Tesi — Investment Thesis & Preferences

01Investment Thesis

Its mandate is both financial returns and economic impact — driving growth, jobs, and renewal in the Finnish economy.

Exclusion Criteria

Non-Finnish companies (for direct investments). Tesi is a countercyclical co-investor and does not compete with private investors or take majority positions. Will not be the sole lead investor.

02Investment Team

PS

Pia Santavirta

CEO

SW

Samuel Wendelin

Director, Fund Investments

JL

Juha Lehtola

Director, Venture and Growth Investments

JH

Jussi Hattula

Director, Industrial Investments

HK

Heli Kerminen

Director

KB

Keith Bonnici

Investment Director

JK

Joni Karsikas

Investment Director

MK

Miia Kaye

Investment Director

PS

Petri Serenius

Investment Director

AL

Asseri Lehtiniemi

Investment Director

SA

Susanna Aaltonen

Director, Communications & Public Affairs

03F4 Research Brief

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.