Lagoon Capital

Investment company of Ari Korhonen, one of the longest-standing angel investors in Finland. Invests into software companies. His sweet spot for initial tickets is €50-100k, other sizes are doable on a case-by-case basis.

Ari grew his original company Komartek to an internationally successful one, sold it to WM-data in in 2004, and served as a Vice President of WM-data. WM-data is nowadays known as CGI.

Within the last 14 years, Ari has made angel investments in 39 companies. In those he has participated totally to 128 investment rounds. The companies invested in include MariaDB, DealDash, Klevu, Miradore and Sympa. Of these investments, he has had six successful exits; Small Giant Games, Severa, Paytrail, Octo3, In4mo and The Switch.

Ari is also an investor in venture capital and buyout funds which include Seedcamp, 500 Startups, True Global Ventures, Spintop Ventures, Evli Growth Partners and KJK Capital. Of these investments, he has had one successful exit; Seedcamp fund II. In Spintop Ventures he is also a Senior Advisor and in Evli Growth Partners a Growth Partner. Ari is also Advisory Board member in Finnish Industry Investments (Tesi) and LUT University.

Ari was elected by FiBAN (Finish Business Angels Network) as Business Angel of the Year in Finland in 2014. He is a co-founder and honorary member of FiBAN and Vice Chairman of the Board during 2010-2012. Ari has been an EBAN (European Business Angels Network) board member and Vice-President during 2012-2016. He was awarded EBAN Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. He is also an active member in many international business angel networks, like EstBAN, NordicBAN, Global Super Angels Club, etc… Ari has been featured by EU-Startups as one of the top 40 of Europe’s most active and most influential angel investors.

Ari was awarded Honorary Doctorate in Economics and Business Administration by LUT University in 2017. He holds a Master of Science degree in engineering from LUT University.

Commercialization Reactor

Accelerator with ongoing applications. Programs start in batches. Currently everything online, but they plan to resume physical participation programs later.

Requirements: Deep tech. Significant understanding behind tech. Team of founders have to include at least one scientist and one entrepreneur. Have to be from EEA or UK or Switzerland or willing to move to Latvia. Have to establish a company in Latvia for the acceleration program.

Insta Ventures

Prefer B2B, certain B2C niches are also interesting. Prefer cases with over €15k monthly revenue.

Only co-invest in rounds that already have a lead investor. Majority of deals (70%) from Nordics and Baltics, especially Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Lithuania so far. 15% from Central and Eastern Europe and 15% elsewhere from the world.

Does not invest in mobile gaming or hardware. Hardware-enabled software is interesting.

Turing Studio

Fundraising, branding, design and business development consulting. Helping clients with development projects around the globe.

Does not organize clinical trials, but they do user research and interviews and help with all business areas.

Baltic Sandbox

Ongoing acceleration program, can apply at any time.

Startups have to have a legal entity in EU or willing to open it and relocate, and target market also in the EU for the first three years.

No gaming, gambling, or very sophisticated scientific products that require domain expertise to support.

Katalista Ventures

Hybrid accelerator / fund. Looking at triple top line benefit: people, planet, profit.

Prefer B2B and software. Others are possible in especially strong cases.

Active investor. Putting time into each company. Comfortable with minority stakes. Prefer to co-invest.

 

bValue

Focus on B2B, especially light-touch sales model SaaS for SMEs. B2C, B2B to large enterprises and B2G are also possible in strong cases.

Geographically focus is on CEE, but elsewhere in EU is also possible. Non-EU companies are investable if they establish an office in EU.

Focus on software and valuations below €20M, but occasionally invests in hardware, or especially strong cases with higher valuations.

Active investor. Normally doesn’t take a board seat.

Presto Ventures

Presto Ventures is a Czech family office. They prefer B2B companies, but can also invest in B2C with good unit economics.

Family office of Skoda transportation company’s ex-owner. Heavy machinery is a special expertise area. Fund preference is for not too capital-intensive companies.

Nordic XR Startups

Nordic XR Startups invests into startups with a strong connection to XR (VR/AR/MR) and are from Nordics, Baltics or Eastern Europe.

They invest mainly into companies where they can offer significant added value with their international mentor and investor network.

They are open for startups’ applications at any time. They organize batches but are open for discussions and investments on other times as well.

They often join the board as observers.

 

Earth Capital

Doing sustainability and impact investing: mobility, food and agriculture, energy (renewable, efficiency, storage), water, waste etc. Looking for indications of repeat demand.

Looking for defensible market positions. Technology is not necessary, if the position of the company is otherwise strategically defensible.

Investing globally with a focus on Europe. Also investing actively in Africa and Asia.

Focus on B2B across all their funds.

Prefer to lead or co-invest. Prefer to take a board seat.