From Lab to Market - Invest

How do I leverage venture capital to create more impact out of my research? When am I ready to start talking with investors? Do’s and don’ts when contacting VC’s? What happens after funding? What does it mean to push toward an exit and how does it feel? Can I get rich?

These questions among many others related to the area of science to impact are being pondered by researchers and academics.
Join us at the investment feature of the From Lab to Market event series to get your questions answered by our three speakers: Ville Heikkinen from Butterfly Ventures, Toni Linden from KNL Networks and James McDougall from Tera Ventures!

Exchange thoughts over a cup of coffee on how to create impact from research and network across disciplines and organizations.

Meet the speakers:

Ville Heikkinen, Butterfly Ventures

Ville Heikkinen is a hands-on technology, transaction and investment specialist, with 20 years of experience as an investor, legal counsel, advisor, board member and entrepreneur in the areas of venture capital financing, M&A, and technology management in Europe and USA. Currently, Ville is a partner at the early-stage investment company Butterfly Ventures, investment committee member of the venture capital fund and chairman of the board of the venture capital fund.

Butterfly Ventures is investing in the seed stage deep tech, HW and HW interfacing SW startups particularly from Finland, but also from other Nordic countries and Baltics. They prefer to get involved with companies early on and 80% of their portfolio companies do not have any revenue at the time of entry. However, Butterfly Ventures is very business-driven and typically their portfolio companies start generating revenue in less than 6 months from the first investment.

Toni Lindén, KNL Networks

Toni Lindénis the Co-Founder & CEO of KNL Networks. Before founding KNL Networks, he worked at the University of Oulu as a research scientist and Doctoral student. Toni is a former electronic warfare officer and has 20 years of hands-on radio experience. By education, he is a military officer specialized in technology and communications. Toni has actively contributed to both industrial and start-up communities through the position of Finland state representative in Arctic Council Task Force Communication, by supporting the Finnish Government in defining current Arctic politic strategy and as a speaker at the Slush startup event.

KNL Networks (acquired by Telenor Maritime) is a leading provider of global secure access to data. KNL has developed unique communication and IoT-solutions for critical infrastructures, defense and security and for merchant vessels worldwide. KNL services are based on a secure intelligent software-defined radio, which enables a truly global terrestrial wireless network.

James McDougall, Tera Ventures

James McDougall is an entrepreneur, angel investor, venture capitalist, advisor and mentor with over 25 years of experience. He has a global network for building and funding high performing teams, commercializing new technologies and leading companies in their crossing of the chasm for rapid growth and value creation.

James has raised over $350 million of early-stage and growth funding for start-ups, SMEs and public listed companies. As Founding Partner of Tera Ventures, he is a board member of several portfolio companies in Tera Ventures Fund I and II. He has held several assignments in North America, Asia and Europe as CEO and Managing Director, Chairman, Board Member and Advisor. He has also founded several ventures and provides advice and guidance to founders of disruptive technology companies.

The From Lab to Market event series is organized by Aalto Ventures Program, VTT Launchpad, Aalto Startup Center and Aalto Innovation Services, in collaboration with Helsinki Think Company. Investment events are organized in collaboration with Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN) and Finnish Venture Capital Association (FVCA).