Gorilla Capital fund III Exceeds Target Size of €40M in only 10 Months

Goril­la Capi­tal is gra­te­ful and proud to announce that it has reac­hed fund size of €41 mil­lion, just 10 months after the 1st clo­se in August 2023.

This achie­ve­ment high­lights the con­fi­dence and trust our 90+ inves­tors have placed in our stra­te­gy and team, even amidst the cur­rent mar­ket con­di­tions. We extend our since­rest gra­ti­tu­de to our inves­tors for their sup­port and belief in our stra­te­gy as the The Nor­dic Ins­ti­tu­tio­nal Super Angel.

The final clo­se of the fund is sche­du­led to take place in fall 2024.

Plea­se con­tact gorilla@gorillacapital.fi for more information.


Gorilla Capital wins two category awards in SFR Research Alternative Managers survey 2024

We are deligh­ted and proud to announce that Goril­la Capi­tal has been recog­ni­sed for unique stra­te­gy & deal flow in the VC cate­go­ry of the SFR Alter­na­ti­ve Mana­ger Sur­vey 2024.

The SFR Research Alter­na­ti­ve Mana­gers Sur­vey 2024 was car­ried out in coo­pe­ra­tion with the Fin­nish Industrial Invest­ment (Tesi). Over 40 LPs repre­sen­ting over 270 bil­lion euros of invest­ment capaci­ty were inter­viewed ano­ny­mous­ly. Inves­tors eva­lua­ted over 60 asset mana­gers across VCPE and infra cate­go­ries based on the 12 cri­te­ria percei­ved to be most important.

Goril­la Capi­tal was awar­ded in two VC categories:

:trophy:Stra­te­gy Unique­ness:trophy:
for unique­ness and rele­vance of the strategy

:trophy: Deal Flow :trophy:
for the abi­li­ty to find att­rac­ti­ve invest­ment targets

Cate­go­ry wins in SFR Alter­na­ti­ve Mana­gers Sur­vey is a welco­med third-par­ty vali­da­tion for our long-term com­mit­ment in deve­lo­ping our dis­tinc­ti­ve stra­te­gy as the Nor­dic Ins­ti­tu­tio­nal Super Angel. We have been able to rai­se awa­re­ness of the camel inves­ting model amongst the inves­tor com­mu­ni­ty and main­tain strong ope­ra­tio­nal per­for­mance in a tough mar­ketplace, whe­re fun­drai­sing has been excep­tio­nal­ly hard both for the funds and the star­tups ali­ke“, celebra­tes Ris­to Rau­ta­kor­pi, the Foun­ding and Mana­ging Part­ner at Goril­la Capi­tal.

SFR Research is Fin­land’s lar­gest comple­te­ly inde­pen­dent asset mana­ge­ment research com­pa­ny. It is well known and res­pec­ted for the Ins­ti­tu­tio­nal Invest­ment Ser­vices Pro­gram (ISP), eva­lua­ting the per­for­mance of Fin­nish asset mana­gers & other ser­vice pro­vi­ders annual­ly since 2000. The Alter­na­ti­ve Mana­gers Sur­vey fol­lows the success of the ISP. The sur­vey was crea­ted to assist Fin­nish ins­ti­tu­tio­nal and pri­va­te inves­tors in alter­na­ti­ve asset class invest­ments by uti­lizing research data.

A who­le­hear­ted thank you to our anc­hor inves­tors Busi­ness Fin­land VC and Elo, as well as our fami­ly office, foun­da­tion and nume­rous pri­va­te LPs for your con­ti­nuo­us sup­port.

SFR Alter­na­ti­ve Mana­gers Awards 2024

City of Helsinki is combating invasive plant species with Crowdsorsa mobile game

Crowd­sor­sa mobi­le game will be used in the sum­mer to com­bat inva­si­ve plant species in the city of Hel­sin­ki and also in ~40 other cities around Fin­land, Swe­den and the UK.

