Kristoffer Lawson's Solu raises six figures for the future of work

    Ever since Holvi co-founder Kristoffer Lawson got pushed out or left Holvi on his own accord, we’ve been curious where he would end up next. If you’re looking for an in-depth article there’s really no meat on these bones, but the names, numbers, and ambition level are interesting. Joined by Javier Reyes (with legal, accountancy and HR experience) and Pekka Nikander (a respected voice in secure IT) as a founding team, their new company, Solu, has managed to raise six figures from Taneli Tikka, Kaj Arnö of MySQL and Open Ocean, Edvard Sørgård from ARM, Robin Bade of Activeark and BuildIt, a leading investor and accelerator in hardware startups from Northern Europe.

    Other names attached to the project as advisors include Ville Miettinen from Microtask and Hybrid Graphics, Richard Fitzmaurice CMO of TMF Group, British serial entrepreneur David Murray-Hundley, and Sampsa Fabritius, director at Nokia as CTO.

    That last investor, Buildit, gives a better idea about the company’s direction that Lawson’s press release – it seems the company is doing something in the hardware space, and after a little digging it appears it’s consumer focused rather than B2B. “What we’re looking at is really changing the way people work today on a very fundamental level,” Lawson tells us. “It is a reflection in the changes in how people work and the effectiveness of how technology [enables] that at the moment.”

    According to Lawson he’s been thinking about this concept since the late 90’s but at the time the technology really wasn’t there. “Now we’re at the point where the tech and infrastructure is at the point where its actually possible. When our investors and people heard about this idea they were like ‘seriously? You guys are doing this?’ but when you look at it its actually possible to do.”

    We typically never write articles like this if the company isn’t actually sharing anything, but I’m curious about Lawson, and after he went after an industry as big as banking with Holvi he’s likely not going to check his ambition level. If anything he’s going off the deep end according to a statement in the press release:

    “Trying to alter the course of an industry as massive as banking was no small feat, and we are starting to see the results of that now, but I would say Solu is, if possible, even more ambitious. It could quite possibly alter the very fabric of our modern society.”

    The skeptical side of me is shaking my head because if it’s so ambitious then your team should be the only one that can execute this futuristic concept right, so why don’t you tell the world about it. But it’s good to see a solid group come together in Finland and start talking huge ambition levels. They’ve got me curious, at least, and I hope they can deliver with more news this spring.