in that work has been execution: raising capital, shaping strategy and helping organizations navigate complex financing rounds and ambitious expansion plans.
From global finance to company building
His career began in the United States, where he studied and later joined General Electric’s Finance Management Program. The role took him across several countries and gave him early experience in acquisitions and business development in multinational settings. From there, he moved to J.P. Morgan in New York and London, where he worked with corporate finance, capital markets and cross-border financing.
Mr. Lund was later recruited to BNP Paribas, where he managed relationships with institutional clients across the Nordic region, including public-sector institutions and major investment funds. Following the financial crisis, he co-founded an investment business and went on to work internationally on investments, real estate projects and company-building efforts in the Middle East and Asia.
Since 2017, he has been based in Sweden and active in the country’s innovation and scale-up ecosystem. He has held senior roles in several technology and life sciences companies, including serving as chief financial officer of Disruptive Materials, and has also been involved with companies such as NitroCapt, AirForestry, Epishine and Nordic BioAnalysis. Since 2017, Oskar has helped scaleup companies raise roughly 1 billion Swedish kronor through equity capital and non-dilutive funding.
“I have often sat on the other side of the table — as an investor, a board member or a CFO,” Oskar said.
“That gives you a very practical understanding of the questions investors ask and the challenges companies face as they scale. I hope to bring that perspective to the companies working with UIC.”
Strengthening UIC’s scaleup companies
Oskar had encountered UIC long before joining it, through his work with companies including NitroCapt, AirForestry and Ilya Pharma. What stood out, according to him, was not only the organization’s ability to support innovative companies, but also its success in helping technically minded founders develop the commercial judgment needed to bring serious ideas to market.
“UIC is especially strong at helping people with a technical or research-based idea make the transition into business,” he said. “It is not only about advice. It is also about creating an environment where people meet, share experience and find the right collaborators.”
The value of that kind of environment, he said, is often immediate and concrete.
“You come in for a coffee, meet the right person, and a problem that might otherwise take three weeks to solve is resolved in 10 minutes,” Mr. Lund said. “Or you meet the person you need to help build the company.”
At UIC, his work will focus in particular on strengthening the organization’s efforts with scale-up companies. Through UIC Scaleup, the aim is to help promising businesses make the transition from emerging growth companies to international contenders.
“People often underestimate what can be built over time,” he said. “I would like to help more Swedish companies think bigger and work with a longer horizon when it comes to growth and international expansion.”
He believes the opportunity is especially strong in Swedish deep tech, where research-driven companies can, with the right support, become businesses of genuine global significance.
“If someone is developing a therapy that could change the course of, for example, a cancer treatment or a breakthrough battery chemistry, the potential is enormous,” Mr. Lund said. “The question is how we create environments where ideas like that are given the chance to grow — and not lose momentum too early.”
For Mr. Lund, ambition matters, but so does structure.
“You need a clear plan and a disciplined way of working toward it,” he said. “In sailing or in aviation, you are always looking ahead — toward where you are going, not only at where you are and what surrounds you at the moment. Building a company is not so different.”
With his international background, investor’s perspective and long experience helping companies raise capital and navigate expansion, Mr. Lund sees substantial opportunity ahead — both for UIC and for the companies it supports.
“My ambition is to help ensure that UIC is not only one of Sweden’s leading innovation environments, but one of Europe’s strongest,” he said.