| Date | Title | Description |
| 10.07.2026 | Takeoff Partners advised Lenio as Panostaja invested in the SaaS solution provider for mobile work | On June 12, 2025, Panostaja Oyj (panostaja.fi) signed an agreement to purchase shares of Lenio Oy from its owners and to make a significant investment aimed to accelerate Lenio's growth. Panostaja's total investment amounts to approximately... |
| 10.07.2026 | Futures Platform and Statzon announce merger to pioneer AI-driven Futures Intelligence | As AI continues to transform knowledge work, Futures Platform and Statzon are joining forces to meet a growing demand: faster, more reliable and actionable futures intelligence for decision-makers.
The merger brings together Futures Platfor... |
| 10.07.2026 | Our portfolio company MeetingPackage sums up a successful year 2025 | 2025 was a defining year for MeetingPackage. Our end-of-year video captures the highlights, but the story behind it goes even further.
In 2025, MeetingPackage welcomed customers of all sizes, from independent properties to large enterprise ... |
| 10.07.2026 | Takeoff Partners supports Inclus' international expansion | The landscape of enterprise risk management continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, driven by technological disruption, geopolitical tensions, and increasingly complex global interconnections.
Indeed macro-level changes have cascading... |
| 10.07.2026 | New eBook: 10 Steps to Scale Up Your Professional Services Business | Our "Ten Steps to Growth" framework provides consulting and advisory firms with an effective strategy to expand their operations.
Centered around high-quality leadership, robust management systems, and a deep appreciation for the ... |
| 10.01.2024 | Portfolio company news: MeetingPackage accelerates international growth with 1.5 MEUR investment | Originally known as a marketplace, MeetingPackage has changed its operational focus by introducing multiple new SaaS products for hotels and meeting venues as well as taking onboard demand driven partners. Takeoff Partners has been part of ... |
| 10.01.2024 | Futures Platform organizes the Strategic Foresight Summit 2018 in Helsinki | The future is full of fascinating opportunities - but how to make sense of them? Join in to learn and discuss! The early bird discount ends on April 30.
The presenters in the Summit come from leading organizations in Finland and abroad, in... |
| 10.01.2024 | MeetingPackage.com boosts growth with 1,2 MEUR seed financing, preparing A-round towards year-end | MeetingPackage.com is backed by several well-known travel industry executives, including Jani Kaskinen, former CEO of Hotelzon (acquired by Travelport), and Andreas Hansson, Founder of CabForce (acquired by CarTrawler). Among the investors ... |
| 10.01.2024 | Invitation to the Takeoff Partners Investment Screening Day 20.4.2016 | We kindly ask the entrepreneurs interested to participate to send their investor decks to info (at) takeoffpartners.com by Wednesday, April 13th.
Please note that our focus is on B2B software an services, hence we cannot consider candidate... |
| 10.01.2024 | Invitation to the Takeoff Partners Investment Screening Day 23.11.2016 | We kindly ask the entrepreneurs interested to participate to send their investor decks to info (at) takeoffpartners.com by Nov 18.
Please note that our focus is on B2B software an services, hence we cannot consider candidates outside of th... |
| 10.01.2024 | SaaS company, utilize your Board and advisors | Recently, we have announced three investments, in Futures Platform, Artist Exchange, and most recently, in PilviTM.
All of them are SaaS companies that we think have a promising future ahead of them, not only because of the skillful and ex... |
| 10.01.2024 | Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2016! | Our Best Wishes,
the Takeoff Partners team |
| 10.01.2024 | Videoly connects videos to online stores – and experiences massive international growth | Videoly finds video content, curates it, and enables webstores to easily embed the right video content on the right product page. Videoly makes thousands of product videos of all kinds available, from unboxing videos, to reviews, to demonst... |
| 10.01.2024 | Mythbusting: Getting sales meetings in North America - How hard can it be? | Futures Platform is a tool that helps organizations structure their foresight work and bring people together around future-related topics. With the rapid evolution of all things digital, the momentum is there for organizations to become int... |
| 10.01.2024 | Markko Vaarnas of Takeoff Partners joins the FiBAN Board of Directors | FiBAN is a large Finnish non-profit association of private investors. They aim to improve the possibilities for private investments in unlisted potential growth companies. The association is very active and has been extremely successful in ... |
| 10.01.2024 | Running an effective Board meeting in a growth company / start-up | In my earlier two blog posts about the Board work in a startup or growth company, I discussed the challenges of finding and engaging Board members and making the most of their expertise and networks.
