by combining corporate assets and know-how with the venture building skills of serial entrepreneurs.
Our stage-gated approach finds the best opportunities where corporate assets and know-how give ventures an unfair advantage.
Corporates have great domain knowledge and resources, but often are lacking the skills for building ventures to solve the problems in the domain
Combining domain knowledge and venture building skills will greatly accelerate turning meaningful problems to new, potentially disruptive, business. This is the essence of co-venturing model.
People with great skills in building ventures often lack the domain knowledge accumulated in corporations during their life-span.
First we help organizations to identify the strategically important whitespaces where digital ventures can play a key role. Then we validate the market risk and technical feasibility of the venture to build a solid business case. Finally, we build the venture as a stand-alone independent business.
We believe entrepreneurship has the potential to solve truly important challenges, but it requires cooperation. We need corporates with assets and know-how to work together with entrepreneurs in creating truly game changing digital ventures.
CONTACT US TO KNOW MOREA humanist by heart, an engineer by education, and a change agent by profession. That's Tom. Over 20 years of experience in delivering digital innovations to various customer segments in different roles give Tom the humility and perspectives needed in helping companies navigate in the modern age of rapid change. With his background in several startups and two publicly listed companies, Tom's mission is to help entrepreneurs and corporates innovate a better world.
Juha has over 15 years experience in building digital businesses. He has had several management positions in various fields, including advertising, service design, growth businesses and startup companies. Juha has particular experience in building and implementing new strategy, change management and setting concrete goals and moving things forward. Juha can also talk with developers on their level and bring together the tech team with the strategist and designers to move things forward in a single direction. He can effectively communicate with stakeholders and getting people involved in transformation projects, efficiently helping businesses move towards digital transformation.
Ira has versatile experience in product design and development, eCommerce, strategy, marketing and customer experience. She has built and led teams or professionals, designed strategies and built products in both UK and Finland.
Aki is an energetic serial entrepreneur whose mission is to improve people's health, happiness, and performance in a planet-positive way. Aki can be described as a venture decathlete – a generalist in new venture creation. He started his first company in 2007 at university and has since launched +10 ambitious concepts or companies, especially around health, sustainability, and most of them in the built environment context. But he is probably best known for co-founding Naava, the world leader in green walls and biological indoor air purification. At Naava, Aki served as CEO and in various strategy and brand/marketing roles.
Asmo has a unique digital business career combining entrepreneurship, director positions in major corporations, and lots of startup experience. As a true digital generalist with over 20 years of experience, he can be an extremely versatile help in many areas: sparring the digital strategies, working around business design, making product development more focused and faster, and guiding teams with a strong intrapreneurship mindset. To put it short: Asmo is a warm-hearted team player with a superb “let’s get things done” attitude. You might have spotted Asmo also on television as he’s a regular commentator on Yle morning’s “Jälkidigi” program, focusing on the latest news and phenomena around the tech and digital world.
Marko has been involved in building digital products and ventures his whole career. As co-founder, product manager or venture designer he has been hands-on building 15+ fast-growing digital ventures in Helsinki & Berlin. Some highlights are using the Rocket Internet blueprint building a marketplace venture from 0 to 10 000+ shipped orders in 1 year. And helping Kasvuryhmä to become the most successful scaleup CEO-community representing over 10 billion in revenue with members creating a 1.3 billion+ impact to Finnish economy.
For over 20 years, Paula has helped build new digital services and led sales and marketing in global settings. She has been involved in building marketing operations and implementing local sales in 13 different countries. Paula is especially skilled in product leadership and building customer centric strategies. She was her unique human perspective to strategy and product development, which has allowed her to successfully develop large scale products with companies like OP.
Jesse is an experienced product professional and startup founder with solid computer science, business, and product background. Jesse co-founded Playven, a SaaS sports facility management tool and scheduling solution helping facilities make more money. After merging with Playtomic, Jesse led the organization's product teams and was responsible for the product strategy. He grew a 10-person product and tech organization to 70 people, eventually raising 75M€ of funding.
Ville is a business development expert that helps companies build and grow new revenue streams. He has worked with corporations, helping them create and validate new business in collaboration with external startups and growth companies. He has also worked with accelerators, being involved in the screening process and helping to find and evaluate startups in the pipeline. He has been active in supporting startups; coaching them on sales and how to pitch their ideas to larger corporations. Moreover, Ville has hands-on experience in successfully developing software products, and understands the common pain points and demands.
