Failup Ventures, a Helsinki-based early-stage venture capital fund, has launched a new 50M€ fund, securing 30M€ in its first closing. Co-founded by Jesse Heikkilä, Topias Soininen, and Oscar Andersin, former Finnish entrepreneurs, the fund focuses on backing early-stage startups with strong, mission-driven teams, offering initial investments ranging from 200K€ to 1M€. With empathy towards founders as a core value, Failup Ventures aims to invest in startups impacting society positively, aligning with themes like the future of work, consumption, dynamic marketplaces, digital infrastructure, and commercial climate tech among others.
Failup Ventures sets itself apart from other funds in the Nordic region through its strong footing in the United States. With extensive networks, international deal flow, and access to top cases both locally and across the pond, the team is uniquely positioned to identify and support promising startups both in the Nordics and in the US. This global perspective, including rare access to US-based startups, has attracted interest and commitments from a diverse group of fund investors, many of whom are entrepreneurs themselves.
Each of the founding members brings different expertise to the team from their founder and angel investor backgrounds. Heikkilä and Soininen, known for their startup Playven, a SaaS sports facility management and marketplace company later acquired by Playtomic, have a strong understanding of high-growth startups and finding product-market fit. Andersin, on the other hand, has worked as an Investment Manager at Vencubator, a Helsinki-based startup incubator. Together, the team has built and invested in nearly 40 startups through previous angel investments.
“We are thrilled to launch Failup Ventures as the first-ever Finnish VC fund to have its core foothold in the US as well,” said Topias Soininen, co-founder and General Partner at Failup Ventures. “Our global approach and grassroots networks enable us to identify truly promising early-stage teams and support them from the start. Many of our previous investments have received follow-on investments from renowned firms like A16Z, NFX, General Catalyst, and Tiger Global. This is a testimony to our understanding of truly brilliant teams and efforts in grassroots work.”
“We have seen that founders prefer to work with individuals who have firsthand experience in building a company and have faced similar challenges in the past. And that’s exactly what we’ve done before founding Failup,” said Jesse Heikkilä, co-founder and General Partner at Failup Ventures. “We are excited to pave the way for next-generation founders with our fund by next-generation investors, and thrilled to have some of the brightest entrepreneurs backing us as Limited Partners.”
Failup Ventures prioritizes empathy towards founders as one of its core values. The fund’s approach is sector-agnostic but focuses on investing in mission-driven founders who have a positive impact on society, work, health, or the environment. By offering peer support, strategic guidance, and access to networks in Finland, Europe, and the US, Failup Ventures is uniquely equipped to support startups in their global growth journeys.
“Our commitment lies in supporting founding teams that are building solutions capable of making a real improvement. We also only want to invest in teams that align with our values. In fact, the very first meeting we had with the Failup team revolved around our values: what we believe in and what kind of world we want to contribute to building”, concludes Oscar Andersin, co-founder and General Partner at Failup Ventures.
The team has already made three investments into early-stage teams from its fund. The fund’s target size has been set to 50 million euros. Business Finland Venture Capital Oy acted as the anchor investor in Failup Ventures’ new fund.
“We were particularly impressed by the team’s high level of ambition and their international approach to investing. The team’s prior experience as startup entrepreneurs and their strong track record in early-stage investments within the fund’s target areas provided a solid foundation for their transition to VCs. Despite a challenging fundraising environment, the team successfully raised the capital required for the fund in a short time”, says Petri Serenius, Investment Director at Business Finland Venture Capital Ltd.
