Evli Growth Partners

Ari Korhonen began as an entrepreneur in the mid-1980s and co-founded Komartek, which he later sold to WM-Data (now CGI). He then became a full-time angel investor, backing 39 companies and 9 venture capital funds while holding several board positions and advising many companies. His portfolio includes exited companies such as Small Giant Games, Paytrail, Sympa, and The Switch, alongside current holdings including DealDash, MariaDB, Klevu, and Miradore.

Kim Väisänen founded Blancco Ltd in 1997 and led the company for 15 years, building it into an international business before it was acquired by a London Stock Exchange-listed company in 2014. Since then he has focused on private investments. He is also a columnist, blogger, public speaker, and author of two books in Finland.

Mikael Hed is a co-founder of Rovio and served as its CEO. He returned to the company in 2009 during a period of financial difficulty and helped lead the development of Angry Birds, contributing his comics background to the game's branding and narrative and refining its game mechanics.

Mikko Kuitunen is a co-founder and Executive Chair of Vincit, a listed Finnish software company. He has also been involved with startups including Framery and Yepzon. His areas of expertise include leadership, narrative strategy, communication, and negotiation.

Tero Tuominen has a background in finance with experience across multiple investment vehicles, including publicly traded equity, private equity, venture capital, and real estate. He focuses on data-driven companies and emphasizes analysis of key value-driving metrics.

Juuso Koskinen works at Evli Growth Partners, where his responsibilities span the fund with an emphasis on sourcing and executing investments. Before joining the firm, he spent over five years on the investment teams at OpenOcean and byFounders. He has led deals from pre-seed to Series A across Europe.

Ainomaija Haarla holds a D.Sc. (Tech.) and works as a board professional, private equity and venture capital advisor and investor, and academic, with experience across 23 startups and growth companies. Her international career spans bio-product, energy, ICT, and design and fashion companies at various stages. She was named Finnish Business Angel of the Year in 2020 and received the Business Angel Exit of the Year award in 2016 for her involvement with Gold&Green Foods Ltd.

Ari-Pekka Salovaara leads the SMB segment at Visma, whose products are used by 1.1 million companies across 13 countries and generate over €550M in ARR. He previously spent 15 years as a CEO/managing director and co-founded two companies. He has made more than 30 direct and indirect angel investments and serves as chairman of 10 Visma companies.

Juha-Matti Liukkonen is a systems architect with experience across various ICT technologies, focusing on open-source technologies, security, and embedded solutions. He is Director of Space & New Technologies at Reaktor and previously worked as an Engineering Partner at Reaktor Ventures, where he advised and supported tech startups on technology matters.

Juho Loippo is CEO of Loipposet Oy, the Loippo family office. He previously worked at Runtech Systems, a family-owned company in the pulp and paper industry, before moving to his current role following that company's acquisition. His background includes industrial automation and intelligent machines.

Marine Antikainen is a French business executive who has co-founded and led several e-commerce ventures. Her experience centers on consumer-facing companies, particularly direct-to-consumer business models. She currently serves as Managing Director of Voysey Brands, a Finnish company that acquires and operates high-end brands.

Nilay Oza is a founder-operator who co-founded Klevu, an AI-powered ecommerce search engine used by thousands of stores worldwide, which was exited through a merger sponsored by PE fund PSG Equity. He is currently building another global technology company and works as an angel investor and AI advisor for venture funds.

Niraj Aswani is Co-Founder and CTO of nisquare.ai, where he works with businesses on adopting privacy-conscious Agentic AI solutions. He advises enterprises on end-to-end AI system design and leads technical due diligence for AI startups from pre-seed to Series B. He previously co-founded Klevu, an AI-powered eCommerce search platform, which was later acquired, and holds a PhD in Computer Science focused on natural language processing.

Philippe Guy spent his career at BCG advising global pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies on strategy, R&D, go-to-market, manufacturing, transformation, and M&A integration. He has also worked with startups and mid-size biotech firms on clinical development, commercialization, and partnerships, and sits on the boards of several biotech and medtech companies.

Risto Enbuska has held R&D-focused executive roles at companies including CRF Health, Nokia, and Comptel, spanning the digital health, mobile, and telecom industries. He served as CTO of CRF Health, a Finnish digital health company, before and during its 2018 acquisition by Signant Health. He also has experience with M&A processes and board work.

Ville Solja serves as Vice Chair and CBDO at Kiilto, a Finnish family-owned industrial company. He is also an active investor and board member in several startups, and is an Industrial Advisor at Evli Growth Partners.

Jake Jyväsjärvi joined Evli Growth Partners in 2024, where he works on deal flow generation and investment analysis with a focus on the Central & Eastern Europe and Benelux regions. He is an alumnus of EGP's internship program and previously worked in investment banking (Nordic M&A and ECM advisory) as well as accounting roles in SME and enterprise settings.

Jere Blomqvist joined Evli Growth Partners after working in both startups and finance. He previously held a role at a data-analysis software startup, where he worked on business development and sales, and earlier served as an account operator at Euroclear Finland. He holds a degree in finance and economics and works on day-to-day analysis of growth companies.

Maiju Aspegren is an Investment Manager at Evli Growth Partners, where she focuses on deal sourcing and investment analysis and also considers sustainability aspects of the fund and its portfolio companies. Before EGP she completed internships in management consulting, corporate finance and another venture capital fund, and spent a year handling partnerships at the Junction hackathon. Her Master's thesis examined actions venture capital funds can take to improve the sustainability of their portfolio companies.