For most growth companies though, the m... |
| 10.01.2024 | Kim Väisänen joins business growth advisor Takeoff Partners | Takeoff Partners specializes in internationalizing B2B software and service businesses. Kim Väisänen who during his Blancco career received numerous export and growth entrepreneurship related awards in Finland, further solidifies the Takeof... |
| 10.01.2024 | Takeoff Partners invests in Miradore, Device Lifecycle Management company | Miradore has its roots in the Finnish paper company UPM; the founding team originally handled IT device management in the company. They then figured it would make sense to try and productize the software tools needed for device lifecycle ma... |
| 10.01.2024 | New eBook: KPI Benchmarks Every SaaS Leader Should Understand | Leading a SaaS business is, as we know, much about numbers – monitoring your key metrics and "steering the ship" based on the insight provided by them. This eBook is designed to help SaaS leaders gain a better understanding on som... |
| 10.01.2024 | Portfolio company news: Cuckoo Workout® grows internationally with the help of Business Finland’s Young Innovative Company Funding | Cuckoo Workout® was selected to be part of Business Finland’s Young Innovative Company Funding program, which intends to boost the international growth of the selected, rapidly growing startups in Finland. The funding is for companies, such... |
| 10.01.2024 | Expert advice on taking Finnish SaaS Products to the North American market – The Case of Howspace | In Howspace’s case, it all comes down to an excellent product that was ready for the markets. While the US market values products with concrete benefits, a product alone, even one with huge potential, doesn’t guarantee a foothold in the hig... |
| 10.01.2024 | Invitation to the Takeoff Partners Investment Screening Day 23.5.2016 | We kindly ask the entrepreneurs interested to participate to send their investor decks to info (at) takeoffpartners.com by May 13th.
Please note that our focus is on B2B software an services, hence we cannot consider candidates outside of ... |
| 10.01.2024 | Takeoff Partners invests in Pilvi™, online business enabler | Pilvi’s entire EUR 250 000 financing round is a combination of a Tekes loan and equity capital from private investors. Along with Takeoff Partners, the investor consortium consists of experts in online business that join on board, bringing ... |
| 10.01.2024 | How a board of directors prepares for mergers and acquisitions - Future Board meeting | The theme for the Future Board meeting was mergers and acquisitions from the perspective of the board of directors. A closer look was taken into what the board should consider when selling or buying a company. The Future Board meeting was o... |
| 10.01.2024 | Jouko Virtanen appointed Chairman of the Board for Takeoff Partners – brings strong experience from North America | “It is great to be back in Finland, working hands on with local entrepreneurs to establish new business in North America and other parts of the world”, Jouko Virtanen says. “I am looking forward to helping Finnish businesses succeed in chal... |
| 10.01.2024 | Startup Board work: 10+1 things for the Board to focus on in startup companies | Startup companies start from scratch by definition, and there are countless unknowns surrounding them. Hence, it’s easy for both the entrepreneurs and the Board members to ‘get lost’ in the maze of opportunities, bottlenecks to growth, and ... |
| 10.01.2024 | Cuckoo Workout – A fun way of addressing the global challenge of too much sitting at work | - |
| 10.01.2024 | Clean it up on time: how to schedule your Series A financing round for maximum results | February 2020
As any estate agent would tell you, preparation is everything when it come to selling your house or apartment successfully. Well ahead of time, you make sure it looks good: you make sure the interior design is polished, perha... |
| 10.01.2024 | Success factors of internationalization – eBook | Taking startups global is a trending topic around the world. Yet there is very little publicly available literature on structuring the phases of taking a business overseas. This eBook discusses – through a framework approach - what successf... |
| 10.01.2024 | Key takeaways from SaaStock, Dublin | Thoughts and notes below by our Managing Partner Markko Vaarnas:
To further summarize, the discussions in the event focused around six specific areas, which here could be perhaps referred to as Key Success Factors of SaaS businesses:
To f... |
| 10.01.2024 | An afternoon with global minded entrepreneurs - Recap of the Growth Board event | - |
| 10.01.2024 | Startups: Understand EU's new privacy laws, attend event on Jun 14 | European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) defines how information related to EU citizen’s needs to be handled.While it clarifies and unifies data handling in the Union, it also adds new responsibilities to the companies... |
| 10.01.2024 | Invitation to the Takeoff Partners Investment Screening Day 19.1.2016 - Note the altered date! | We kindly ask the entrepreneurs interested to participate to send their investor decks to info (at) takeoffpartners.com by Wednesday, Jan 13.
