Helsinki-based Voima Ventures, an early-stage investor focusing on science-based companies, announced thes first closing of its new €90M fund on Tuesday.
With the new fund, Voima Ventures intends to support Nordic and Baltic early-stage deep tech companies with globally scalable solutions with initial investment ticket sizes ranging from €200K to €3M and beyond.
Investors of the Voima Ventures Fund III include European Investment Fund EIF, Finnish Tesi and its fund of funds KRR, VTT of Finland, Saminvest from Sweden, and pension funds Nordea Life and Elo, as well as established foundations and family offices.
The Finnish investor intends to invest in companies tackling pressing global challenges with science-driven entrepreneurship.
Voima Ventures’ investment thesis revolves around three main areas:
- Solutions that accelerate global green transformation
- Cutting-edge life science and health technologies
- Groundbreaking new technologies, such as quantum, are changing entire industries.
“Now is the time to scale science-based solutions into action and global markets. People want to preserve the planet and societies need to urgently address the challenges of aging and health-challenged populations. Science-backed growth entrepreneurship is the only fast enough way to solve pressing global issues and it is generating a massive value growth opportunity for deep tech startups and VCs,” says Inka Mero, Founding Partner of Voima Ventures.
“Also, science-driven innovation is a crucial driver of new economic growth and a way to build European technology sovereignty. As we move forward, we believe that technology and science-based companies will form the backbone of the Nordic region’s next-generation unicorns, economic growth, and talent attraction,” adds Mero.
Supporting entrepreneurs throughout their journey
Voima Ventures says it will support founders throughout their journey in scaling their solutions from research laboratories to global markets and eventually becoming unicorns.
With a €90 million fund and a target hard cap of €120 million, Voima Ventures has the resources to support deep tech companies in the long term.
“We know what it takes to scale from the lab to global markets. Investing in science startups requires also a different perspective, network, and expertise than most VCs are capable of offering. It goes beyond money: it involves an understanding of various domains and research commercialisation while developing diverse and multidisciplinary teams,” says Mero.
Voima Ventures: Nordic early-stage investor
Founded by Inka Mero in 2019, Voima Ventures is a Nordic early-stage investor investing in science-based innovations and companies across the Nordics and Baltics.
Voima Ventures is a team of 12 investment and growth entrepreneurship professionals.
The company has already invested in several companies, including Solar Foods, Dispelix, MVision, Betolar, and EniferBio. Their previous two funds resulted in 30 active companies, with some growing into globally scaling companies, including five exits and one IPO.
In the upcoming years, science-based companies will present an ever-growing opportunity in the Nordic region.
“With 28 universities and leading research organisations, our home region is the leading hub for science-driven startups, but also growth startup talent. We expect that within a few years, the number of science-based startups in the Nordics will double,” adds Mero
“To get there, we need collaboration and support from all corners of society to attract the best scientists, focus on growing the university and research institute spin-off volume, and help researchers meet with Nordic growth talent and turn their science into business,” she continues.
Voima Ventures places a strong emphasis on science with over 70% of their portfolio companies being direct spin-offs or originating from the research ecosystem.
They actively collaborate with Nordic universities and are supported by VTT of Finland, one of their anchor investors and the second-largest research institute in Europe, known for its deep tech startup spin-offs.
To step up talent attraction for its portfolio companies, the team has launched several initiatives such as “Women-to-Boards” to provide diverse talent for the leadership teams and boards of deep tech companies.
“Our unique networks are one of the key success factors for us. Due to our close collaboration with universities and the research community, we can access the best groundbreaking innovations when they’re still in laboratories. Additionally, with our strong networks in the industrial sector, we’ve been able to successfully support our portfolio companies to land the first industrial partnerships that are vital for scaling impactful solutions,” says Mero.
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/voima-ventures-announces-first-close-90m-fund/
