Helsinki-based seed-stage venture capital firm Maki.vc has appointed Pauliina Martikainen as their new Partner. Maki was founded in 2018 and almost a year later, they welcomed Pauliina to the firm. Since then she has been keeping her eyes on deep tech companies that range from pre-seed to IPO as well as searching for new startups in many areas including health tech, food tech, and retail tech. To date, Pauliina has led investments in several companies at Maki including the cycle mapping app Jennis (UK), carbon labeling company and Oatly’s go-to partner CarbonCloud (SWE), smart grocery shopping assistant Lollipop (UK), TOTEM building Office Stores as a Service (FR) and the forerunner in next-generation cardiac function analysis, CardioSignal (FIN).
“Pauliina has been an integral part of Maki.vc from its early days, and with her persistence and interest towards consumer behaviour shaping industries, she’s been driving our portfolio’s growth across Europe. I’m extremely happy to have her join us as Partner,” says Ilkka Kivimäki, Founding Partner at Maki.vc.
Formerly, Pauliina Marikainen was the Cofounder of the Nordics’ first and Europe’s biggest student-led VC fund Wave Ventures which provides pre-seed funding for promising companies emerging from the Nordic startup ecosystems. She also worked at the Finnish Venture Capital Association as Head of Communications and Policy Advisor, promoting the interests of investors and growth companies to policymakers. Besides holding a MSc and CEMS MIM from Aalto University School of Business and HEC Paris, and a BSocSc from the University of Helsinki, Pauliina is also highly experienced in marketing and communications.
“Since joining Maki.vc over three years ago, I have really enjoyed working with our unique and inspiring team and founders. I’m looking forward to continuing to deepen our conviction in thematic areas such as food, health, and consumer tech and expand Maki’s footprint in the Nordics and beyond by investing in category-shaping companies at their very first rounds. It’s still not every day that women in the industry are promoted internally and I appreciate the development and trust in me,” says Pauliina Martikainen, Partner at Maki.vc.
Founded in 2018, Maki.vc has been supporting many companies including sustainable textile fibre producer Spinnova, quantum technology company IQM, and customer service automation platform Ultimate.ai via its Fund II of €100M. Maki is hoping to carry on its successful operations with the upcoming Fund III.
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