Databutton logo image

## Building AI-powered apps at the speed of thought

Ideas can, and should, come from anywhere. But not everyone has the technical knowhow to transform them into practical, scalable applications fit for the AI-age. Databutton’s guided platform featuring AI-assistant, Databutler, allows everyday people to build and share interactive web apps from their browser. Early use cases include chatbots that help people with diabetes, and sleep apnea, an AI assistant that recommends products on a gardening site’s webshop, a real-time trading app, an app that automates marketing blog posts, and more. And they are just getting started.

Investors

> We're excited to have secured this funding, which will allow us to bring Databutton to market and revolutionize the way businesses create and share AI apps. Our AI-assisted product will empower anyone with domain knowledge and ideas to unleash their inner superheroes, enabling them to build amazing productivity tools in record time.

Trygve Karper
CEO and Co-Founder of Databutton

## Democratizing the data science discipline

Founders Trygve Karper, Martin Røed, and Viral Shah witnessed firsthand the struggle scientists and analysts go through to turn ideas into practical tools. In a bid to stop technical knowledge or skills from getting in the way of innovation and creativity, they founded Databutton in 2021. Since launching into beta in January 2023, the platform has registered nearly 4,000 users who have built almost 5,000 web applications and counting. With the new funding boost, the team aims to finetune Databutler and move ahead with a full launch later this year.

Databutton body image

> Business decision making is better when it is backed by insights from data based on operations. Databutton is putting power in the hands of  people to build the tools they need to make their work better and we’re excited to be supporting them as they start their journey.

Paavo Räisänen
Partner at Maki.vc


Making: AI-powered apps at the speed of thought
Round size: €4.5M
Invested in: 2023

Databutton

Ever dye image

## Inventing the most sustainable way to color textile

The textile industry is in need of a detox. It’s responsible for up to 10% of the carbon emissions and 20% of wastewater generated across the world. One of the main culprits behind this pollution is inefficient textile dyeing processes. Therefore, lowering the environmental toll of colors should be a top priority for everyone in the fashion ecosystem who are striving for more sustainability.

The Paris-based, material tech startup Ever Dye is stepping up to this challenge with their greener, faster and energy-efficient dyeing process that produces recyclable and reusable dyes. This eco-friendly alchemy involves – synthesizing pigments from natural elements, a fast and no-heat required process to attach the dyes, and a simple, mechanical process to clean the used water after the fact.


> With Ever Dye's novel method, fabrics can be dyed five times faster with fifteen times less energy consumed – and without any petrochemicals involved.

Ilan Palacci
CEO at Ever Dye

## Setting a new standard for creating colorful wardrobes

From day one, the team of experts behind Ever Dye has been pursuing a long-term solution that completely overhauls the fabric coloring process as we know it. Now, Ever Dye’s patented innovation allows brands to improve the sustainability of their supply chains, end products and product life cycles – without sacrificing their love for bold and vibrant colors. However, changing practices and behaviors of the fashion industry, on both consumer and producer ends, calls for a collaborative and systematic push. That’s why Ever Dye continues to work closely with partners who are also diving into cutting-edge research and development to keep elevating the bar of sustainable fashion.

Ever Dye body image

> Fashion is one of the industries most ripe for disruption, and Ever Dye’s technology brings a long-awaited, more sustainable solution to dyeing fabrics.

Paavo Räisänen
Partner at Maki.vc


Making: Low heat & low-energy dyeing pigments and processes
Round size: €3.4M
Invested in: 2023

Ever Dye 

Lollipop logo

## Transforming your weekly shopping

Online grocery shopping has increased tremendously over the pandemic, and the Lollipop team has taken this growth opportunity by storm with their smart assistant for weekly grocery shopping. The team’s vision is to revolutionize the weekly shop with a free, smart shopping assistant that does the hard work for you. It enables consumers to save time by easily planning meals, giving food inspiration from in-house chefs and the ability to be part of a larger community of shoppers. 

This holistic approach to grocery shopping was created by ex-Monzo COO Tom Foster-Carter, and Chris Parsons as CTO with 20 years experience in gaming and data analytics. The team combines experience from companies like Sainsbury’s, Amazon, and Zoopla.

