Ovaskainen to speak at Helsinki's European Business Angels Conference


    Jari Ovaskainen is a member of Finnish Business Angels Network and was recently awarded as European Business Angel of the Year 2013. He is truly a super angel who has actively supported Finnish startup companies with his international experience, networks, and investment capacity.

    He made his first business deal in 2000 selling Iobox, a web portal he founded with Henry Nilert, for €230 million. Since then, His investment portfolio has increased with Supercell, Next Games, PlayRaven, Booomlagoon, Button, Stylewhile, Miivies, Doremir, and Atacama Labs He made his latest exit as half of Supercell was sold to Japan for €1.1 billion.

    Ovaskainen’s role as ”the first investor in Supercell” is also very inspirational for others to head towards new potential growth sectors like gaming, which especially in Finland has lead to great economical benefits and a national proudness. Everybody with similar investment capacity and networks should show similar kind of activity towards early-stage potential high-growth companies.

    Jari Ovaskainen’s current portfolio company Next Games is already building huge interest though their game “Walking Dead” will be released first next summer. The role of an experienced and highly networked business angel has been very valuable building the team to handle the growth pressure.

    Jari Ovaskainen’s business angel experiences is shared at the EBAN Helsinki 2014 keynote speakers. He will be sharing his best practices through the conference in many different settings. One of the sessions will be Monday’s Investing in Mobile & Games sector based session with Next Games, Jolla, and Rovio fire chats. From investor point of view, this will be a unique opportunity to hear all these mobile and games success stories together in one session.

    The conference is coming up soon with passes sold from 290 euros and EBAN+Slush 2in1 tickets from 680 euros. We warmly welcome you to Helsinki!