Ainomaija Haarla
Business Angel
Dr.Sc.(Tech.), MBA Chair&Member of the Board, Advisor, Investor
- Chairs family office (investments); serves HAVU Cosmetics Oy as its Board Member; Evli Growth Partners as its industrial partner; Korona Invest Oy, Formal Friday Oy and Musopia Oy as an advisor
- Bio-products expert (i.e. UPM/pulp&paper&packaging materials, Neste/biofuels, Altia/alchoholic beverages, Biohit/equipment&medicines, Gold&Green Foods/plant-based food); involved in 20 M&As (incl. cross-border); part-time Professor, Corporate Entrepreneurship, Aalto University (retired)
- Worked in 15 Boards Of Directors - large, medium &small cap, listed & unlisted, privately owned - Personal&Remuneration and Audit Committee; in several Advisory Boards; and in 17 startups as of 2013, in different roles
- 14 years experience on private equity, 8 years as the Chair of Korona Invest Oy
- EXIT of the Year 2016 Prize by FiBAN
Annina Hyrskyluoto
Senior Associate at Alder&Sound
Annina is an experienced legal advisor with a strong background in domestic and international corporate law advisory in various legal engagements. She specializes in general corporate law, employment law, commercial agreements, and corporate transactions. Annina has worked at Alder & Sound Oy in Tax & Legal Services for a year, assisting a varying client base from small startups to multi-national corporations. The goal of Alder & Sound Oy is to be a trusted advisor for its clients in important matters. In her position, Annina is acting as such; a trusted advisor for multiple companies and entrepreneurs with her hands-on and practical way of handling legal matters.
Elina Koivumäki
Lawyer, entrepreneur, business angel
After 17 years in large Finnish law firms, Elina Koivumäki quit her partnership and founded her own law firm Lexperience in 2016. Elina specializes in legal issues related to sales, marketing, communication, social media, copyright, and data protection. In 2018 she started also as a co-founder of Growpolis, a new one-stop-shop platform, and ecosystem for B2B services, simplifying companies’ growth journeys. Since 2016 Elina has been an angel investor with e.g. Kyrö Distillery Company, Naava, and GraphoGame & Claned in her portfolio, and joined FiBAN in 2020. Elina works also as a professional speaker, moderator, and host, and is the author of the awarded “Marketing law” book series. Elina’s registered trademark is “It’s all about people” and she strongly believes in the importance of communication skills.
Fabian Sepulveda
Business Angel
For the past 12 years, Fabian has been actively involved in Finland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem as an entrepreneur, startup coach, Lean Launchpad® trainer, Business Angel and Venture Capitalist. He has co-founded three companies: eyescubed, (automotive technology); Courage Ventures Consulting (Entrepreneurial Training); and Courage Ventures Funds, a Venture Capital firm investing in Health, Education, and Environment verticals. With over 20+ years of experience in Engineering, Management Consulting and Investment Banking, Fabian also helps corporates adopt Lean Startup practices as a Senior Advisor at Aalto Executive Education. Fabian has a BSc in Electrical Engineering, an MSc. in Finance and a PhD in International Business (Entrepreneurship).
Hanna Henell
Senior Manager at KPMG
Hanna works at KPMG Advisory services concentrating on Turnaround and Startup Services. She has long and extensive experience in turning an unprofitable business into profitable and enabling growth from a finance and operative point of view. Cash-flow is one of her favorite topics! She has experience from both local and global companies prior to joining KPMG. She works on both projects and Interim roles supporting finance function and change management.
Kim Väisänen
Business angel
Kim is an angel investor with an entrepreneurial background and mindset. He became a full-time investor in 2015 after having sold his company to the London Stock Exchange and has today invested in almost 30 companies in different fields. One of his portfolio companies is Framery that has grown fast and won the Internationalization Award of the President of the Republic of Finland. Kim describes his approach to angel investing as a co-entrepreneur. “I put a bit of my time, effort, and money and we try to make things greater, bigger, and better – together. I have always said that if you have been successful you have to share it and help the other people.”
Kimmo Reina
Partner at Bird&Bird
Kimmo Reina, Attorney-at-law, works as a partner in the Helsinki office of an international law firm, Bird & Bird Attorneys. Kimmo has a special focus on startup and growth companies, as well as VC and other investors investing in such companies. Kimmo has more than 17 years' experience in advising his clients on a wide range of corporate and commercial matters, including financing rounds, exit transactions, and equity-based incentives. In addition to his Finnish law degree and bar admission, Kimmo has also an LL.M. degree from Columbia University and is a member of the New York State Bar.
