The Nordic Institutional Super Angel

We back camels –the ambitious yet resilient startups. We provide an alternative path to build a startup. We offer financing and professional support to ambitious and realistic founders who favour a rational approach to risk, rather than counting on being the next unicorn.

 

Our investment strategy is based on what is likely to happen, rather than what could happen. By investing in a high number of companies, we de facto invest in startups as an asset class. We strive for market returns with lower risk and have a solid track record in execution.

 

 

Who we are?

We all have ent­repre­neu­rial expe­rience. We have foun­ded com­pa­nies and taken them to >100m€. We have had mul­tiple exits from the com­pa­nies we have foun­ded. We have stu­died what causes star­tups to succeed and fail.

 

We have asses­sed thousands of star­tups. Drawing from our expe­rience, we iden­ti­fy pat­terns that cor­re­la­te with success, and we help each foun­der reach his/her full poten­tial. We have a deep res­pect for the foun­ders and see our­sel­ves much like a mari­ti­me pilot on the sea, gui­ding the cap­tain and her/his crew steer their ship success­ful­ly through unc­har­ted waters.

What we do?

We are a sec­tor agnos­tic ear­ly-sta­ge inves­tor and usual­ly the first ins­ti­tu­tio­nal money in. We typical­ly invest pre-pro­duct/­mar­ket fit along­si­de busi­ness angels and other ear­ly-sta­ge inves­tors – no more than 50% of the round. We ope­ra­te in Nor­dics and Bal­tics – our invest­ments are from Fin­land, Swe­den, Den­mark, Esto­nia, Lat­via and Lithuania.

Post-invest­ment, we’re here to pro­vi­de the foun­ders with time­ly and focused gui­dance and men­to­ring, along with a lear­ning envi­ron­ment. The key to the success of an ear­ly-sta­ge star­tup is not about luck and per­fect timing but sys­te­ma­tic work to unders­tand the needs of the cus­to­mer. A sus­tai­nable growth path progres­ses one step at a time and requi­res per­se­ve­rance and focus on what tru­ly mat­ters. This is what we unders­tand, and whe­re we put our inves­tor and ent­repre­neur expe­rience to use.

Our Values

Be Curious
Curio­si­ty dri­ves con­ti­nuo­us lear­ning, it helps us dee­pen our unders­tan­ding and enables mini­mum viable thin­king for efficient execu­tion with limi­ted resources. Knowing your cus­to­mers is often the key to success, both in ope­ra­tions and in fund management.

Fol­low your Con­vic­tion
We value non-con­sen­sus; win­ners for­ge their own path. Clear direc­tion fos­ters con­fi­dence, focus, and the con­vic­tion to avoid com­pro­mi­sing on key success factors.

Do the Right Thing
Our busi­ness is built on trust. Doing what’s right and kee­ping pro­mi­ses are essen­tial for us. We’re approac­hable, res­pect­ful and groun­ded in bru­tal hones­ty. We are humble, but never meek. We don’t have all the answers, but we excel at asking the hard and rele­vant questions.

Breat­he Ent­repre­neurs­hip
Ent­repre­neurs­hip means owning eve­ry deci­sion and using resources wise­ly; the­re’s no room for “free riders”. To us, it’s a cal­ling. Having gai­ned valuable expe­riences, we glad­ly sup­port our foun­ders with the insights we’­ve recei­ved along the way. We have zero tole­rance for egos or bs.

Who we invest in?

We invest in camels - the ambi­tious yet resi­lient star­tups. For us, the camel cha­rac­te­rizes the way one makes the jour­ney success­ful­ly. Camels display curio­si­ty and intel­li­gence and have a remar­kable abi­li­ty to reach their des­ti­na­tions. They use water efficient­ly, navi­ga­te stea­di­ly through even the roug­hest ter­rains and quickly adapt to chan­ging conditions.

We look for talen­ted, hard-wor­king and pas­sio­na­te teams applying tech­no­lo­gy to sol­ve tan­gible busi­ness problems evi­dent today. We like to see the cus­to­mer, rat­her than your pro­duct or tech­no­lo­gy, as the dri­ving force of your actions as an ent­repre­neur. Com­mon to all our ent­repre­neurs is the desi­re to build sus­tai­nable, pro­fi­table busi­nes­ses, the humi­li­ty to stu­dy why cus­to­mers buy and the patience to do the grind.

Gorilla Capital Camel Icon

We invest in companies that meet the following criteria

  • 1 You’re Capi­tal Efficient
  • 2 Your focus is on the Busi­ness rat­her than your Product
  • 3 You’re in the Mar­ket Now (or soon)
  • 4 Your team has the Com­pe­tencies nee­ded to execu­te your Business
  • 5 You unders­tand the Cus­to­mer Problem
  • 6 The valua­tion of your com­pa­ny is in line with your progress
  • 7 Your com­pa­ny is cont­rol­led by tho­se who execu­te daily
  • 8 You are based in Fin­land, Swe­den, Den­mark, Esto­nia, Lat­via or Lithuania

Submit your pitch

Plea­se send you inves­tor mate­rials (deck etc) to

dealflow@gorillacapital.fi !

 

If you think we’d be the right inves­tor for you, and you meet our invest­ment cri­te­ria, we’d love to hear from you! No need to was­te time get­ting a warm int­ro. We look at each com­pa­ny based on their own merits rat­her than how they came to us. Just send us your deck using the form below or con­tact any of us direct­ly. We’ll let you know quickly whet­her we’re inte­res­ted in discus­sing furt­her or not.

Gorilla Capital Management Oy

VAT 2827907-4

Maria 01, Building 1, entrance B
Lapinlahdenkatu 16, 00180 Helsinki

Contact

The best way to contact us is through email.

Our email addresses are in the format firstname@gorillacapital.fi

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