Gorilla Capital expands its team and launches third fund

7.11.2023 | News

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  

Gorilla Fund I starts generating carried interest

1.8.2022 | News

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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