Please note that our focus is on B2B software an services, hence we cannot consider candidates ou... |
| 10.01.2024 | Entering the North American market – the typical lessons and beyond | Jouko Virtanen nods at the above points: These are some of the top challenges that any entrepreneur looking to enter the US market will come across. And ticking those boxes is easier said than done: Presenting the perfect solution to a prob... |
| 10.01.2024 | 8 requirements VCs expect your B2B SaaS startup to meet or Series A round will forever remain a dream | November 2019
As angel-like investors, we usually enter a startup’s lifecycle at the pre-seed or seed stage. The product has been birthed into existence with the first satisfied customers actively benefiting from it, the company is generat... |
| 10.01.2024 | Takeoff Partners invests in Enbrite.ly as part of syndicate | The Slush pitch winner's award was doubled from the original 250,000€ to 500.000€ in just 48h prior to the conference held in November 2014. Enbrite.ly, a fresh Startup Sauna accelerator's graduate, won the competition from over 1300 applic... |
| 10.01.2024 | Invitation to the Takeoff Partners Investment Screening Day 1.12.2015 | We kindly ask the entrepreneurs interested to participate to send their investor decks to info (at) takeoffpartners.com by Wednesday, Nov 25.
Please note that our focus is on B2B software an services, hence we cannot consider candidates ou... |
| 10.01.2024 | Invitation to the Takeoff Partners Investment Screening Day 28.9.2017 | We kindly ask the entrepreneurs interested to participate to send their investor decks to info (at) takeoffpartners.com by Sep 21.
Please note that our focus is on B2B software, services and marketplaces, hence we cannot consider candidate... |
| 10.01.2024 | Invitation to the Takeoff Partners Investment Screening Day 31.8.2016 | We kindly ask the entrepreneurs interested to participate to send their investor decks to info (at) takeoffpartners.com by Aug 26.
Please note that our focus is on B2B software an services, hence we cannot consider candidates outside of th... |
| 10.01.2024 | Winning traction: Creating customer experiences that translate into business growth | When a new business starts, it builds on an idea of providing a solution to a customer problem that needs one. In line with the popular lean thinking, startups these days strive to demonstrate customer successes and the viability of their p... |
| 10.01.2024 | How can growth companies find and engage board members and utilize their expertise | Let’s start with the need for a professional Board. When will one become necessary for a startup company? As a general rule of thumb, sooner is better than later.
Companies are seeking Board members and advisors from outside when they real... |
| 10.01.2024 | Takeoff Academy – People and company culture as keys to a successful startup | The latest installment of the Takeoff Academy took place on December 18th and this time the topic was “People and company culture as keys to a successful startup”. Takeoff Academy had three amazing speakers giving presentations about corpor... |
| 10.01.2024 | Success Factors in Internationalization: From entrepreneurs to an empowered global organization | International growth takes a vision, and to start up a growth company, there should be at least one visionary on board in the team, preferably several that can challenge each other’s ideas. The vision doesn’t need to be about solving world’... |
| 10.01.2024 | Successful integration after acquisition – lessons learned | The Finnish founded GIA successfully internationalized and offered services to multinational companies. Markko sees GIA’s international mindset and ambition as one of the key success factors in reshaping the global Market Intelligence indus... |
| 14.08.2023 | Eficode acquires Takeoff Partners’ portfolio company Avoset | Founded in 2010 as a family business, Avoset is an Atlassian Platinum partner with solid expertise, especially in Atlassian Cloud. Avoset offers support, consulting, and license management services for Atlassian tools. The company is known ... |
| 07.12.2022 | Software company Lenio successfully completed a €390k funding round, including investment from Takeoff Partners | Another rising star in the Finnish software startup scene: Tampere-based Lenio Oy collected €390,000 in funding in November 2022. The company's key personnel and private investors participated in the round, including Takeoff Partners.
With... |
| 23.10.2022 | After surpassing the milestone of 1,000 board meetings, Markko Vaarnas sits down to discuss how growth companies can get the most out of their boards | October 2022
Although Markko Vaarnas is presently a board professional, he began his ongoing run of 1,000+ board meetings as the CEO of Global Intelligence Alliance Group, GIA. Founded in 1995, the company that coined ‘market intelligence ... |
| 04.03.2022 | With an impressive growth trajectory and a new acquisition, Avoset has become a power to behold among Atlassian consultancies | March 2022
The leading Atlassian expert in Finland, Avoset Oy is merging with Polar Shift Oy, which also focuses on Atlassian solutions. In a corporate arrangement, Polar Shift will merge into Avoset.
