Management
Board of Directors
Artturi Tarjanne
Artturi Tarjanne is a co-founder of Nexit Ventures, a mobile venture capital firm focused on mobile and wireless innovation. Nexit invests primarily in Nordic and US-based companies with products and services for a global market.
Nexit has offices in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Silicon Valley.
With over 25 years of entrepreneurial Infocom industry experience Mr. Tarjanne is well known and referenced in Finland for his track record as one of the pioneering successful software entrepreneurs and organizers of industry interests at large. He is also a sought after mentor and advisor for Infocom entrepreneurs.
Mr. Tarjanne is deeply networked in the Finnish technology start-up community and has served as a board member or advisor in over a dozen early stage Infocom companies. He is an active contributor in several Finnish private and public organizations and has served as a board member in e.g. the Finnish Venture Capital Association (FVCA), the Finnish Software Entrepreneurs Association, and several technology programmes of TEKES, the National Technology Agency of Finland.
In 1997, Mr. Tarjanne founded AT Consulting Ltd offering management consulting services for information technology entrepreneurs. In 1992, Mr. Tarjanne co-founded Solid Information Technology Ltd, the leading developer of embedded data management platforms later acquired by IBM. Acting as the CEO of Solid, Mr. Tarjanne was given the annual Innosuomi Award ("Innovation Finland") by the President of Finland.
Timo Tirkkonen
Mr. Timo Tirkkonen, Investment Director, Partner and Executive Board Member of Inventure, has been in the early stage technology investing business for 15 years; first as a private investor and from 2005 onwards as an Investment Director and Partner at Inventure. Inventure is a technology investor in early stage companies, actively supporting growth oriented entrepreneurs to internationalize Nordic success stories. Inventure’s entrepreneur driven team works actively with the portfolio companies and brings their knowledge and network’s support. At Inventure, Timo focuses especially on deal flow generation and value creation of portfolio companies. Timo has hands-on experience as a board member from several early stage technology companies.
Timo, born in 1968, has also consulted over ten early stage companies. Over the years he has gained broad experience in public Corporate Governance and closing international transactions. Timo is well known in the IT industry and especially interested in developing the entrepreneurial activity in Finland through his broad network of industry players and advisers.
Jonas Geust
Jonas Geust is a partner and CEO at Havainne Oy (www.havainne.com). Havainne develops and sells smart products and internet based solutions to improve traffic and pedestrian safety. Prior to Havainne Jonas has more than 15 years of experience in the international telecom and mobile entertainment industry at Nokia, During his career at Nokia Jonas was responsible for bringing several innovative and iconic Nokia products to the market, including Nokia’s first devices with a hard drive (Nokia N91), integrated GPS (Nokia N95) the 1st Mobile Computer (Nokia N97) and the 1st cellular product based on the Maemo/Linux operating system (Nokia N900).
Jonas earned a B.Sc Eng from Institute of Technology in Helsinki and a Degree in Economics from the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen.
Management
Tero Sarkkinen
An entrepreneur and an international business executive, Mr. Sarkkinen has developed an extensive network of customers, partners and colleagues around the world. Mr. Sarkkinen has established companies in Europe, North America and Asia alike. He has dedicated himself in computer graphics technologies for over a decade and has become a distinguished person within the industry.
Prior to founding Rightware, Mr. Sarkkinen was CEO of Futuremark Corp., a leading PC graphics benchmarking software provider. He lead the company’s rapid organic growth. This resulted in 85th place in Deloitte’s EMEA Growth Company Ranking in 2005 and in RedHerring’s Hot 100 Europe nomination in 2006.
Tero holds a Master of Science in Business Administration from Aalto University Business School in Helsinki and has completed executive programs at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Ville Ilves
Mr. Ilves has served in various hi-tech executive positions within Europe and USA. Most of his career he served in NetHawk Plc (acquired by EXFO Inc, NASDAQ: EXFO). In his career, Mr. Ilves has led various worldwide marketing and sales operations in mobile, software, wireless, cleantech, test & measurement and government business segments. During his time in USA , NetHawk's US organization grew significantly both organically and through acquisitions.