Crowd­sor­sa is a Fin­nish star­tup deve­lo­ping a mobi­le game for crowd­sourcing data col­lec­tion. The bring citizens and cities toget­her via a mobi­le game, to work towards impro­ved roads and cycle lanes, infra­struc­tu­re assets, acces­si­bi­li­ty, bio­di­ver­si­ty, and much more. Crowd­sor­sa sets up mis­sions in the game, whe­re people get paid for col­lec­ting data or doing mic­ro-tasks such as repel­ling inva­si­ve plant species.

Read more:
Hel­sin­gin Sano­mat
Crowd­sor­sa webpage

Capman Founder Vesa Vanha-Honko invested in Gorilla Capital - interview

Goril­la surpri­sed me - you have brought a comple­te­ly new way of doing ven­tu­re capi­tal to the Nor­dic markets.”

Vesa Van­ha-Hon­ko has an excep­tio­nal 30-year jour­ney of value crea­tion and inno­va­tion in Fin­nish pri­va­te equi­ty fund mana­ge­ment. Vesa uses this exper­ti­se and know­led­ge in the invest­ments of his own fami­ly office. Through Vesa’s rigo­rous selec­tion cri­te­ria and scree­ning process, Goril­la Capi­tal’s vc fund was selec­ted as a new invest­ment for the port­fo­lio. In this inter­view Vesa gives his thoughts on alter­na­ti­ve invest­ments and what con­vinced him to invest in the Goril­la III fund.

Buil­ding the fami­ly office portfolio

Vesa is a true pio­neer in Fin­nish pri­va­te equi­ty and has had an inte­gral role in buil­ding Cap­Man into the lea­ding pri­va­te asset mana­ge­ment com­pa­ny in the Nor­dic region. The accu­mu­la­ted lear­nings and expe­riences Vesa applies to his per­so­nal invest­ments, which are concent­ra­ted into his Fami­ly Office Vesasco.

The Vesasco port­fo­lio con­sists of three parts. One part is stra­te­gic hol­dings Cap­Man and Access Capi­tal, which are for long term and yield divi­dends. The acti­ve port­fo­lio con­sists of tra­di­tio­nal lis­ted instru­ments as the second part  and the third is the alter­na­ti­ve port­fo­lio. The sha­re of the alter­na­ti­ves is over 40 % of the acti­ve portfolio.

Vesa has built Vesasco’s invest­ment port­fo­lio patient­ly, relying on qua­li­ty and diver­si­fica­tion over time. The stra­te­gy is not to seek the hig­hest return but to build a port­fo­lio that deli­vers con­sis­tent returns and cash flow over cycles. Vesa belie­ves that such a port­fo­lio is best built by com­bi­ning lis­ted mar­ket instru­ments with unlis­ted alter­na­ti­ve invest­ments. In Vesasco, diver­si­fica­tion is done not only across asset clas­ses, but also across asset mana­gers and the alter­na­ti­ve pro­gram­me is built for a very long-term horizon.“We at Vesasco tar­get for ove­rall rea­so­nable stea­dy return, it is enough. It would be har­der to do this with only liquid port­fo­lio because of the vola­ti­li­ty. If the inves­tor is wil­ling to com­pro­mi­se on liqui­di­ty and the invest­ment horizon is long, the alter­na­ti­ves not only sta­bi­lize but also enhance the yield across eco­no­mic cycles”, Vesa says. 

The total num­ber of alter­na­ti­ve funds in port­fo­lio is 33 of which 17 are pri­va­te equi­ty (of which rough­ly half are fund-of-funds), 6 pri­va­te debt funds, 4 funds in infra and real esta­te and 5 ven­tu­re capi­tal funds inclu­ding Goril­la Capital. 

Vesa stres­ses that if alter­na­ti­ve asset clas­ses are to beco­me a sig­ni­ficant part of an invest­ment port­fo­lio, it is advi­sable to build a long-term pro­gram­me for the who­le, which is fol­lowed sys­te­ma­tical­ly. Vesa con­ti­nues that when star­ting to build a port­fo­lio one should have a clear 7-8 year plan, during which the port­fo­lio will be run up. After buil­ding period new fol­low-on invest­ments and their capi­tal calls can be financed by cash flow from old ‘vin­ta­ge’ investments.