Liisa Nieminen
Enthusiast in immaterial property rights as tactical assets in business. Keen to see in the future a lot stronger utilization of IPR’s in commercialization of innovations, and building competitive advantage world wide. Kolster is one of Europe’s most experienced companies in the IP sector. We represent companies from smallest start-ups to international corporations – adjusting our services to companies needs and growing with them -locally and globally.
Mikko Rieger
Business Angel
Mikko Rieger is an advisor and independent consultant in payments that started with angel investments over the last 15 months. He has a background in Nordic FinTechs - small and large - Cloud deployment in Europe and Software Platforms in the Telecom industry. In his area of experience he sees next larger developments and changes coming from cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets and data markets with value distribution according to data contribution. As a talkative German Finn, he’s happy to exchange thoughts on those developments over a cup of coffee or glass of good wine. Mikko is married, father of three, with a dog to fit the Espoo stereotype. He holds a Bachelor degree and Dipl. Ing. in Computer Engineering and an MBA from the Kellogg School.
Noora Fagerström
Business Angel
Noora is the co-founder of Jungle Juice Bar. After being an entrepreneur and a business angel for quite some time, she has now taken the role of being in the FiBAN board. Noora was awarded as The Growth Company Leader of the Year in 2019, and she has received the Veuve Clicquot New Generation award in 2016 for being a successful female leader. Her motto is “if you don’t take risks, you won’t achieve anything”.
Petri Liuha
Patent Tteam Leader at Kolster Tampere
Petri Liuha is a patent team leader at Kolster Tampere. He has a Master of Science in Engineering degree from Tampere University of Technology. Petri has a long experience from Nokia as people leader, liaison of corporate R&D collaboration, manager and technology expert. At EIT Digital he worked with start-up incubation as innovation director, where he was running an innovation commercialization project portfolio in Industry 4.0, logistics and retail related topics. He has also co-founded Eximap, a startup in digital solutions for services in automotive sector.
Petri Rinne
CEO at Rinne & Partners
Petri Rinne is an entrepreneur, business angel, and advisor to technology companies. He is a partner and board member of several Finnish software companies and also helps companies with internationalization strategies, international sales, and partnerships through Rinne & Partners. Petri is an internationally operating and networked expert in international sales and channel strategies, whose expertise has been utilized by several international companies. Petri has e.g. assisted dozens of Finnish companies in opening new markets and acted as an advisor to several technology companies. Petri has trained companies on the challenges of international sales and the importance of partnerships. Petri has also trained numerous sales professionals, e.g. solution sales. Petri is a member of FiBAN, Guidepoint Global, and Gerson Lehman Group Council.
Pia Erkinheimo
Business Angel
Pia Erkinheimo joined FiBAN +7 years ago when less than 3% of angels were female. Besides this role, she has been working for innovation in different setups, from startups to large multinational companies. bPia describes herself as Jacqueline of all trades in innovation and is an experienced board member in several startups. Her background is at Nokia, Capgemini, Nordea, and DIGILE, the Finnish Strategic Centre for Science, Technology, and Innovation in Internet Economy. She has done RDI work for the European Commission, and she is often invited to juries of innovation competitions and startup pitch events in Finland and in the EU. Pia is a founding member of Women in Tech Finland and MyData Global. In August 2019, Pia started as a Director, managing deal-flow, at the Finnish Climate Fund, which got its investment mandate recently. The state-owned special-assignment company focuses on combating climate change, boosting the low-carbon industry, and promoting digitalisation.
Pontus Stråhlman
Business Angel
Pontus is a partner at Nordics' leading deep tech venture capital firm Voima Ventures, serial entrepreneur, angel investor and startup coach. He is an entrepreneur at heart and spirit, and an expert in investing in Artificial Intelligence, Food and Agri Tech, and Med Tech. What brought him to the startup scene was the passion that drives people to take action into their own hands and solve problems through ventures of their own. In 2019, Pontus joined Voima Ventures where he is combining his expertise with world-class scientists and research, and thus contributing to the creation of many groundbreaking and disruptive startups.