Artturi Tarjanne
Artturi Tarjanne is a co-founder of Nexit Ventures, a mobile venture capital firm focused on mobile and wireless innovation. Nexit invests primarily in Nordic and US-based companies with products and services for a global market.
Nexit has offices in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Silicon Valley.
With over 25 years of entrepreneurial Infocom industry experience Mr. Tarjanne is well known and referenced in Finland for his track record as one of the pioneering successful software entrepreneurs and organizers of industry interests at large. He is also a sought after mentor and advisor for Infocom entrepreneurs.
Mr. Tarjanne is deeply networked in the Finnish technology start-up community and has served as a board member or advisor in over a dozen early stage Infocom companies. He is an active contributor in several Finnish private and public organizations and has served as a board member in e.g. the Finnish Venture Capital Association (FVCA), the Finnish Software Entrepreneurs Association, and several technology programmes of TEKES, the National Technology Agency of Finland.
In 1997, Mr. Tarjanne founded AT Consulting Ltd offering management consulting services for information technology entrepreneurs. In 1992, Mr. Tarjanne co-founded Solid Information Technology Ltd, the leading developer of embedded data management platforms later acquired by IBM. Acting as the CEO of Solid, Mr. Tarjanne was given the annual Innosuomi Award ("Innovation Finland") by the President of Finland.
Timo Tirkkonen
Mr. Timo Tirkkonen, Investment Director, Partner and Executive Board Member of Inventure, has been in the early stage technology investing business for 15 years; first as a private investor and from 2005 onwards as an Investment Director and Partner at Inventure. Inventure is a technology investor in early stage companies, actively supporting growth oriented entrepreneurs to internationalize Nordic success stories. Inventure’s entrepreneur driven team works actively with the portfolio companies and brings their knowledge and network’s support. At Inventure, Timo focuses especially on deal flow generation and value creation of portfolio companies. Timo has hands-on experience as a board member from several early stage technology companies.
Timo, born in 1968, has also consulted over ten early stage companies. Over the years he has gained broad experience in public Corporate Governance and closing international transactions. Timo is well known in the IT industry and especially interested in developing the entrepreneurial activity in Finland through his broad network of industry players and advisers.
Jonas Geust
Jonas Geust is a partner and CEO at Havainne Oy (www.havainne.com). Havainne develops and sells smart products and internet based solutions to improve traffic and pedestrian safety. Prior to Havainne Jonas has more than 15 years of experience in the international telecom and mobile entertainment industry at Nokia, During his career at Nokia Jonas was responsible for bringing several innovative and iconic Nokia products to the market, including Nokia’s first devices with a hard drive (Nokia N91), integrated GPS (Nokia N95) the 1st Mobile Computer (Nokia N97) and the 1st cellular product based on the Maemo/Linux operating system (Nokia N900).
Jonas earned a B.Sc Eng from Institute of Technology in Helsinki and a Degree in Economics from the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen.
Tero Sarkkinen
An entrepreneur and an international business executive, Mr. Sarkkinen has developed an extensive network of customers, partners and colleagues around the world. Mr. Sarkkinen has established companies in Europe, North America and Asia alike. He has dedicated himself in computer graphics technologies for over a decade and has become a distinguished person within the industry.
Prior to founding Rightware, Mr. Sarkkinen was CEO of Futuremark Corp., a leading PC graphics benchmarking software provider. He lead the company’s rapid organic growth. This resulted in 85th place in Deloitte’s EMEA Growth Company Ranking in 2005 and in RedHerring’s Hot 100 Europe nomination in 2006.
Tero holds a Master of Science in Business Administration from Aalto University Business School in Helsinki and has completed executive programs at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Ville Ilves
Mr. Ilves has served in various hi-tech executive positions within Europe and USA. Most of his career he served in NetHawk Plc (acquired by EXFO Inc, NASDAQ: EXFO). In his career, Mr. Ilves has led various worldwide marketing and sales operations in mobile, software, wireless, cleantech, test & measurement and government business segments. During his time in USA , NetHawk's US organization grew significantly both organically and through acquisitions.