"Together, Avoset and Polar Shif... |
| 23.02.2022 | We asked CollectiveCrunch Co-CEO Rolf Schmitz about startups and external advisors—you need to recognize your gaps and have the humility to seek outside insight | February 2022
When talking about the dangers of lack of diversity when it comes to insight, CollectiveCrunch Co-CEO Rolf Schmitz has a story:
“I once spoke to a founder whose startup was in a zombie stage and in deep financial difficultie... |
| 26.01.2022 | 5 steps to take a B2B software product or service global | Have a great business idea? If you have the faintest ambition to one day take it overseas, the first thing to consider is whether the solution truly solves a global need. Or is it rather tied to a specific market area? This may sound obviou... |
| 26.01.2022 | Takeoff Partners joins Booxmedia, Basemark, HappyOrNot on Boardman's Growth Board seminar - Registration is open! | Boardman's Growth Board 2015 brings together entrepreneurs and business leaders interested in international growth, to share their experiences and thoughts on internationalization. Instead of theorizing, the conference will focus on sharing... |
| 26.01.2022 | Takeoff Partners invests in CollectiveCrunch, provider of machine learning-based forecasts for industries | Markko Vaarnas, Managing Partner of Takeoff Partners, the lead investor in the financing round comments: “From an investor’s perspective CollectiveCrunch provides an interesting new angle where machine learning meets concrete use cases in f... |
| 26.01.2022 | Takeoff Partners teams up with Boardman2020 and Finpro to organize Finance Board with the theme of 'Raising finance for international growth' | When?
10.3.2016 from 12.30-18.30
Where?
Finpro Oy, Porkkalankatu 1, 00180 Helsinki
12.00-12.30 Registration
12.30-13.45 Opening & Key Note Presentations
13.45-14.15 Networking Break
14.15-15.30 Reverse Pitching by finance providers
15.3... |
| 26.01.2022 | Takeoff Partners invests in Humap Software, platform for digitalizing consulting projects | “We want to support the revolution in how organizations operate, especially with the new digital tools and engagement opportunities available”, says Ilkka Mäkitalo, CEO of Humap Software. “We help make digitalization a part of our customer ... |
| 26.01.2022 | Takeoff Partners invests in UPGRD Photos, provider of design automation for photography | The half-million euro seed round of UPGRD Photos consists of equity capital investments by Takeoff Partners and Icebreker Venture Capital Fund, and it also includes TEKES’ funding.
Markko Vaarnas, Managing Partner of Takeoff Partners, comme... |
| 26.01.2022 | Data driven management urges companies to develop their KPI management practices | Earlier in my entrepreneurial career when I was managing an internationalizing growth company, I learned the importance of KPIs. ‘You get what you’re measuring’ goes the saying, and measure we did. I’m not saying we necessarily always measu... |
| 26.01.2022 | Takeoff Partners invests in Futures Platform, an innovative foresight tool | ”The traditional way of doing foresight work in companies tends to be very project-oriented”, says Juho Lipsanen, angel investor and advisor to Futures Platform. “Companies may have assigned a trends analysis project to support their strate... |
| 26.01.2022 | Growing into a global thought leader: How to? | ‘Positioning’ by definition means taking a position in relation to someone else. This is the reason we are not referring directly to ‘marketing’ or ‘brand building’: To position oneself, one must first understand where the other players sta... |
| 26.01.2022 | Takeoff Partners invests in LATO Leadership Automation Tools | LATO has developed a business leader's mobile tool that ensures and accelerates the execution of planned strategies. The solution is cloud-based, and it's already in use in tens of organizations, among them five of the Top 30 stock-listed c... |
| 26.01.2022 | Portfolio company news: CollectiveCrunch’s ground-breaking AI Linda Forest is ready | Full Stack Developer Kyryll Vynokurov and CEO Rolf Schmitz showcasing Linda Forest at the Digital Excellence Forum in Messukeskus, Helsinki.
September 2019
“Think Google Maps for forestry,” summarizes CEO and Co-founder Rolf Schmitz, when a... |
| 26.01.2022 | Takeoff Partners' Kim Väisänen in the jury of the Nordic Startup Awards Finland competition | The winners were selected by a panel of judges, each with proven experience and skill in recognising the potential of a startup. These choices were based upon the nominee's quality and impact within their industry or field. Hence, you could... |
| 26.01.2022 | Futures Platform secures EUR 1 million financing | The funding will be used for Research & Development focusing on the next generation of the Futures Platform product. The round included an R&D loan from Business Finland as well as equity financing.
Participants in the share issue i... |
| 26.01.2022 | Takeoff Partners helps Meetingpackage.com revolutionize B2B meeting reservation practices | Meetingpackage.com is a web-based marketplace such as Booking.com that helps companies reserve and manage offsite meetings. The online marketplace makes it easy to search and find popular meeting packages. Assistants and others who typicall... |
| 26.01.2022 | How to avoid chaos while growing? | Starting a new business from scratch comes with uncertainties. Are the first customer deliveries successful? If yes, why? If not, what should be changed? If we made mistakes, how do we make sure we learn from them and won’t make them again?... |
| 26.01.2022 | With a 70% increase in daily users, Cuckoo Workout is on a mission to keep remote workers moving | Often the ergonomics of the home office are not as good as at work, so taking breaks and moving regularly is even more important for the health when working remotely, says Veera Lehmonen, CEO of Cuckoo Workout. The break exercise app has re... |
| 26.01.2022 | Futures Platform closes half million euro equity round | “Our customers have discovered Futures Platform as a valuable addition to their strategy work”, says Ville Vanhala, CEO of Futures Platform. “We now have more than 40 customers in Finland that visualize their strategic assumptions about the... |
| 26.01.2022 | Stora Enso develops production processes through machine learning with CollectiveCrunch | "Paper making is about constantly balancing for instance the humidity levels", describes Stora Enso's Otto Mertanen in the article by Kauppalehti (originally in Finnish). "No-one really knows why the band breaks up since ther... |
| 26.10.2021 | Kim Väisänen is out with a new book on selling: “The secrets to success are trusting the process and learning how to create trust quickly” | September 2021
Besides being investors, all three of us at Takeoff Partners work as advisors to our portfolio companies as well as other organizations. One of the key topics we often help the leadership with is sales, with which we can hel... |
| 03.06.2021 | New eBook: Ready for Takeoff – Grooming your SaaS business to the next level | This eBook offers a complete overview on the topics that should be on the agenda of every B2B SaaS business leaders. It is meant to serve as a toolkit that can help identify development needs as well as to offer insight on when an external ... |
| 29.03.2021 | 3 tips for organizing sales in a growth-seeking professional services company | June 2020
Disorganized sales inevitably lead to unprofessional practices, there is no reason to sugarcoat it. While good salespeople can often thrive and succeed even in a disorganized environment, it is still vital for all growth-seeking c... |
| - | How to steer a SaaS company towards scalable growth? It requires a comprehensive review of the fundamentals | October 2021
When you have your product and you have your market fit, the next step is to achieve scalable growth. But truly scalable growth can only be achieved if the foundation is solid. There are many different aspects to consider and ... |
| - | Expanding to North America: here’s how you do it in 2021 | March 2021
Here at Takeoff Partners, we are all passionate about helping SaaS startups expand abroad and make their groundbreaking technology available for larger audiences. All of us have experience in successfully internationalizing comp... |
| - | 6+1 tips for renewing growth company board | December 2020
We have written about board work from many different perspectives in the past, including how to engage board members and what a startup board should focus on. This time, we are covering the interesting and complex topic renew... |
| - | New CEO of Futures Platform: “Foresight is a success factor for every organization regardless of size” | October 2021
When Juha Mattsson was first acquainted by Futures Platform, his initial thought was that it’s a great product but relevant only for a very tight niche—people working in foresight.
Soon, he had to amend his view.
“It was a m... |
| - | Company culture carried HUONE through the pandemic—it’s a critical resilience factor investors and business leaders should pay attention to | November 2021
A year ago, we interviewed Evon Blomstedt to discuss how the pandemic is shaping the future of office spaces and how she and her team were hard at work trying to keep HUONE above the water when lockdowns kept freezing their b... |
| - | Post-pandemic eCommerce boom is accelerating Videoly’s expansion to North America | March 2021
There are a few things that work for Videoly’s advantage, when it comes to achieving the almost-unattainable goal of finding successful business growth through expanding to North America in the middle of the pandemic.
One is th... |
| - | Portfolio company news: Howspace completes €12M Series A funding round | May 2021
Takeoff Partners’ portfolio company Howspace has announced completion of a €12M Series A Funding round, led by European investors Forestay Capital and Inventure.
Howspace has grown internationally at an impressive rate in the rec... |