In Vesa’s view, the diver­si­fica­tion is the key. It is good to have single-actor funds and a fund-of-funds struc­tu­re, as well as pri­ma­ry funds in addi­tion to secon­da­ry funds. Vesa also high­lights the impor­tance of cash mana­ge­ment. When the cycle is down, you have to hold onto the invest­ments a bit lon­ger and be pre­pa­red for addi­tio­nal capi­tal calls coming in, Vesa reminds. 


The rea­sons why Vesasco deci­ded to invest in Goril­la fund III 

During his 30-years as a pri­va­te inves­tor Vesa has gai­ned a wealth of know­led­ge and succes­ses but also expe­rienced disap­point­ments along the way. The big­gest disap­point­ments have come from direct angel invest­ments I do unders­tand that the­re are angel inves­tors, who have been very success­ful, but it’s almost a full-time job as you need to have enough start-ups in the port­fo­lio to diver­si­fy risk.  And you also often have to pro­vi­de somet­hing more than just money. In Vesasco we have deci­ded not to make direct invest­ments, only funds”, Vesa concludes. 

When choo­sing the VC fund mana­ger or any other alter­na­ti­ve fund mana­ger, Vesa focuses atten­tion on the team and stra­te­gy. As Vesa was int­ro­duced to Goril­la Capi­tal through his long-time acquain­tance, Gorilla’s part­ner Kir­si Vine-Haa­pa­rin­ne, what first struck him was how dif­fe­rent Goril­la Capital’s invest­ment stra­te­gy was. Gorilla’s port­fo­lio angel inves­tor approach was new to me and very dif­fe­rent from other VC’s. But from the start the stra­te­gy made sen­se. It is very clear and it is very rigo­rous­ly applied”, Vesa states.

Vesa finds Goril­la’s stra­te­gy very cre­dible. Vesa belie­ves the same as Goril­la that pic­king up the futu­re unicorn among the ear­ly sta­ge start-ups is ext­re­me­ly unli­ke­ly but star­ting from the most like­ly outco­me inc­rea­ses the like­li­hood of success. Vesa says he was even a litt­le surpri­sed to hear that the median deal size for disclo­sed tech­no­lo­gy com­pa­ny exits is below €20 mil­lion. And if the star­ting point is that with the exits that are most like­ly to hap­pen the inves­tor gets a rea­so­nable return, one has to invest ear­ly and in very dif­fe­rent types of com­pa­nies than tho­se tra­di­tio­nal­ly selec­ted to VC funds. Vesa apprecia­tes the clear scree­ning cri­te­ria and that it is fol­lowed with discipli­ne with no excep­tions. And then you are the only one doing this and tar­ge­ting the­se com­pa­nies in the Nor­dics, so you get to pick the best deals. Just as with Cap­Man in its ear­ly days, you cur­rent­ly face no com­pe­ti­tion. It’s one of the rea­sons for an inves­tor to con­si­der joi­ning now, because you have a rat­her unique situa­tion. It might not be the same in 10 years’ time”, Vesa adds. 

Vesa points out that ear­ly-sta­ge inves­ting is often percei­ved as very ris­ky, but at Goril­la Capi­tal, diver­si­fying into a hundred com­pa­nies per fund chan­ges this.Usual­ly, inves­ting at seed or pre-seed sta­ge is percei­ved as ext­re­me­ly ris­ky. But loo­king at Goril­la Capi­tal, I don’t see risk being any hig­her than inves­ting in a buyout fund. Diver­si­fica­tion is very high in Gorilla’s port­fo­lio. If a typical VC-fund has 25 invest­ments, you have 100. I don’t see a real dif­fe­rence in risk pro­fi­le between this approach and buyout risk. That’s why I think you don’t even need to achie­ve 3x mul­tiples. Of cour­se it is great if you do”, Vesa laughs.