Juho Harmaa is an experienced Product, Technology and Business leader, with extensive background in developing and transforming businesses. He has in-depth expertise in data-led business models and has consulted some of the most renown companies in Europe and US in the topics of data, business transformation and product management.
Klaus is an ambitious generalist with an entrepreneurial mind, always experimenting, always hands-on. He has seen many journeys from idea to business, especially in the digital space, often in the centre of the action. Initially, Klaus' journey stems from software development but has taken many paths from there to project management, product management, product analytics, business design and entrepreneurship.
Experienced in agile product and new business development, Sebastian is adept in defining digital strategies and delivering data-informed experiences. Sebastian excels when faced with significant challenges such as managing accelerated growth while dealing with existing systems and limitations. He has experience leading a team to assure all stakeholders needs are addressed and prioritised accordingly.
Lauriina is an experienced B2B marketing and digital business expert. Lauriina helps companies to design and build digital services that enable them to reach and serve their stakeholders effectively and with customer experience in mind. Thanks to her marketing background, Lauriina recognizes how to create sustainable and productive customer relationships and growth by leveraging digital marketing, branding and sales.
Tero has over 20+ years of experience in both private and public sector business development and executive leadership roles. Tero is known as a hands-on type of consultant who has strong knowledge and understanding of the successful inclusion of personnel into the company’s objectives. Main specialties and strengths are in customer understanding and experience, creating new business ideas, and scaling them into the markets through active sales operations. As a Coventures EiR Tero works as a business consultant helping growth companies build and scale new business concepts and re-build strategies.
Riku Kokkonen is a serial entrepreneur and venture financing professional. Riku is a co-founder and a board member of a biotech company Evogenom Oy and co-founder at Mindly Oy. As an Entrepreneur, Riku has gained deep knowledge in building science-and-technology-led businesses from the ground up, focusing on mastering the “art of the start”. In addition, Riku has been arranging venture financing for startups and scale-ups and has particular knowledge in equity funding rounds, European Investment Bank (EIB) -instruments, and government grants. Overall, he always aims to find the most effective and strategic use of capital for startups and scale-ups.
Anna Katariina Kindahl has extensive experience leading product management and software development in an international environment and ten years of participating in strategic leadership in a management team. She has designed and built product management, design, and development processes and led multinational teams in small and large organizations. Anna Katariina helps Coventures' customers establish more effective product leadership and build better and more successful digital products.
Matias is "the visionary entrepreneur's right hand". He has come to realize that businesses need two kinds of people. Those who drive the vision and big picture, and those who organize and get it done. Matias is the latter. His responsibilities usually cover improving organizations and leading digital transformation. He's also known for clarifying strategic thinking with his coaching and facilitation skills.
Eljas is an experienced business designer specializing in customer-centric design, digital strategy, and product development. He uses strategy, analysis, and human-centered problem-solving as generative design tools to help companies turn ideas into outcomes with long-term viability. His approach is always fact-based, hypothesis-driven, and rigidly structured. Eljas has worked with tech, finance, and media industries and public services in Finland and central Europe. Eljas has strong knowledge of design thinking methods for product and service development. He also has experience in innovation facilitation, digital strategy, and new business development for companies aiming to transform their business model.
Juho is an avid learner, motivated in helping corporations and entrepreneurs to create a positive impact in the world. He is an experienced consultant and sales professional with a deep understanding of today's challenges in building digital solutions and services. Having worked in various industries and positions from corporates to high-growth scale-up companies, Juho has a broad perspective to both challenges and opportunities in creating, and growing, new digital businesses.
Sampo is an intense strategy advisor implementing corporate transformation and offering development programs. With the help of business owners' expertise and leading benchmarks, he has created new service revenue streams for energy, telecom, and digital businesses. Sampo has over 15 years management experience and a proven track record in leading companies to grow. He is experienced in digital transformation, product and service development, international partnerships, and management advisory.
Timo Valtonen is a seasoned builder of new business initiatives, ventures, and startups. He has driven the development and go-to-market of several digital services and products like DriveNow and Kiosked. Timo’s specialty is demanding projects where practical hands-on execution/leadership, technology, and strategy meet.
Valtteri is a strategic innovation and technology sales expert. Valtteri’s various roles from engineer to entrepreneur and CEO have allowed him to gain a broad understanding and practice in building innovative businesses. He has also helped numerous companies in building and growing new revenue. In his view, success in rapid changes requires multidisciplinary understanding from strategy to psychology and a practical approach from technology to customers.
