Serial entrepreneur Inka Mero launches Voima Ventures, the first VC fund in the Nordics with a focus purely on startups with deep tech and science background
The
first VC in the Nordics focusing purely on startups with deep tech and
science background was launched officially today. Voima Ventures’
cornerstone investors are VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and
European Investment Fund (EIF), backed by Finnish private and
institutional investors.
Founded by serial entrepreneur and startup investor Inka Mero, Voima
Ventures focuses solely on startups originating from research and
scientific background in the Nordics and Baltics. Their mission is to
build a strong bridge between the scientific community and Nordic tech
scene and talent.
“While deep tech investments in 2018 were 6.6x up compared to the levels of investments in 2013, they still attract only 20% of total capital invested in Europe. Here in the Nordics the number is even lower*. As the largest global challenges require a combination of scientific innovation, entrepreneurship and capital, we strongly believe the next decade of ground-shaking companies come from the field of deep tech,” says Inka Mero, Founder and Managing Partner at Voima Ventures, in a press release.
Voima
Ventures has a multi-stage investment strategy with investments ranging
from €150-500K pre- and seed rounds to €1-2M A and B rounds, and is
looking to make 25-30 investments from the fund. Their industry domains
include bio and new materials, medical technologies and life sciences,
imaging and optics, IoT and electronics, robotics, software & ICT
and AI.
Voima
Ventures was founded by Inka Mero and Mikko Kumpulainen. As Founder and
Managing Partner, Mero has over 20 years of experience in the tech
industry, including co-founding seven startups, 22 investments, various
C-level positions in growth companies, and executive positions in
corporations like Nokia and Telia. Kumpulainen was previously a Partner
at private equity fund Vaaka Partners and Vice President of Investments
at VTT Ventures.
Voima
Ventures will establish a deep collaboration with the scientific
community in the Nordics starting out with their strategic partner, VTT,
as well as several Finnish universities.