An effective team is pivotal to all corporate and investment activities. How does carve-out specialist Verso
evaluate viable teams for the portfolio companies it invests in? Verso’s founder Anssi Kariola also discloses
how far intuition can be relied on as a guideline when building a successful team.
Anssi Kariola
Who he is: Managing Partner, Verso
Education: M.Sc. (Applied Electronics) from Helsinki University of Technology. MBA (Corporate Finance)
from Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration.
Experience: Worked for over 17 years in large corporations, mainly Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks.
Former head of M&A and Nokia Siemens Networks. Extensive experience in management positions with
responsibility for R&D/product development, international sales and marketing, business strategy and
M&A.
Verso
Established: 2012, founder Anssi Kariola.
Operation and objectives: Finnish private equity company that invests in carve-outs, buy-outs and growth businesses with growth bottlenecks. Specialises in carve-outs – ie, building independent companies from existing business operations.
Funds: Verso Spin-off Fund I is a MEUR 10 fund making minority investments in spin-off companies in the IT
and telecommunications sector. Verso Fund II is a MEUR 50.5 fund making majority investments in spin-offs
and growth companies in the technology sector.
Investors in the Fund II: Tesi, European Investment Fund, FoF Growth II, Ilmarinen, AI-Partners and Etrisk.
Portfolio companies: Companies and businesses with significant international growth potential but
suffering from growth bottlenecks.
Web page: versoventures.com