HELSINKI and OSLO, 8 October 2026: Optio Incentives (Optio), the global equity compensation and incentive management platform headquartered in Oslo, Norway, today announced a strategic partnership with Mandatum, a leading Finnish financial services and reward advisory company. Together, the two companies will give Finnish listed companies and high-growth private companies one integrated service for their share-based incentive programmes: Mandatum designs and advises, Optio administers, from the first grant through to reporting and settlement.
Optio is not new to Finland. The company already serves a growing base of Finnish clients across listed and private companies, and has spent the past year listening closely to what the market needs. The message has been consistent: Finnish companies want a competitive alternative for equity plan administration, one that is modern, collaborative, easy to use, and robust enough for the most demanding listed-company programmes. The partnership with Mandatum is how Optio answers that call, with local people on the ground, a trusted Finnish partner at its side, and a clear intent to accelerate.
Why Finland
Share-based incentives sit at the heart of how Finnish companies attract, retain and reward their people, from executive performance share plans to broad-based employee share savings programmes. Running those programmes well touches almost every part of the business: compensation and benefits teams designing the plan, legal ensuring it holds up, rewards teams communicating it to employees, and finance reporting it accurately every quarter.
Finnish companies are looking for a platform that brings all of those people together and manages the full lifecycle end to end, covering communication, participation and reporting in one place. That is exactly what Optio was built to do. And with broad-based programmes on the rise both in Finland and globally, Optio sees Finland as one of the most exciting equity markets in Europe.
Why now
Optio is scaling fast, in technology, in service, and in reach. Beyond its Nordic and European base, the platform now powers share plans in South Africa through JSE Investor Services, and is coming to Canada through a strategic technology collaboration with TMX Group, owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Japan follows, marking Optio's first step into the Asia-Pacific market. That global momentum has become a competitive advantage for Optio. Finland is the natural next step, and the timing is right on three levels:
- Technology: the platform is proven at scale across more than 15 markets. Optio builds the best local solution in every market, including Finland, backed by one global platform.
- Market need: Finnish companies are actively asking for alternatives to the incumbent providers, and planning for the 2027 AGM season begins this autumn.
- People first: Optio's Finland team is led locally by Anu Saarinen, formerly of Euroclear Finland, alongside commercial lead Rasmus Skogland and client services lead Marius Heimdal. Behind them sits Optio's wider Nordic organisation: solutions architects, client services, implementation and compliance. Finland is a strategic priority for Optio's leadership, with Chief Revenue Officer Dan Kelly and Chief Growth Officer Mats Gerø directly sponsoring the expansion, and the team will be in Helsinki regularly while it builds a permanent local base.
Why Mandatum
Mandatum brings what matters most in the Finnish market: trusted, long-standing relationships with Finnish boards and management teams, deep expertise in incentive design and benchmarking, and the full picture of reward, from long-term incentives to wealth management. Optio brings the technology: an end-to-end administration platform built for the complexity of listed equity, with built-in valuations and financial reporting, a participant app employees actually use, and more than 140 HR system integrations.
The two capabilities fit together perfectly. For Finnish clients, the result is one service rather than two vendors: a plan designed by a partner who knows the Finnish market inside out, and run on a platform built for where equity compensation is heading.
"Finland has never been a new market for us. We have clients here, we know the requirements, and we have heard clearly what companies want next. What changes today is the pace. Mandatum is one of the most respected names in Finnish financial services, and their expertise in incentive design is the perfect complement to our platform. Together, we can give Finnish companies a genuinely modern, competitive alternative for running their share programmes, and we are committing the people and the focus to make it work."
Christoffer Herheim, CEO and co-founder, Optio
"Long-term incentive plans have established their role as an integral part of compensation. Companies are now considering more carefully which models best support their strategic objectives and help align the interests of shareholders and key employees with long-term value creation. We are pleased to partner with Optio to offer a full long-term incentive service, from design to day-to-day administration, as one seamless experience."
Visa Myllyntaus, Director, Mandatum Incentives
Helsinki follows Toronto and Johannesburg
The Mandatum partnership continues a clear pattern. In South Africa, JSE Investor Services, the investor services arm of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, runs share plans for around 90 companies on Optio's platform. In Canada, TMX Investor Solutions chose Optio after a rigorous global search to modernise equity plan administration for Canadian issuers. In each case, a trusted local institution chose to partner with Optio rather than build, because the platform is proven, independent, and built to adapt to local market and regulatory requirements.
"Every market we enter, we enter with a partner who knows it best. Mandatum gives us exactly that in Finland. We're here to stay, and we're here to build."
Mats Gerø, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer, Optio
What's next
Optio and Mandatum will host their first joint seminar on 18 November 2026 at Mandatum's headquarters in Helsinki. The breakfast session will cover the full journey of an equity incentive programme, from idea and design to launch, administration and communication, with insight from other markets and practical guidance ahead of the 2027 AGM season. Places are limited and reserved primarily for representatives of listed companies. Register for the seminar.
Finnish companies exploring what modern equity plan administration could look like are invited to book a demo.
About Optio Incentives
Optio Incentives is a global equity compensation and incentive management platform, founded in 2018 by Mats Gerø and Christoffer Herheim and headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Optio serves more than 500 companies, including companies listed on 15 stock exchanges, administering equity plans for close to one million participants across more than 100 countries. The platform covers plan administration, participant experience, financial reporting under IFRS 2 and US GAAP, HR integrations, and trading and share custody. Optio is ranked #1 for equity management in Europe on G2 and is SOC 1 and SOC 2 certified.
About Mandatum
Mandatum is a major financial services provider, combining expertise in asset and wealth management and life insurance. In compensation and rewards, Mandatum is a leading provider in Finland, offering comprehensive solutions that combine remuneration advisory, personnel funds, supplementary pensions, and personal risk insurance. Its expertise ranges from designing share-based and performance-based incentive schemes to remuneration benchmarking, helping companies align their reward structures with their business strategy and objectives. Mandatum has been listed on Nasdaq Helsinki since 2023.
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