In selec­ting fund mana­gers, Vesa feels that the team, stra­te­gy and execu­tion in ope­ra­tio­nal acti­vi­ties are emp­ha­sized in PE and VC funds com­pa­red to lis­ted funds – and the­re­fo­re one must iden­ti­fy the top-per­for­ming quar­ti­le of teams. “The team is cri­tical in all pri­va­te equi­ty. With lis­ted funds, the choice of mana­ger is less cri­tical. Eve­ry now and then one of them per­forms bet­ter than the index, but not for too long. But on pri­va­te side you can find teams that year on year, deca­de over deca­de pro­duce supe­rior results. The human fac­tor is much more sig­ni­ficant on the pri­va­te invest­ment side.Vesa adds that the impor­tance of a good team can never be unde­res­ti­ma­ted. And that the­re are dif­fe­rent rea­sons for success, but the one con­ti­nuo­us rea­son seems to be that success typical­ly hin­ges on a core group of great people wor­king well toget­her. When eva­lua­ting a team Vesa focuses in par­ticu­lar on atti­tu­de, ent­repre­neu­rial background and discipli­ne. “All of the­se ele­ments are visible in Goril­la”, Vesa says.

Vesa sees that Goril­la dif­fe­ren­tia­tes from other VCs also with focus on exits and buil­ding the port­fo­lio com­pa­nies in a way that also an ear­ly exit brings good returns. “In the Goril­la stra­te­gy your exit win­dow can be more exten­si­ve than in tra­di­tio­nal VC because your com­pa­nies are near or alrea­dy cash flow posi­ti­ve.” Vesa conclu­ded that this is the same as in buyout as they too can go lon­ger and wait for the exit win­dow. In terms of exits Vesa also sees anot­her major dif­fre­nece with tra­di­tio­nal VC funds as a lar­ge part of Goril­la port­fo­lio com­pa­nies are sold at an ear­lier sta­ge than when many VC inves­tors would even enter, befo­re the so-cal­led second val­ley of death.You take exits with rea­so­nable mul­tiples befo­re the main sca­ling pha­se”, Vesa says and high­lights the dif­fe­rent game of searc­hing the pro­duct-mar­ket-fit and pro­ving the ‘play­book works’ ver­sus the sca­ling pha­se with total­ly new problems and risks.

Vesasco inves­ted in Goril­la fund III and sum­ma­ri­ses the rea­sons why he deci­ded to invest Goril­la surpri­sed me – you have brought a comple­te­ly new way of doing ven­tu­re capi­tal in the Nor­dic mar­ket. You go in the ear­ly sta­ge, have strict pre-scree­ning cri­te­ria, sup­port the com­pa­nies in the jour­ney and exit befo­re the second val­ley of death. You bring money, know-how and sup­port to the deve­lop­ment of ear­ly sta­ge com­pa­nies that typical­ly don’t get money or help from VCs. The model itself is qui­te bril­liant. A lot of things have to go wrong in order for it not to work. And then you face no com­pe­ti­tion”, Vesa sum­ma­ri­ses.

Vesa Van­ha-Hon­ko

  • CapMan’s foun­ding part­ner; Res­pon­sible for Cap­Man’s Nor­dic expan­sion and the establish­ment of Cap­Man’s real esta­te invest­ment business
  • Access Capi­tal Part­ners; Board Mem­ber since incep­tion until 2022, Board Mem­ber of seve­ral GP com­pa­nies wit­hin Access group 2005 – 2019, Advi­sing Part­ner 2011-2019
  • Board Pro­fes­sio­nal
  • Pri­va­te Investor

Goril­la Capital

  • The Nor­dic Ins­ti­tu­tio­nal Super Angel
  • Invest­ment stra­te­gy roo­ted in mat­he­ma­tical pro­ba­bi­li­ty focusing on pro­bable success and diver­si­fying risk by inves­ting in approxi­ma­te­ly 100 com­pa­nies per fund
  • With two pre­vious funds Goril­la has vali­da­ted the effec­ti­ve­ness of the stra­te­gy in the Nor­dic mar­ket and achie­ved ear­ly DPI and mul­tiples in line with expec­ted returns
  • Cur­rent­ly Goril­la is rai­sing its third fund, with the first clo­sing in August 2023, tar­get being 40 M, hard cap 50 M

Gorilla Capital continues to build for continuity – welcomes Ami Rubinstein!

