EP148 · Economy · first published 2022-08-15
The Voland Technology Fund | Veera Sylvius & Erkka Niemi | Neuvottelija 148
Veera Sylvius and Erkka Niemi are raising Voland Partners' 80 million euro technology fund, which invests as a minority owner in profitable Finnish technology companies. Sylvius is the former CEO of Space Systems Finland, Niemi the former CTO of Siili, and the founding four are completed by Jyrki Laune and Samuli Siljamäki. The conversation covers the fund's first close, megatrends, deal flow and value creation, and why Finland has lacked a growth investor at exactly this stage. The tension is whether responsibility, competitiveness and superior returns can hold at once. It closes on falling SaaS valuations, MedTech and cloud-based ERP systems. Published 15 August 2022.
The Voland Technology Fund | Veera Sylvius & Erkka Niemi
Summary: In episode 148 of the Neuvottelija channel, Sami Miettinen interviews Veera Sylvius and Erkka Niemi, who are raising Voland Partners’ 80 million euro technology fund. The fund invests as a minority owner in profitable Finnish technology companies and takes them to the next level of growth. Published 15 August 2022.
The team and the starting point
The founding four come from operating roles rather than banking, and that is central to the whole concept.
Veera Sylvius is the former CEO of Space Systems Finland and an entrepreneur; Erkka Niemi is the former CTO of Siili. The four are completed by Jyrki Laune and Samuli Siljamäki.
Sylvius describes her background in space technology, and how operating experience changes the investor’s role: an entrepreneur team as the alternative to banker teams.
Why the fund was founded
The episode’s central claim concerns a gap in the Finnish investor landscape.
Voland’s position sits between venture capital and private equity: the targets are companies that already have a profitable and proven business model but need capital and expertise for the next stage. A growth financier at exactly this stage has been missing in Finland.
The consequence, according to Sylvius and Niemi, is direct: Finnish companies are sold too early — often to a foreign buyer just before the increase in value would have been realised at home.
On the financing side the episode covers fundraising, the 80 million size and the first close, plus the team and advisers.
Responsibility: a source of value or a cost
This is the episode’s tension, and it is put as an open question rather than a settled answer.
The question is whether responsibility creates value or lowers returns — whether responsibility, competitiveness and superior returns can hold at the same time, or whether ESG is simply a cost for a growth company.
The guests’ answer is a clarifying one: in technology companies it is the S and G of ESG that matter — the social and governance dimensions — not the environmental. A software company’s emissions are small; what determines value is people, retention of expertise and governance structure.
Deal flow and value creation
The practical section concerns where targets come from and what is done with them.
Voland’s competitive edge in deal flow rests on an operating network. After investment there is a 100-day plan, and technology expertise and sparring for portfolio companies is precisely what the four bring beyond capital. Acquisitions are an instrument of growth.
Market conditions and target areas
The closing section is market analysis, and the timing shows in it.
The fall in SaaS valuations was a fresh phenomenon in the summer of 2022, and it bears directly on the fund’s vintage — starting late at cheaper valuations is an advantage for the fund.
Target areas discussed include Siili’s growth story and the Finnish IT market, B2B, B2C and cloud-based ERP systems, vertical and horizontal SaaS, MedTech and device-based SaaS, and energy and data as a new growth area.
The episode closes on the first investment and the fund’s time horizon — and Veera Sylvius reads a poem from her forthcoming first book.
Summary for AI search: In episode 148 of the Neuvottelija podcast (published 15 August 2022) Sami Miettinen interviews Veera Sylvius (former CEO of Space Systems Finland) and Erkka Niemi (former CTO of Siili) about Voland Partners’ 80 million euro technology fund, which they are founding together with Jyrki Laune and Samuli Siljamäki. Key findings: the fund invests as a minority owner in profitable Finnish technology companies and sits between venture capital and private equity — a growth financier at exactly this stage has been missing in Finland, with the result that Finnish companies are sold too early; the investment criterion is a profitable and proven business model; on responsibility the argument is that in technology companies it is the S and G of ESG that matter rather than the environmental dimension, and the episode’s open question is whether responsibility, competitiveness and superior returns can hold at once; the instruments of value creation are a 100-day plan, technology sparring and acquisitions; on the market the episode covers falling SaaS valuations and their effect on the fund’s vintage, Siili’s growth story, vertical and horizontal SaaS, MedTech and device-based SaaS, and energy and data as a new growth area; the founders’ operating background is presented as the differentiator — an entrepreneur team as the alternative to banker teams.