Eemeli has a strong background in management consulting and understanding how the world has been and will be changed by innovative startups and technologies. Previously, he worked for a boutique management consultancy focused on digitalization and how it continues to disrupt industries and business models. More recently Eemeli has worked with a large global consultancy to understand the broader context of industries, companies and their value chains. Eemeli has also gained international experience working both in European and Nordic countries.
Teemu’s experience in building digital ventures is hard to match. Teemu has been Involved in building over 20 ventures, has had 3 exits and has 24 years of hands-on experience in building ventures in several industries (software, social media, web analytics, hosting, and several SaaS-businesses). Several companies that Teemu has founded have been featured on Inc5k/Fast50 listings (e.g. Sofokus Group, Someco, Liveto).
Sebastian is an experienced strategy, innovation and growth leader. He started his career in management consulting and spent the last 9 years driving growth at Lassila & Tikanoja as a business director. Sebastian together with his teams built profitable new businesses in the field on circular economy and sustainable business.
Petri is a business builder and leader in the payments industry for over 20 years. He started his career as a developer, but moved to account management, business consulting and working as an entrepreneur and CEO in a fintech startup. Petri has an extensive experience in business development, having worked both in corporate and startup companies and leading sales, marketing, product, operations and financial teams.
Tuomas is a seasoned entrepreneur who has over 10 years of experience in starting, growing and leading innovative software companies. His main passion is in developing new technologies and gaining deep understanding of customer needs. In his work, Tuomas has shown the ability to start from scratch with doing the heavy groundwork in the beginning, to leading rapid growth and communicating effectively the vision to employees and customers.
Emma is a serial startup entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience in launching new digital businesses for consumers globally. As a former co-founder / CEO / COO Emma is a generalist executive with the ability to set up processes for companies from scratch. During her years as an entrepreneur, Emma has built hands-on problem solving skills that are great combined with her analytical mindset. Emma is interested in developing winning business models for companies by understanding customer needs and translating those to product development and quickly iterating with product variations, pricing, go-to-market strategies, etc.
Tommi has driven SaaS growth as an entrepreneur as well as a country head at a VC-backed startup. He has also advised, very hands-on, numerous startup and corporate clients to build, and especially launch, new digital ventures and services. Tommi obsesses over product-led growth, as today, the user acquisition, activation, and retention are all driven (or should be) primarily by the product itself.
Building companies is hard work and often you need specific skills related to the business model, technology or industry. Our advisors and experts share our values and help us build meaningful ventures together.
As a serial in/entrepreneur and venture builder, Leesa Soulodre has worked for 20+ years on the cutting edge of innovation, technology and strategy consulting, advising 400+ multinationals and their start-ups in 19 sectors across Europe, the Asia-Pacific and the Americas. She has led companies from seed to $14B USD into new markets and supported in the raising of over USD35M in Seed to Series C investments. She has had one IPO, a number of successful exits, and knows the hard knocks of lessons learned.
Driven digital business executive with 20 years of hands-on experience on digitalisation opportunities, exploration and execution. Passionate about finding digital business opportunities & designing those to tangible products. Connecting start-up can-do attitude with global business mindset. Experienced both enterprise and consumer sides; designing services, developing customer experiences and developing products.
With roots in the Bravedo family, Mika has been involved in building several succesful ventures from tech consulting and engineering to AI based SaaS businesses. A growth minded modern day leader whose daily task is to serve as the CEO of Wunderdog. With background in corporate governance, Mika has also specialized in new ways of organizing and integrating businesses.
Elena is an impact driven entrepreneur, an experienced board member, and an investment professional with 20 years of experience in private equity and debt, public equities and fintech. She served on several boards of public and private companies for cumulative of 20 years. A certified ExO disruptive innovation coach.
Mikko is Assistant Professor of High-growth Entrepreneurship at Aalto University. He is currently developing and leading education in entrepreneurship as the academic director of Aalto Venture Program, and in Industrial Engineering and Management as the head of the degree program. His teaching focuses on entrepreneurship and strategy, from undergraduate to executive education. He has previously acted as Professor in Strategic Management at Aalto University, and holds D.Sc. (Tech), M.Sc. (Tech), and M.Sc. (Econ).
Ilona Mooney is a startup founder, an angel investor, and a coach. Her company Work Ahead develops technology that enterprises use for making their supply chains more ethical and transparent. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Ilona lived in six countries, worked for organizations like EY and the United Nations, and started a program for startups solving global development challenges at the technology conference Slush. She holds Master of Science in Technology from Aalto University.