Goril­la Capi­tal con­ti­nues to build for con­ti­nui­ty – welco­mes Ami Rubinstein

Goril­la Capital’s new ven­tu­re part­ner Ami Rubins­tein has a fami­ly busi­ness background and diver­se expe­rience from star­tups and corporations.

Photo of Ami Rubinstein, Venture Partner at Gorilla Capital
Pho­to of Ami Rubins­tein, Ven­tu­re Part­ner at Goril­la Capital

Goril­la Capi­tal, the only industrial sca­le angel inves­tor in the Nor­dic region, strengt­hens its team as it con­ti­nues to build for con­ti­nui­ty for its camel inves­ting business.

Ami Rubins­tein, with fami­ly con­sul­ting busi­ness background, has pre­vious­ly wor­ked for glo­bal cor­po­ra­tions as well as in inter­na­tio­nal star­tup and growth com­pa­nies as CEO and Head of Sales. Ami brings over a deca­de of expe­rience in sales and cus­to­mer insight, most recent­ly from Sula­pac Ltd.

Goril­la Capi­tal has posi­tio­ned itself in a unique way that adds sig­ni­ficant value to the Nor­dic angel invest­ment and VC sce­ne. I look forward to doing my part in pro­vi­ding mea­ning­ful and sig­ni­ficant returns for our inves­tors whilst simul­ta­neous­ly hel­ping our port­fo­lio foun­ders make the most of their com­pa­nies and cul­ti­va­te new and success­ful serial ent­repre­neurs to the Nor­dic busi­ness eco­sys­tem.” Ami Rubins­tein explains.

Goril­la Fund II was about making evi­dent that the camel invest­ment stra­te­gy, pro­ven to work by pro­fes­sio­nal US angel inves­tors for deca­des, works also in Fin­land. It does. Goril­la Fund III aims to make the camel way of buil­ding busi­nes­ses a viable alter­na­ti­ve for the Nor­dic foun­ders as well. For that we need more people to car­ry the Goril­la torch furt­her to Goril­la Fund IV and bey­ond.” explains Ris­to Rau­ta­kor­pi, Mana­ging Part­ner of Goril­la Capital.

The stra­te­gy itself is time­less – it works, inde­pen­dent of eco­no­mic cycles or tech­no­lo­gical trends. But when execu­ting the stra­te­gy, broad pers­pec­ti­ve and per­so­nal matu­ri­ty are cri­tical assets. Ami’s ver­sa­ti­le expe­rience so far has given him very applicable exper­ti­se. Also his skills in sales & cus­to­mer insight will be par­ticu­lar­ly valuable in sup­por­ting our foun­ders.,” conclu­des Rautakorpi.

Goril­la Capi­tal is the Nor­dic ins­ti­tu­tio­nal angel inves­tor. Gorilla’s invest­ment stra­te­gy is based on assu­ming the most pro­bable outco­me, rat­her than the out­lier. Dis­tinc­ti­ve in that approach is how the jour­ney with a star­tup is star­ted – pas­sio­na­te­ly yet rea­lis­tical­ly. This is what they cha­rac­te­rize as inves­ting in so-cal­led camel companies.

As an inves­tor, Goril­la Capi­tal stri­ves for mar­ket returns with lower risk by inves­ting in approxi­ma­te­ly a hundred com­pa­nies from their third fund. The com­pa­ny stri­ves to cont­ri­bu­te to a thri­ving and sus­tai­nable star­tup eco­sys­tem, whe­re the capi­tal and know- how inves­ted into it are retur­ned to circu­la­tion with inte­rest in the form of exits and serial entrepreneurs.

For furt­her infor­ma­tion, plea­se contact:

Ris­to Rau­ta­kor­pi
Mana­ging Part­ner, Goril­la Capi­tal, +358 500 705668
risto.rautakorpi@gorillacapital.fi

Gorilla Capital expands its team and launches third fund

Goril­la Capi­tal, the Nor­dic industrial angel, expands its team and launc­hes third fund. 

Kir­si Vine-Haa­pa­rin­ne and Min­na Iso­ta­lus, both with ent­repre­neu­rial backgrounds, join Goril­la Capi­tal as partners. 

