• Venuu

  Participated · Equity · Aug 2015

  Venuu operates an "Airbnb for event spaces" marketplace that lets customers find and book party, meeting and other event venues online. Led by CEO Jasu Koponen, the platform aggregates more than 1,300 event spaces in Finland and delivers over €1.5m worth of booking requests to those venues monthly. The company has expanded its footprint with a Swedish site, Venuu.se, which already lists nearly 300 venues. Venuu intends to use its latest funding to accelerate international expansion, starting with Sweden. The business model centers on matching venue supply with booking demand through its online platform. The company has previously raised funding in 2014 and continues to pursue growth across Nordics. Venuu.fi is a Helsinki-based platform that lets users search for spaces to host events including parties, seminars and weddings. The service is led by Jasu Koponen and Jerome Saarinen and is available in Helsinki and Turku. The company raised €125K in funding, with backers that included Reaktor’s Polte and angel investor Kristian Ranta. Venuu.fi intends to use the funds for product development and geographical expansion. The platform matches event organizers with suitable venues and aims to grow beyond its current cities.

• Yogaia

  Participated · Seed · Aug 2015

  Yoogaia operates a web platform that streams live online yoga classes and other fitness instruction, charging a monthly subscription that undercuts typical gym and studio fees. Live classes are taught from three studios (London, Helsinki and Hong Kong) to cover multiple time zones, and sessions remain available on-demand after broadcast. The company reports more than 50,000 users across more than 50 countries, up from 3,000–5,000 in October 2014, with class sizes typically between 30 and 300 participants and about two-thirds of classes taught in English. Yoogaia soft-launched in Finland in February last year and opened internationally in November. The startup plans to expand into new markets (U.K., Germany, the U.S. and Australia) and add Germany-specific classes as part of its growth push. It will use the new funding to improve mobile experience (iOS app planned for September) and to expand its team. Yoogaia operates a live, interactive online yoga studio that connects users at home with professional teachers who can instruct them personally via webcam. The platform offers live sessions and recorded classes across yoga as well as pilates, kettlebell, core and stretching. Led by founder and CEO Mikko Petäjä, Yoogaia plans to release additional fitness activities in 2015. The company raised $630k in funding from Inventure. Yoogaia intends to use the funds to expand globally. It is based in Helsinki, Finland.

• Peerby

  Participated · Equity · Oct 2014

  Peerby operates a digital neighbourhood sharing shed that lets neighbors borrow and lend household items. The platform reports over half a million shared products and says one in four households in Amsterdam is already a member. Founded in 2012, the startup aims to connect neighbors and reduce waste and emissions while delivering social and ecological impact. Management says Peerby has achieved profitability after addressing the economics of neighborhood sharing. The fresh capital will be used to increase focus on medium-sized Dutch cities following a Belgium rollout. The company plans further expansion to other European countries in late 2022 and 2023 and is supported by members, crowdfunders and professional investors. Peerby operates a website and app that enables users to borrow the things they need from people nearby. Led by founder Daan Weddepohl and based in Amsterdam, the platform reports 100,000 users and has mature communities in the Netherlands and Belgium, plus London and Berlin. It is currently emerging in six US pilot cities. The company intends to use new funds for product development and international growth, with a specific focus on expansion into 50 US cities. The article frames Peerby as a community-driven local borrowing marketplace targeting broader US rollout. Peerby operates a mobile and online app that enables users to rent and borrow items from people in their neighborhood. The company raised an undisclosed amount of venture capital from SanomaVentures. It intends to use the capital to further develop the service and to reach a broader audience. Peerby was founded by Daan Weddepohl and is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The company is an Amsterdam Founder Institute graduate and is currently working on an English version of the service.

• Nosto

  Participated · Series A · Jul 2014

  Nosto offers an AI-powered Commerce Experience Platform (CXP) that enables online brands to build, launch, and optimize personalized digital experiences without dedicated IT resources or lengthy implementations. Its platform focuses on personalization across touchpoints and devices and includes a personalized site search solution. The company intends to scale that personalized site search globally and accelerate broader platform development using new funding. Nosto reports technology usage by over 2,500 global commerce brands, including Paul Smith, Kylie Cosmetics, Muji, Dermalogica, Centric Brands, and Princess Polly. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Helsinki, Nosto supports clients from offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Kaunas, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Salzburg, Sydney, and Helsinki. Leadership includes Jim Lofgren (CEO) and Juha Valvanne (Founder and Chief Corporate Development Officer). Nosto offers an ecommerce personalization and retail AI platform that delivers real-time personalized shopping experiences across any touchpoint and device. Its platform uses patented technology, proprietary machine‑learning algorithms and a large ecommerce data network to provide deep customer insights. The company serves more than 2,500 retail brands in over 100 countries and maintains offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm and Helsinki. Led by CEO Jim Lofgren, Nosto closed a $7.4M funding round that increased total capital raised to more than $25M. The company intends to use the new funds to invest in its machine‑learning core, omni‑channel personalization and continued international expansion. Nosto offers a multi-channel online personalization platform that delivers real-time, targeted product recommendations across websites, mobile apps, emails and social ads. Its patented technology analyzes hundreds of thousands of data points to build a deep understanding of individual customers and enable 1:1 personalized shopping experiences. The company has partnerships with ecommerce platforms such as Magento and Shopify Plus and became an official Facebook Marketing Partner as of April 2017. Leading retail brands including Twinings, Jack Daniels, Everlast and Volcom use Nosto, and the company serves retailers in over 100 countries. Nosto operates from offices in Helsinki, Berlin, Stockholm, London and New York. The company says it will use new funding to accelerate product innovation, expand in the US and EMEA, enter new markets, and grow engineering, sales and marketing teams. Nosto is a Finnish customer recommendation marketing engine for ecommerce SMEs that analyzes user behavior to deliver tailored product recommendations and customer outreach. The company launched its product in October last year and introduced a self-service version six months later. It reports more than 1,200 online retailer users (not all paying) and says revenue grew by 500% over the six months following the self-service launch. Nosto plans to use new funding to continue developing its core product with a focus on scalability, ease of use, and additional features. The company will also hire across business development, R&D, marketing and management, and invest in marketing, platform partnerships and overseas market expansion. CEO and founder Juha Valvanne said recent work has focused on onboarding, reducing go-to-live time, giving merchants more control over recommendation logic, improved JavaScript integration, and better A/B/multivariable testing support. Nosto Solutions provides a SaaS-based, plug-and-play online marketing automation platform that enables real-time personalized product recommendations for the global e-commerce industry. The company targets online retailers and brands, citing customers such as Angry Birds, Intersport, JOY, Reima, Outnorth and Sanoma’s Huuto. Led by founder and CEO Juha Valvanne, Nosto emphasizes improving customers' online shopping experience through personalization. The platform is positioned for a public service launch later this year. The company plans to use new funding to continue developing its service and supporting rollout to additional customers. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article.

No current team members are available.