Reima Linnanvirta
Business Angel
Reima is a full-time angel investor and the Chair of the Board of FiBAN. His portfolio consists of over 20 startups (including e.g. Cambri, Innovestor, and OGOship), with the main focus on early-stage B2B and Software / SaaS startups. Reima has a background in consulting relating to e.g. transactions, financing, and law. As an entrepreneur, he did his first exit in 2003 when he sold his accounting and consultancy company 2003 to Administer. In 2010, Reima co-founded Alder & Sound (exited in 2015 in an MBO); he is also a co-founder of Rocket Office.
Riikka Akselinmäki
Head of Department at Fennia
I’m an expert in corporate insurances and the closest to my heart are liability risks and proactive risk management. I have worked with insurances for the past 15 years and during that time I have acted as legal counsel and manager for multiple lines of insurances. At the moment I’m Head of Department at Fennias Corporate Insurances, Product & Price department, where we focus on managing and developing insurance products for companies to match our customers’ needs in the constantly changing operational environment.
Saga Forss
Business angel
Saga has an extensive background in Corporate Finance (M&A) both domestically and internationally. She has a broad network in Europe, and especially in the Nordics. During the past 10 years, she has been both entrepreneur and investor with a focus on the food sector. Said that she has made angel investments in technology, education, and med-tech where she considers impact an important investment criteria. Currently, she is an investor in 11 companies, such as Soup&More Oy, Jävla Sås Bolag as well as New Nordic School, Future Dialog, and Combonostics Oy. She has successfully exited Leipomo Keisari, Jungle Juice Bar (partly), and Talokaivo Oy.
Sonja London
Business Angel
Sonja London has over 20 years of experience in IP, legal, and business leadership from large and small technology companies and law firms. She joined Nokia in 2007 and has held a variety of roles spanning business development, transactions, licensing negotiations, and operations. Currently, Sonja leads a rapidly growing patent licensing program for the consumer electronics sector enabling manufacturers to implement connectivity and video coding technologies in their products.
In addition to her career with Nokia, Sonja has been active in the start-up sector and served several companies as an investor and board member. Currently, she serves as a board member and IP advisor to FusionLayer Ltd (www.fusionlayer.com) and 21TDMC Group Ltd (www.21tdmc.com)
Sonja is the Past President and long-time board member of the Licensing Executives Society Scandinavia. She is a Co-Chair of the High Technology Committee of LES International and co-founder of the Women in Licensing Alliance. Sonja is a popular speaker at events and conferences in Scandinavia and internationally. She is a master of law from the University of Helsinki and holds an Executive MBA at Aalto University.
Torsti Tenhunen
Business Angel
Torsti has 20 years of entrepreneur, corporate leadership and investor experience in digital service business, marketing communication and corporate strategy. Currently Torsti is a shareholder in 24 startups and growth companies. He is also a corporate coach and chairman or member of various boards and few startups and growth companies. He is known as an unaffected impact seeker, service innovator and brand strategist. He has an Internationalisation Award of the President of the Republic 2017.
Tuomas Maisala
Business Angel, Founder & CEO at Maisala.net Oy
Tuomas helps start-ups and growth companies in finding the right mix of funding and creating understandable business presentations and proposals to financiers. His special competence is Business Finland funding including the Young Innovative Companies Program and large R&D projects. He is a FiBAN member and holds several advisory and BoD positions. In his free time, Tuomas is an endurance sports enthusiast with a strong devotion to trail and ultrarunning.
Vesa Riihimäki
Head of Startup & Growth, Nordea Finland
Vesa started composing Startup & Growth business in 2013. The Unit takes care of customer relationships in the start-up and growth customer market. It also cooperates closely with VC funds, business angels, and accelerators. Vesa joined Nordea in 1989. He has had several leadership positions in Business Banking, Transaction Banking, and Finance Company area including a period of 10 years in Nordic positions. Vesa holds a Master’s in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Jyväskylä.
William Cardwell
Business Angel
Mr. Cardwell is currently a partner in the venture capital funds Courage Ventures (Finland) and Open Circle Capital (Lithuania), and Professor of Practice at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, and lecturer at Aalto University and Helsinki School of Business. He has been a member of FIBAN since 2015. Will has been investing in startups since 1999. Since then he has been involved in more than 200 early-stage investments.