Tesi Research
Investment Thesis
Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a state-owned, market-driven investment company with an industrial policy mission focused on driving economic growth, renewal, and investments in Finland. Tesi's core mandate is to grow Finland's most promising companies while also developing the Finnish venture capital and private equity market. Tesi operates as a countercyclical investor, stepping in when private capital is scarce, while always investing on market terms alongside private investors.
Under its 2025–2029 strategy, Tesi aims to channel EUR 14 billion of growth financing into Finnish companies over five years — approximately double the pace of prior periods. The firm has EUR 1.8 billion in investment capacity for this cycle and targets investments across venture, growth equity, and large-scale industrial projects.
Stage Focus
Tesi invests across three investment tracks:
- Venture Capital Investments: Early-stage Finnish startups at seed and Series A, with a focus on deep tech, health & life sciences, clean economy, and software
- Scaleup & Growth Investments: Finnish scale-ups seeking growth equity capital to expand domestically and internationally
- Industrial Investments: Large industrial-scale projects in clean transition, advanced manufacturing, and defence
- Fund Investments: LP positions in Finnish and international VC/PE funds, including fund-of-funds programs
Half of Tesi's portfolio is direct investments and half is fund investments, though the allocation varies by market conditions.
Check Size
Tesi's check sizes vary widely by investment type. For direct venture investments, checks typically range from EUR 1–10M. For growth equity investments, checks run EUR 5–20M. Industrial project investments can be substantially larger. Fund commitments have ranged from EUR 3M to EUR 65M per fund. The firm made EUR 425 million in total investments and commitments in 2025 alone, reflecting the significant scale of its new strategy.
Lead Tendency
Tesi explicitly does not take the sole lead investor role in most cases. The firm co-invests alongside other Finnish and international venture capital and private equity funds, pension funds, industrial investors, and private investors. Tesi requires that at least half of any round be comprised of private capital. That said, Tesi can serve as a syndicate anchor and has deep local market knowledge that helps attract international co-investors to Finnish companies.
Recent Activity
Tesi has been very active in 2025–2026 under its new strategy:
- July 2026: Participated in CurifyLabs' $14M raise to scale personalized medicine production
- June 2026: Participated in Cactos EUR 12.5M growth funding (energy storage)
- June 2026: Cornerstone investor in Savox Communications IPO
- June 2026: Portfolio company ICEYE raised over EUR 1 billion at EUR 10.5 billion valuation, becoming Finland's third decacorn
- July 2026: Portfolio company IQM made stock market history with dual listing in Helsinki and the United States
- 2025: Invested in Vexlum, Avenue Biosciences, Nordic Ren-Gas, NestAI, Hedera DX, and multiple others
- 2025: Made fund commitments to Lifeline Ventures Fund VI (EUR 400M+ fund), Cloudberry Fund I (Europe's first semiconductor-focused VC fund), HealthCap IX, Vendep Capital Fund IV, and others
- 2025: Total investments/commitments of EUR 425 million, vs EUR 116 million in 2024 — a 3.7x increase
Fund status: Actively deploying under new 2025–2029 strategy. The Finnish government capitalized Tesi by an additional EUR 50 million in June 2026.
Portfolio Highlights
Notable portfolio companies and milestones include:
- ICEYE (iceye.com) — synthetic aperture radar satellite company; raised EUR 1B+ at EUR 10.5B valuation in June 2026; Finland's third decacorn
- Oura Health (ouraring.com) — smart ring health tracking; one of Finland's leading consumer health tech companies
- IQM Finland (meetiqm.com) — quantum computing hardware; dual-listed on Helsinki and US stock exchanges in July 2026
- Varjo Technologies (varjo.com) — professional-grade VR/XR headsets for enterprise and defence
- Swappie (swappie.com) — circular economy mobile phone refurbishment
- UpCloud (upcloud.com) — cloud infrastructure services
- Solar Foods (solarfoods.com) — protein produced from CO2 using microbes
- Blastr Green Steel (blastr.no) — green steel production in Norway
- Haltian (haltian.com) — IoT hardware and solutions
- TactoTek (tactotek.com) — in-mold structural electronics
Team
Tesi has approximately 59 permanent employees across investment, strategy, legal, finance, and communications functions. Email format: [email protected]
- Pia Santavirta, CEO — heads the firm and overall strategy
- Samuel Wendelin, Director, Fund Investments — leads LP positions in VC/PE funds
- Juha Lehtola, Director, Venture and Growth Investments — leads early and growth-stage direct investments
- Jussi Hattula, Director, Industrial Investments — leads large industrial project investments
- Heli Kerminen, Director — senior investment professional in Venture & Growth team; leads clean economy investments
- Keith Bonnici, Investment Director — deep tech and software focus
- Joni Karsikas, Investment Director — health & life sciences and software
- Miia Kaye, Investment Director — health & life sciences
- Petri Serenius, Investment Director — fund investments
- Asseri Lehtiniemi, Investment Director — fund investments
- Henri Hakamo, Chief Strategy and Research Officer — strategy, market data, and research functions
- Susanna Aaltonen, Director, Communications & Public Affairs
Decision Process
Tesi's Board of Directors meets monthly to make investment decisions. Smaller investments can be approved by the Management Team. The process involves screening meetings, evaluation alongside co-investors, due diligence (including mandatory ESG due diligence for all potential investments), and final Board or Management Team approval. The typical timeline is several months from first meeting to investment decision.
Founder Preferences
Tesi invests in Finnish companies at all stages — from early startups to established industrial companies. For venture investments, they look for strong management teams capable of executing growth plans, clear international expansion potential, evidence of private co-investors or ability to attract a syndicate, ESG awareness and alignment, and sector fit in clean economy, deep tech, health & life sciences, or software.
Tesi does not compete with private investors — it acts as a co-investor and countercyclical force. Companies must have at least 50% of their round from private capital.
Geographic Focus
Tesi invests exclusively in Finnish companies for direct investments. For fund investments, it invests in Finnish and international VC/PE funds (Nordics, Europe, and beyond) that have Finland nexus or material Finnish exposure.
Financial Scale
As of 2025 annual results:
- Investments under management: EUR 3.2 billion
- Balance sheet total: EUR 2.75 billion
- Financial result (IFRS): EUR 178 million profit
- 137 VC/PE fund investments
- 135 direct portfolio companies
- 1,463 total portfolio companies (through funds and direct)
- Return on equity: 7.9%