> The digital groceries market is massive, and while there’s much activity around delivery speed, that’s not the only need in the market. Lollipop team impressed us by taking cues from their earlier experiences at fintech companies Monzo and Curve, and turning those cues into a vision of getting families fed well and effortlessly through replicating the same obsession over design and UX in the grocery segment.

Pauliina Martikainen
Investment Director at Maki.vc

Lollipop middle image

## Getting families fed without the stress

With living costs on the rise, families have to work much harder to put tasty, nutritious and affordable meals on the table. Lollipop’s meal-first approach allows busy shoppers to add and import their favourite recipes, build custom meals and even use up the remaining ingredients in the cupboards, effortlessly. With community at its core, Lollipop’s personal grocery shopping assistant provides support at every stage from meal inspiration and reaching health goals to making everyday cooking easy.

Lollipop quote picture

> Tracking your family’s nutritional intake and what’s left to use up in your cupboards should be as effortless as tracking your money on Monzo. That’s what we’re building at Lollipop.

Tom Foster-Carter
Co-founder & CEO, Lollipop

Making: A smart grocery shopping assistant
Invested in: 2022
Round size: €5.8M

Lollipop

Membrane Finance logo

## Closing the gap between traditional & crypto financial markets

As a fintech specialist developing technologies that facilitate hybrid financial markets, Membrane Finance designs and builds core stablecoin infrastructure, applications and services for institutions, marketplaces and end-users. Membrane Finance is the principal architect of EUROe – an EU-regulated stablecoin that’s a digital representation of fiat Euros.

Fiat or government issued currencies not pegged to a commodity like gold are inherently incompatible with digital currencies. Today, stablecoins are the go-between for traditional finance and virtual currencies. While USD stablecoins are gaining a stronghold in this multi trillion market, EURO is trailing behind without an established equivalent. Membrane Finance is bridging this gap through EUROe which will also provide fast, inexpensive and regulatory-compliant access to DeFI markets.

> Getting an EU-level license is massive news for both us and the wider European cryptocurrency market and community.

Juha Viitala
Co-founder and CEO of Membrane Finance

Membrane Finance middle image

## Seamlessly linking traditional financial infrastructure & blockchain-based services
Membrane Finance aims to foster financial innovation and inclusion by developing an ecosystem of secure money infrastructure, user-friendly applications and stablecoin related services – a mission also backed by their parent company Equilibrium, a world leader in developing all parts of the web3 infrastructure.

With high ambitions for EUROe to become the default currency of choice for Europeans stepping into the new era of money, Membrane Finance is striving to get a competitive edge in the fast growing global stable coin market and lay the foundation for future financial services.

Maki-Membrane Quote

> Stablecoins are an essential part of the transition towards blockchain-based money infrastructure, and Europeans deserve to have a full-reserve euro stablecoin that is from the EU and regulated by EU-based financial authority.

Paavo Räisänen
Partner at Maki.vc

Making: Tech that facilitate hybrid financial markets
Invested in: 2022
Round size: €2M

Membrane Finance

Onego Bio logo second image

## Creating egg whites without chickens

Eggs are one of the most used animal proteins in the world. Over the past two decades their production has almost doubled in volume and is predicted to grow to a whopping 138 million tonnes by 2030. Now, Finnish startup Onego Bio is using novel technology to produce animal-free egg protein, Bioalbumen. In a method similar to beer production, they leverage precision fermentation to create egg-white proteins identical to their conventional counterparts, minus the many implications to both the planet and animal welfare. What’s more — Onego Bio’s animal-free egg white can be produced at an industrial scale and at a competitive price point, too.

> Egg protein is one of the most widely used proteins in the world, and Onego Bio has the opportunity to launch an animal-free alternative, which is also environmentally sustainable. 

