Finnish venture capital company Open Ocean Capital Oy has established a new fund (Open Ocean Three) investing in early stage technologies. The size of the fund at first closing was 40 million euros. Finnish Industry Investment made a commitment of 5 million euros to the fund, and FoF Growth a commitment of 10 million euros.
The aim of the fund is to invest in approximately 15 European growth companies that have an already established user base and preliminary income. Initial investments typically range from 0.5 million euros to 1 million euros. The fund differentiates itself from others with its investment focus on open source and user community services.
The partners of Open Ocean Capital, Patrik Backman, Ralf Wahlsten and Michael Monty Widenius, have gained experience in user community and open source models in different executive roles at MySQL AB. MySQL was sold to Sun Microsystems for 1 billion euros in 2008. Furthermore, the team has recently been strengthened by Tom Henriksson who has held several executive positions at Nokia and led Holtron Ventures, which was one of the first investors of MySQL.
User community and open source products have rapidly entered the business world and the growth is expected to continue strongly in the future, says Patrik Backman, Managing Partner of Open Ocean Capital Oy. MySQL completely changed the global database markets and we believe that a similar strategy can work on changing other traditional business solution markets through new companies.
The Open Ocean business model is based on a strong skillset in its field. We now have a new venture capital fund in the market that has the necessary resources and skills to develop its most promising companies further, says Investment Director Riitta Jääskeläinen from Finnish Industry Investment.
The company has previously built a success story in its core expertise field. We are confident that the company can achieve this also in the future, says Esko Torsti, Chairman of the Investment Council of FoF Growth from Ilmarinen.
For more information, please contact:
Patrik Backman, Managing Partner, Open Ocean Capital
Tel: +358 40 507 5024, email: patrik (a) openoceancapital.com
Riitta Jääskeläinen, Investment Director, Finnish Industry Investment
Tel: +358 50 309 2733, email: riitta.jaaskelainen (a ) industryinvestment.com
Open Ocean Capital is a Finnish venture capital company that invests in European technology companies. www.openoceancapital.com
Finnish Industry Investment Ltd is a government-owned investment company whose mission is to promote Finnish business, employment and economic growth through venture capital and private equity investments. Finnish Industry Investment invests in funds and directly in growth companies in all sectors. The investment focus is on growth, internationalisation, spin-offs, major industrial investments, and sectoral and corporate restructurings. The investments of Finnish Industry Investment amount to 670 million euros. www.industryinvestment.com