Today, we in Evli Growth Partners are proud to announce our first investments in TIER Mobility and Acast, the leading European companies of their fields. TIER, the fastest growing micro-mobility company ever, is in for a ride to change mobility for good. We are proud to support them in their recent funding round of $60M, a biggest Series B of a European company this year. Previously in the spring, we joined the story of Acast, the leading podcast platform of the world. Acast is determined to empower content creators to bring high-quality audio content available to everyone, everywhere, and at any time. We are thrilled to join them to fulfil the mission.
To properly understand our investment thesis in Tier and Acast, we must go back in time for a while. Last year, we identified a clear problem in the startup ecosystem of the Nordics and the Baltics. It’s not a secret that there is great amount of best-in-class tech talent in our region and, as a consequence, some true startup success stories have emerged in the previous years. However, we saw a problem: there was a lack of support for the scaling companies from top-of-the-class founders. We believe that founders need help from founders in the very beginning but also later to reach their global potential and become true category leaders.
We are entrepreneurs. Thus, there was nothing that could have stopped us from solving the problem we had identified. We gathered together some of the most successful entrepreneurs of the region, all of them having been in charge of building category leading companies in their own fields. Altogether, our previous portfolio of +150 companies as a founder, executive or investor gives us a unique expertise of building long-term sustainable businesses. In a partnership with Evli, a Finnish listed boutique bank, we built a funding program of 200 M€ to combine the best experience of our Growth Partners with the assets needed to help our partner companies to conquer the world.
In Evli Growth Partners, we are determined to support the most beautiful Nordic and Baltic companies. We invest initially in late Series A or Series B and actively help our partner companies until the exit. In exchange for our help, we want to see proven unit economics and scalable business model; yet, first and foremost, we are looking for founders with global ambition and exceptional capability for execution. These are the people we want to support to build cutting-edge tech and sustainable companies that make a significant positive impact environmentally, socially and governmentally.
Both TIER and Acast fit into the above-mentioned story perfectly. When we first came across TIER, we all in our team had the common view that the micro-mobility business, especially e-scooters, would not be sustainable, neither financially nor ecologically. Nevertheless, we started to study the market and work with Lawrence and others in TIER. Soon, we realized that all our pre-assumptions were misplaced. TIER is all about operational expertise, encoded deep in the company culture. We are still impressed every day about the level of detail with which everything in the operations is planned and executed. The nature of e-scooter business offers short feedback loops; yet, the way how TIER takes advantage of that is unique. It is rare to see a company that is built for continuous learning and improving their operations in such a way.
Of course, it all comes down to founders. The way how Lawrence, Matthias and Alex complete each other by sharing the same values makes a solid foundation for TIER. Their determination for sustainability and leading the transformation of transportation drives the company forward at an unprecedented pace. TIER has rolled out its operations to 40 cities in 12 countries in less than a year; yet, the main focus of the company is on healthy unit economics and continuous development of new zero-emission means of transport. We are truly changing mobility for good and excited to give Lawrence, Matthias, Alex and the rest all the help in this exciting ride.
Acast is another perfect example of a company that is leading the way in building a new category. Podcasts are rapidly changing the way how media is consumed; they enable self-development and entertainment in a highly engaging way, giving more opportunities to broaden one’s views and educate oneself. However, the most crucial condition for podcast market to thrive is to ensure the quantity of high-quality content. We are supporting Acast to solve this problem by empowering content creators to get a fair compensation from their work.Acast connects the creators, advertisers and listeners in a most relevant way with their leading platform. This enables podcasts to digitalize radio in the whole world and gives everyone an equal access to high-quality audio content.
We are excited to be a part of the great stories of Tier and Acast. We truly look forward to offering them all the possible support and expertise from our experienced partners and helping them to become more sustainable, enduring businesses. Our work with the most beautiful Nordic and Baltic companies has just started!
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After steering Lukiolaisten Kirjakauppa for a solid decade, Asikainen found himself yearning for a change of scenery. However, much like many other long-time entrepreneurs, navigating the transition to a new everyday life after the exit often proves to be easier said than done.
Lukiolaisten Kirjakauppa, a book agency that Riku Asikainen started as a high school hustle in 1992, quickly grew to a million-mark business. For Asikainen, the main challenge became to try to sustain the momentum and navigate through a decade-long legal battle.
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