Paavo Räisänen
Partner at Maki.vc

Onego Bio middle image

## Creating smart proteins that can change attitudes

For the founding team of experienced entrepreneurs and scientists at Onego Bio, a cellular agriculture spin-off from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, producing egg white proteins in a bioreactor was in fact the easy part. When doing so, they also picked a commercially-proven Trichoderma technology that allows for higher efficiency and productivity — exemplifying potential for industrial scale success from the get go. They believe the true challenge will be to change the perspectives on alternative ways of producing food. But as consumers become more and more open to animal-free products, Onego Bio plans to enter the market first with the bakery and confectionary industry, then protein supplement for fitness products before eventually winning the hearts of home bakers and cooks around the world.

Onego quote picture

> We want to rethink eggs and give people access to a delicious healthy animal-free alternative. Egg white is a smart starting point for the next level proteins. In many applications, egg is the last frontier before entirely animal-free end products can be manufactured.

Maija Itkonen
CEO of Onego Bio Ltd.

Making: Creating egg whites without chickens
Round size: €10M
Invested in: 2022

Onego Bio

QDI Systems logo

## Building high-quality X-rays with low radiation

QDI Systems from Groningen, the Netherlands, is the first initiative worldwide that is able to demonstrate the added value of quantum dots for X-ray examinations.

The technology is based on ultra-modern nanomaterial: quantum dots. This material converts photons into electronic signals in a highly effective way. When quantum dots are used for X-ray examinations, they are able to create a higher image quality at lower radiation doses. The technology is expected to have a huge impact on procedures like mammogram screening and diagnostics.

> QDI Systems has already generated impressive traction and feedback from large industrial companies, some of which have stated that this is the best new tech they have seen in ten years.

Paavo Räisänen
Partner at Maki.vc

## First to demonstrate the added value of quantum dots for X-ray examinations

QDI systems is a high-tech start-up, spin-off from Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, founded by Dr. Artem Shulga. The strategy of QDI systems is to become a major technology provider, developing quantum dot technology for various applications. The company offers high-quality and easy-to-use quantum dot material and the detailed recipe on how to make a high-performance device out of it.

> When you use a high dose, the image quality gets better. But because radiation is also bad for the body, this is a difficult trade-off. Our quantum dot technology makes it possible to create X-ray views of higher image quality, but with a lower dose of X-rays. It’s better for the patient and better for the diagnosis.

Dr. Artem Shulga
Founder and CEO of QDI Systems

QDI Systems team

Making: The first x-ray detector based on quantum dot technology
Round size: €1.3M
Invested in: 2022

QDI Systems

Seed companies 1/2

Aivo upper image 

## Healing the root cause of chronic symptoms

Chronic pain is a $635 billion per year burden on the health care system in the U.S. alone. Aivo's vision is to shift chronic pain care from ad hoc random encounters to continuous precision care. The company is developing a personalized self-care program with leading neuroscientists that teaches brain to overcome chronic back pain. To cure chronic pain, the brain needs to be rewired and Aivo's program uses emotional learning to treat the root cause of chronic pain. By discovering personal pain profile Aivo is able to create personalized daily programs, which are fine-tuned monthly to start journey towards pain-free life. 

Investors 

## The Aivo Program is developed by leading neuroscientists

While serial entrepreneur and chronic pain patient Mika Marjalaakso studied scientific literature for a cure, he stumbled on the work of Professor Apkarian, a respected neuroscientist who used brain imaging to show that, instead of the tissue damage, the brain structure was best to predict the symptom patterns and differential treatment response. Soon after, Aivo was born. Now, Marjalaakso and Apkarian are building Aivo together. They're fulfilling their vision by using in-app digital biomarkers and machine learning models that leverage Dr. Apkarian's decades of work at Northwestern University.   


Aivo App picture

> We are starting with chronic low back pain, but we’ve got big ambitions. And we won’t stop until we’ve succeeded at redefining what chronic pain care means.

Making: Precision pain care
Round size: €2M
Invested in: 2021

Aivo

Alvar Pet intro image 

## Eco-friendly and personalized dog food, delivered directly to the customer’s door 

The growing pet industry is an area that has not reacted to sustainability challenges that the industry is causing, but Alvar Pet believes owning a dog should not be a choice against the environment. 

Alvar Pet has created a range of zero-emission meals by making sustainable choices in every step of the operational chain. That means choises such as using Nordic ingredients like Baltic herring, faba beans and oats, using recyclable materials, and delivering the food directly to the dog owner's front door. 

