Congratulations to the one-year-old!

Voland Partners Oy's first fund, Voland Technology Growth Fund I, turned one year old on October 1st. By way of celebration, it is a pleasure to stop and reminisce about Voland's early days, whose roots date back a few years.

Early days

Voland's history began in 2020. Erkka Niemi, who had previously held the position of Chief Technology Officer at Siili Solutions, together with Harry Brade, Siili's Chairman of the Board and serial entrepreneur Mikko Leino, concluded that Finland needed a growth investor focused on technology companies. They brought Samuli Siljamäki, former CFO of Siili Solutions, onboard and started actively preparing the project.

At the same time, elsewhere... 

Veera Sylvius and Jyrki Laune started a similar project on their own in the summer of 2021. Voland's start-up gained even more traction as the teams found each other, the pieces fell into place and the core team began working on the investment strategy, incorporation documents and marketing authorisation application for the alternative fund. In early 2022, the Financial Supervisory Authority registered the Fund, investor contacts started, discussions with entrepreneurs continued – and the first closure took place at the end of September, a year ago.

Interesting macro environment

While working on Voland's investment strategy, the world was recovering from a two-year pandemic, which had put the global economy under serious stress. However, with loose monetary policy and zero interest rates pushing up inflation, the boom was still going strong and technology companies still offered high valuations. At the start of fundraising in spring 2022, Russia launched a brutal war of aggression in Ukraine, throwing the entire investment world into turmoil for a moment, causing a massive energy crisis and driving the most security-conscious foreign investors away from Finland. The effects of such setbacks can still be felt today: the boom has quickly turned into a Europe-wide recession and, with inflation remaining stubbornly high, the interest rate outlook is uncertain. On the other hand, this uncertainty offers many interesting opportunities for long-term investors.

The power and frenzy of action

During its first year, Voland's fund has progressed exactly as expected. Voland's team works with good energy and Voland's values (cooperation, entrepreneurship, responsibility) are present in their daily work. The project flow is strong and the fund's portfolio companies are growing profitably despite the recession. Entrepreneurs have told us that they value an accountable and trusted partner with whom they can safely work on ambitious goals, ownership and business strategy, and improve key aspects of their growth company's operations to increase value. At this stage, we have co-invested in two excellent companies, where value creation has continued to be outstanding. The future of the one-year fund looks promising.