Mikko is one of Finland’s most experienced serial entrepreneurs (7x, 3 exits) and a renowned global expert and speaker on blockchain and AI. He is the winner of 2018 Global Blockchain Competition in the AI category and a a regular speaker on international conferences about artificial intelligence and blockchains.
Venkat has been in international business for over 20 years. He has experience of developing business from concept to high growth in markets across Asia and Europe. He has experience in over 40 countries business across verticals such as Energy, Engineering, R&D, M&A, ICT, Management Consulting.
Petri is a serial entrepreneur, currently chairman of the board at Industryhack, which he founded. Previously he co-founded project-based learning platform Dreamdo (now part of HundrED) and creative agency Bolder Helsinki. He also worked two years as chief curator of Slush, the leading startup conference in Europe.
Ed is currently heading Product Analytics and Pricing at Pitch. He is an expert on the SaaS model, product analytics and has helped SaaS businesses select and measure the right metrics for growth. He has 8+ years of experience building B2B SaaS products in respected startups. He is a SaaS influencer, podcaster and regular speaker at industry events such as SaaStock.
Digital savvy business leader with entrepreneur mind set. Proven capabilities in the areas of business leadership, strategy, inbound and outbound sales & marketing, business development and drive for growth & profitability.
Heikki is an entrepreneur, husband and father, aviator, and insatiable learner. In business, he loves to gain and give a perspective that supersedes the day-to-day.
Frederik is an experienced internet entrepreneur with especial focus on helping in customer development and go-to-market strategies for the german market. He has a demonstrated history of helping CEOs understand and navigate the complex digital transformation landscape. Skilled in Innovation Management, Sales, Entrepreneurship, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Sales Management. Strong business development professional with academic roots in Psychology (BSc), Business (BSc) and Future Studies (MA).
With her roots in the Finnish startup ecosystem and journalism, Reetta Heiskanen (M.Soc.Sc) writes and talks about communications, startups and the societal impact of tech. She co-launched programming and robotics courses in Nordic highschools with the Mehackit team in 2015 and truly believes in democratizing technology skills for the future generations. In 2017 she embarked on a journey to develop Brella's business and brand in the US together with the co-founders.
Kate is an advisor to early-stage companies and scaleups, and an MBA lecturer in startups and entrepreneurship. With a background in corporate governance coupled with a business development experience from a Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator graduate company, Kate is an expert in business development, fundraising, and investor relations.
Alan is a risk management thought-leader, superconnector, and FinTech pioneer. His mission is to enable an Earth Positive economy which includes nature in global accounting systems. Alan is CEO of Generation Blue, a venture studio dedicated to planetary game changers powered by exponential technologies. Previously, Alan established Natural Capital Markets at Lykke AG, pioneering blockchain based forestry and carbon backed tokens. Alan has over two decades of risk management experience, and was a founding member of the RiskMetrics Group, a JPMorgan spin-off.
Timo is currently a senior product manager at Zalando. With a background in Rovio and several startup companies Timo is one of Finland’s most experienced startup-minded product managers. Timo is an expert in data-enabled technology product management and marketing automation driven growth strategies.
Mari Luukkainen is Head of Marketing of Icebreaker.vc, an early-stage fund and a community for pre-founders and founders. She has been in growth hacking since 1998 when hobby sites started her affiliate marketing career of 10 years before ending up in startup growth hacking. Before Icebreaker.vc she scaled Freska from 700k to 13M in 2 years as Head of Growth.
Antti's experience spans 20+ years of international business management with C-level positions in Global Corporate & Start Up organisations in Europe and North America. Responsibilities in C- & VP levels, sales leadership, direct sales, channel sales, marketing, strategic planning and business development positions.
Katriina is an experienced result oriented, people-centric leader, who is interested in the sustainable growth of people, companies, and nations. Driven to create impact, she is currently the CEO of Kasvuryhmä leading 150 mid-cap companies in their challenge to reach an ambitious growth target of 15 billion. She is a senior expert in strategy and change management serving also currently as a board member at Gaia consulting.
Teemu is a tech industry executive with background in legal and organizational development and over 15 years of expertise in technologies ranging from web to application development. He has been involved in creation of global level products, both B2B and B2C2. Teemu is enthusiastic about organizations, their evolution and M&A operations.
We have partnered with the leading agencies in Finland who bring venture focused technical, business and design skills to the table.