> Alvar's value-led mission stands out from its competitors. The company's D2C business challenges the traditional, well-known brands and the often locally functioning distributors with its data-driven customer understanding and speed.

Pauliina Martikainen
Investment Director at Maki.vc

Alvar pet image 

## Alvar Pet found an uncatered space in environmentally-conscious pet owners

Being dog owners themselves, the founder group felt that these topics should be addressed and they founded Alvar with the mission to minimise the carbon pawprint. They started addressing the pawprint impact of food consumption that accounts over 50% of the emissions.

They currently offers a range of zero-emission dog foods made of Nordic ingredients such as Baltic herring, oats and faba beans and have delivered over 300,000 meals since their launch in 2020. 

Quote image 

> As dogs become an increasingly popular and prominent part of our lives, their environmental impact must be addressed

Ilari Haataja 
Co-founder of Alvar Pet 

Making: Sustainable pet food home-delivered
Round size: €1M
Invested in: 2020

Alvar Pet

Baseimmune upper image 

## Developing a variant-proof coronavirus vaccine

UK-based Baseimmune is a biotech startup founded to create vaccine that could provide immunity against all future coronaviruses and predict new variants. But how? Pathogens are evolving constantly to adapt and ensure their survival, meaning they are a constantly moving target for vaccines. Baseimmune uses deep learning to predict the direction that a pathogen will take to create vaccines that are many steps ahead and future proof.

Their unique platform is based on powerful technology, which generates antigens using a level of informatics depth not previously seen. This way they're able to tackle emerging and challenging pathogens, and most importantly able to ensure that vaccines remain effective even if a pathogen mutates.

> In January 2020, even when there was just a small amount of data available about the Covid-19 virus, we predicted the key variants that would emerge, like the South African one.

Josh Blight 
Co-founder at Baseimmune

Baseimmune / Wide picture 

## We keep missing the bullseye 

“Pathogens are a bit like dartboards and the vaccine the dart. The problem is that the dartboard keeps moving, sometimes we manage to hit them whilst others we can never hit in time. We are seeing this now with reduced vaccine efficacy against emerging COVID variants.” This is how Baseimmune Co-founder likes to explain the problem their team is tackling.

The founders met while working at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, where they developed vaccines for a various of diseases. Baseimmune was founded in August 2019 and now manufacturing and testing of an ASFV vaccine is underway. They expect to deliver a vaccine against Africa Swine Fever in few years.

>  We call this vaccines with plasticity. Imagine only needing one flu shot instead of one every year, that's vaccines with plasticity.

Joshua Blight
Co-founder at Baseimmune

Quote image

Making: a variant-proof coronavirus vaccine
Round size: €4.1M  
Invested in: 2021

Baseimmune

Upper image Calqulate

## Building a financial analytics platform for startups and growth companies 

Calqulate envisions a world where every entrepreneur has the financial knowledge to run a successful business and get easier access to financing.

Their financial analytics platform helps startups and growth companies to understand their current and future business performance to achieve faster growth. They do this, by combining all key subscription metrics, cashflow management and financial forecasts to a single, easy-to-use platform.

> Many companies, especially in their early stages, have limited budgets or capabilities in their financial teams. In order to manage successful, rapid growth, you need to be on top of your key metrics and have a forward looking view to your cash flow

Pirkka Palomäki 
Partner at Maki.vc

Big picture Calqulate 

## Financial forecasting shouldn’t be tedious and complex

The founders have personal experience of tech companies achieving considerably faster growth when they understand their key metrics and know how much it costs to acquire new customers in different markets. It's essential to know when it's time to invest in growth and Calqulate is working to eliminate  challenges and risks by providing a clear overview of the company’s growth metrics and accurate cash flow forecasts.

Calqulate has grown to a burgeoning thirty person company with staff on 3 continents and representing 10 nationalities. Next, the company plans to launch its platform to businesses in other verticals, such as e-commerce and mobile gaming, and enter the U.S market. 


