Stories

Terhi Vapola, Vice President and the head of Helen Ventures, discusses sustainability in the energy sector and the role it plays in investment strategy.

A great product needs a great team. Investors want to know that the organization is capable of handling the challenges rapid growth brings. In this fourth and final part of our Growth 101 series, we look at human resources management and the critical role it plays in your ability to succeed.

You brand is your calling card. It captures the essence of your mission and is the rallying point for your team. In part three of our Growth 101 series, we look at brand identity and how to drive revenue growth with marketing.

Once you have product development underway and recurring revenue, it’s time to start scaling up. In this second part of our Growth 101 series, we look at the key elements of successful scaling.

This is our first post in a multi-part blog series about how to turn a startup into a successful business that attracts investors and customers. In this post, we look at product development and the Minimum Viable Product concept.

We talk with experienced investor, founder and head of Helen Ventures, Terhi Vapola, about startup funding and get some valuable tips.

In April 2021 we announced our 5th portfolio company deal, which we are super proud of. Together with btov Partners, DvH Ventures, Motu Ventures and one of the most renowned investors from the Silicon Valley tech ecosystem, we invested €5.25 million to Berlin based LiveEO, a pioneering new space startup that helps asset owners around the globe.

Virta, one of the fastest growing companies in Europe ranked by the Financial Times*, announces today that it has attracted significant funding from major technology investors in Europe and Asia, the globally leading electric vehicle markets. The Virta platform allows industries to expand their business in EV charging with a market proven solution integrating electric mobility as a flexibility element of the sustainable energy system.

LiveEO, an Earth Observation (EO) asset monitoring startup based in Berlin, has closed an investment round with the venture capital firms btov Partners, Helen Ventures, DvH Ventures, and Motu Ventures as well as deep tech investor Andreas Kupke and one of the most renowned investors from the Silicon Valley tech ecosystem. The Series A investment of €5.25 million (USD $6.35 million) allows LiveEO to further accelerate the development of their market leading infrastructure monitoring solution as well as their international expansion.

Helen Ventures' portfolio company Virta made it to the FT 1000 list again. EV charging company Virta is recognised as the second fastest growing company in Finland and the 144th fastest growing company in Europe on the Financial Times FT 1000 list.

Several media outlets in the venture capital ecosystem have been reporting about the 2021 European Capital Report by i5invest and WU Entrepreneurship Center. We at Helen Ventures are delighted that also our work has been recognised in the report!

Whether operating in B2C or B2B field, in digital business or a brick-and-mortar, certain aspects of sales and business growth are likely to be the same: A) you have potential customers, B) there is a certain flow of how they come to you, C) how they engage with your business, and D) how they convert into sales and stay with you. Regardless of how this flow looks to your business, we’re talking about the customer lifecycle framework.