Goril­la Capital’s new part­ner Vine-Haa­pa­rin­ne is a foun­ding part­ner of Taa­le­ri, whi­le Iso­ta­lus has a background in star­tups and growth companies. 

Goril­la Capi­tal, the only industrial angel in the Nor­dic region, strengt­hens its team with the addi­tion of two new mem­bers as it unveils its third fund. Kir­si Vine-Haa­pa­rin­ne and Min­na Iso­ta­lus, both with ent­repre­neu­rial & invest­ment backgrounds, have joi­ned the com­pa­ny as partners. 

Kir­si Vine-Haa­pa­rin­ne, a foun­ding part­ner of Taa­le­ri with a fami­ly busi­ness background, has wor­ked as a pri­va­te ban­ker for over 15 years, and, in recent years, also ser­ved as an angel inves­tor along­si­de her day job. 

Meanw­hi­le, Min­na Iso­ta­lus brings over a deca­de of expe­rience in star­tup ent­repre­neurs­hip and growth com­pa­nies bac­ked with years in cor­po­ra­te finance. 

I’m pas­sio­na­te about ent­repre­neurs­hip and owners­hip, and I’m eager to give back - sha­re my expe­rience and pro­vi­de fun­ding to ent­repre­neurs. Goril­la Capi­tal’s team sha­res this same pas­sion and goal. The com­pa­ny’s approach to ear­ly-sta­ge star­tup inves­ting reso­na­tes with me – it pro­vi­des a solu­tion to the ques­tion that has bot­he­red me: why star­tup inves­ting often seems so unpre­dic­table and ris­ky?,” Kir­si Vine-Haa­pa­rin­ne explains. 

Goril­la Capi­tal’s invest­ment stra­te­gy is based on ana­ly­ses of the most pro­bable outco­mes, avoi­ding the unicorn cha­se in favour of broa­der diver­si­fica­tion. Goril­la Capi­tal plans to alloca­te €50 mil­lion to a hundred ear­ly-sta­ge com­pa­nies from its third fund. It seeks seve­ral mid-sized exits wit­hout limi­ting the pos­si­bi­li­ty of jack­pots. The approach relies on star­ting the star­tup jour­ney with a rea­lis­tic, yet ambi­tious out­look whi­le main­tai­ning a fer­vent pas­sion and aiming high. 

Goril­la Capi­tal’s invest­ment stra­te­gy is refres­hingly dif­fe­rent – I feel it pro­mo­tes equal oppor­tu­ni­ties in ent­repre­neurs­hip. It extends financing and pro­fes­sio­nal sup­port to ambi­tious ent­repre­neurs who favour a ratio­nal approach to risk, wit­hout the desi­re to posi­tion them­sel­ves as the next unicorn. The pas­sio­na­te yet down-to-earth approach of Goril­la Capi­tal’s foun­ders, Pet­ri Leh­mus­kos­ki and Ris­to Rau­ta­kor­pi, and their res­pect for foun­ders, reso­na­ted with my thin­king,” sum­ma­rizes Min­na Isotalus. 

Goril­la Capi­tal invests in so-cal­led camel com­pa­nies. The term ‘camel’ cha­rac­te­rizes the way the port­fo­lio com­pa­nies make their jour­ney success­ful­ly: they use water efficient­ly, navi­ga­te stea­di­ly through diver­se ter­rains and quickly adapt to chan­ging con­di­tions – and have a remar­kable abi­li­ty to success­ful­ly reach their destinations.” 

Min­na and Kir­si comple­ment our team with their exper­ti­se and per­so­na­li­ties. Their diver­se backgrounds and exten­si­ve expe­rience sup­port the expan­sion of our success­ful invest­ment stra­te­gy. Our goal is to crea­te a com­mu­ni­ty wit­hin the Nor­dic star­tup eco­sys­tem for tho­se see­king an alter­na­ti­ve rou­te to success as star­tup ent­repre­neurs. Ins­tead of cha­sing unicorns, we belie­ve in camels,” conclu­des Ris­to Rau­ta­kor­pi, Mana­ging Part­ner of Goril­la Capital. 

——  

Goril­la Capi­tal is the Nor­dic industrial angel. Company’s invest­ment stra­te­gy is based on an ana­ly­sis of the most pro­bable outco­mes. Dis­tinc­ti­ve in their approach is how they begin the jour­ney with a star­tup – pas­sio­na­te­ly yet rea­lis­tical­ly. This is what they cha­rac­te­rize as inves­ting in so-cal­led camel com­pa­nies. 

As an inves­tor, Goril­la Capi­tal stri­ves for mar­ket returns with lower risk by inves­ting in approxi­ma­te­ly a hundred com­pa­nies from their third fund. The com­pa­ny stri­ves to cont­ri­bu­te to a thri­ving and sus­tai­nable star­tup eco­sys­tem, whe­re the capi­tal and know-how inves­ted into it are retur­ned to circu­la­tion with inte­rest in the form of exits and serial ent­repre­neurs. 

For furt­her infor­ma­tion, plea­se con­tact:  

Ris­to Rau­ta­kor­pi  

Mana­ging Part­ner
Goril­la Capi­tal
+358 500 705668 

risto@gorillacapital.fi  

AutoVex has been acquired by Schibsted

Goril­la Fund I port­fo­lio com­pa­ny Auto­Vex has been acqui­red by Schibs­ted
 
22.12.2022  

Schibs­ted has today ente­red into bin­ding agree­ments to acqui­re 79% of AutoVex. 

 
“AutoVex’s mis­sion is to crea­te the most effec­ti­ve way to buy and sell used cars onli­ne, whilst pro­vi­ding the best pos­sible user expe­rience for both con­su­mers and car dea­lers. Schibs­ted and Auto­Vex sha­re a vision for next gene­ra­tion mar­ketplaces and by com­bi­ning forces, we’re able to furt­her acce­le­ra­te our growth and mar­ket posi­tion.” says Sebas­tian Frick, Foun­der of Auto­Vex. 
 
Schibs­ted has seve­ral lea­ding brands in the Motor ver­tical across the Nor­dics, inclu­ding FINN, Nett­bil, Carweb and Honk in Norway, Bil­ba­sen and DBA in Den­mark and Bloc­ket and Byt­bil in Swe­den. 🚘 
 
Read more from Schibsted’s press relea­se: https://schibsted.com/news/schibsted-acquires-finlands-leading-used-car-c2b-auction-marketplace-autovex/ 

Gorilla Fund I starts generating carried interest

Goril­la Fund I starts gene­ra­ting car­ried inte­rest fol­lowing Duu­ni­to­ri exit 

Duu­ni­to­ri Oy, the mar­ket lea­der in job search, has been acqui­red by the pri­va­te equi­ty firm Inte­ra Part­ners. Duu­ni­to­ri is making rec­rui­ting and job search smar­ter and is a thought lea­der in digi­ta­li­sing them both. 

Goril­la Fund I inves­ted in Duu­ni­to­ri, then named Sky­hood, in 2015. At the time, the com­pa­ny con­sis­ted of 5 people and reve­nue was in the low six figu­res – since then, it has doubled and redoubled time and again, reac­hing 14 mil­lion euros in 2021. 

As a result of this high­ly succes­ful exit, Goril­la Fund I has alrea­dy retur­ned 2x the ori­gi­nal capi­tal, cash on cash, and the­re are many good com­pa­nies remai­ning in the port­fo­lio. Duu­ni­to­ri also beca­me the lar­gest exit among nume­rous posi­ti­ve ones in Goril­la Capital’s ope­ra­ting his­to­ry, mea­su­red by the company’s exit value. It yiel­ded a subs­tan­tial return of 70x the ini­tial invest­ment

Duu­ni­to­ri is a per­fect example of the often over­loo­ked type of a star­tup – the “camel” (which we love)  that focuses on buil­ding sus­tai­nable busi­ness rat­her than rai­sing maxi­mum amounts of capi­tal to make ris­ky bets. We are very proud of having been part of the Duu­ni­to­ri jour­ney for 7 years. Their success is no coinci­dence”, says Ris­to Rau­ta­kor­pi, Mana­ging Part­ner at Goril­la Capital. 

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    Gorilla Capital Management Oy

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