> By providing an opportunity to better understand their current and projected business performance, we’re positioning SaaS companies to achieve exponentially faster growth. We offer our customers a full suite of finance-led growth tools. Say goodbye to having 200 tabs open and say hello to clarity

Niko Laine
CEO at Calqulate


Niko Laine Calqulate

Making: Finance understandable
Round size: €1.5M 
Invested in: 2020

Calqulate

## Bringing a paradigm shift to heart health 

Cardiac diseases and related premature deaths are the top burden in health care globally – 49 million people suffer from heart diseases in Europe alone. CardioSignal, a smartphone app approved as a medical device, helps detect atrial fibrillation, making monitoring heart health more accessible to people.

CardioSignal is a brand and a product by Precordior, a Finnish health technology company.The solution measures micro-motions of the chest using the accelerometer and gyroscope which can already be found from most smartphones. The non-invasive, cloud-based automated analysis of motion data provides a new way for general practitioners (GPs) to accurately assess heart-atrial fibrillation (AFib). The company aims to expand the capabilities to other heart diseases in the future.


> What makes our position unique is our capability to harness the everyday device, smartphone, to detect severe heart diseases accurately. 

Juuso Blomster 
Cardiologist & CEO of CardioSignal.

Middle image 

## CardioSignal is created by cardiologists for better heart health

Detecting serious heart issues early can save a life. CardioSignal’s technology is patented and clinically tested to detect atrial fibrillation with 96% accuracy. CardioSignal is an academic spinoff that is based on a decade of research and algorithm development. The company focuses on scientific research and collaborates with several universities and hospitals on clinical studies and trials for other heart disease applications.

> Detecting serious heart issues early can save lives. The CardioSignal solution and the company’s focus on scientific research and collaborations with several universities have impressed us. They are well positioned to fundamentally change the way heart diseases are being diagnosed. 

Ilkka Kivimäki
Founding partner at Maki.vc.

Making: a paradigm shift to heart health 
Round size: €2.2M
Invested in: 2021

CardioSignal

Collo upper image

## Building an Industrial IoT liquid analyzer

Collo's vision is to transform the productivity and environmental footprint of manufacturing industry. Their analyzer provides actionable real-time analytical results from processes prior measured only in a laboratory, and thus helps its customers better understand and to develop more effective liquid processes. 

Collo helps its customers save energy, materials, processing time, and increase product quality and shorten product to market time. They're already working with tens of customers across several sectors: water, chemical and mining, food and beverage, ceramic, oil and paint, and coating. Their customers include global Fortune 500 companies as well as small and innovative process owners.

> We can increase the safety of liquids and save our stakeholders’ and mankind’s resources, including energy, chemicals, raw-materials and time.

Matti Järveläinen
CEO at Collo

## In search of a liquid fingerprint

Dirty drinking water, unqualified liquid used in a manufacturing process, or a contaminated drink on a bar counter. Liquids are ingenious to hide what they really contain. But every liquid has a fingerprint, and Collo has found a way to identify it.

Collo’s solution sends a MHz-range radio wave that advances through the liquid. The analyzer detects interferences that the chemicals and different component in the liquid in the liquid cause to the signal. Sensitivity of the measurement reaches a level of a millionth. It’s a continuous, real-time measurement that works regardless of the solidness or complexity of the liquid, from drinking water to ceramic mass.

> Every liquid has a unique fingerprint. No two are the same, just like no two human fingerprints are the same.

Ilkka Sillanpää
Co-founder of Collo

Making: Ultimate liquid process performance
Round size: €2.8M
Invested in: 2018

Collo

Disior upper image

## Building 3D medical imaging software for clinicians

Disior is turning CT and MRI images into mathematical models and numerical analysis. Their 3D analytics software for medical doctors analyses, quantifies and parameterizes medical images. The software turns medical images into automated, objective data for patient diagnosis, treatment planning, and outcome assessment. 

The Disior software helps doctors make better diagnoses and treatment decisions based on accurate, consistent, and comparable data – something that traditional and soon-to-be outdated methods can never match.

> The Disior method analyzes the original 3D data in a way that compares to having a full vision

Professor Jari Salo 
MD & Specialist in Orthopedics and Trauma

Quote 

## