Nexit Ventures, a venture capital company focused on digital disruption, has appointed Markku Mäkeläinen as a new partner. He joins Nexit at an exciting time, as the company targets for an even more central role in the fast-growing Nordic startup market. Mäkeläinen will focus on Nexit's new investments and scaling its portfolio companies.
Helsinki's startup ecosystem has a central role in the Nordic startup market. Despite this, on a global scale, Finland does not have any large venture capital funds. Nexit will focus on technology disruption through investments primarily in the Nordics and opportunistically in the Baltics and beyond.
Mäkeläinen joins Nexit from Facebook Inc., where he led engineering and technology for Facebook's partnerships organization, focusing on augmented and virtual reality, mobile, growth, Facebook's platform partnerships, and messaging. Before the engineering and technology role, he was in charge of global mobile and growth partnerships for Facebook for three years.
"I'm really excited to get to work together with the Nexit team and the founders and entrepreneurial talent we see here in the Nordics. My goal is to help create and scale new global success stories. The Nordic pool of companies have world-class expertise, but one of the barriers for growth has been limited availability of local growth-stage capital", says Mäkeläinen.
Mäkeläinen has been a founder and an early stage investor in tens of technology companies, and he has an extensive international career spanning more than two decades in global markets as an entrepreneur.
As an executive, with close to five years at the helm of scaling large global technology programs at Facebook Inc. and before that as an entrepreneur with multiple mobile platform companies and exits, Mäkeläinen is well positioned to help the next wave of Nordic founders focusing on growth and disruption.
"Entrepreneurial opportunities in the Nordics have never been better, as access to global markets is better available than ever, and we have an immense, highly educated talent pool in the region. We continue to operationally support the growth of our portfolio companies in global hotspots like San Francisco and Austin, as well as more broadly in Asia and Europe", Mäkeläinen says.
Nexit Ventures will continue to strengthen its Activist VC strategy further. At the moment, Nexit has a presence in San Francisco, California, and Austin, Texas, in addition to Helsinki Finland. Nexit will establish further ties and presence to growth markets in Asia. Mäkeläinen will be based in Helsinki, but he will work closely with U.S. companies.
"Appointment of Markku Mäkeläinen will strengthen the strong foothold of Nexit as a transatlantic operator. The USA is the largest exit-market for VC-funded companies, and roughly two-thirds of VC-funded exits are in the USA. All together Nexit has made 12 exits in the United States, such as our exit from Ekahau, sold to Ookla, a subsidiary of Ziff Davis", says Michel Wendell, partner of Nexit Ventures.
About Nexit Ventures
Nexit Ventures, the Activist VC, is a venture capital firm focused on digital disruption. Leveraging its extensive network in the global tech marketplace, Nexit invests primarily in Nordic early-stage B2B companies with products and services for a global market. For its portfolio companies, Nexit provides a bridge to lucrative US markets, resources and exit opportunities. Nexit has helped several portfolio companies enter the market and has subsequently realized several successful exits of its portfolio companies in the United States, the world's leading M&A arena for technology ventures. www.nexitventures.com
