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We are excited to announce the opening of our Helsinki office, where we will invest in the most promising Finnish startups and introduce them to a global network of investors to secure future funding.
Antti Tormanen and Jussi Kallasvuo are the partners leading Antler’s team and investments in Helsinki and Antler’s first residency that will launch in February 2024.
Antti and Jussi founded Evervest, Finland’s first robo-advisor wealth management platform, which was acquired by Taaleri in 2018. They are serial entrepreneurs who have also worked at Aktia Asset Management as management team members.
The pair will lead an international team of former entrepreneurs and experienced tech operators with extensive connections into the Finnish tech ecosystem.
Antler’s expansion into Finland comes at a time of significant growth for the Finnish tech ecosystem. Finland was one of the few European countries to increase the amount of tech investment in 2022, with Finnish startups raising €1.8bn, a 32% increase on 2021.
In Antti Tormanen’s words, “This is a very exciting time for the Finnish tech ecosystem with record levels of investment and new startups. Antler will accelerate this growth and create a new generation of diverse founders with the potential to build technologies and startups that will define the future success of Finnish tech.”
The expansion into Finland comes after Antler launched its second Nordic fund, with a target size of €150 million.
€50 million has already been raised in the first closing. Antler’s Nordic Fund II has a target size 5x larger than the first fund, which closed at €30 million in 2021.
Antler has been backing startups in Nordics for the last five years. In that time, Antler’s first Nordic Fund has invested in 144 early-stage startups across the Nordics—a portfolio that now has a combined value of nearly half a billion dollars ($490M).
In that time, Antler has run 15 residencies for highly skilled, driven tech founders. More than 1,000 founders have participated in these residencies—more than a third (35%) of which were women.
Ready to build a game-changing company in Finland? Apply for Antler’s first residency in Helsinki, launching in February 2024.
What does the new generation of Nordic founders look like? Read the largest study of Nordic tech founders ever conducted.
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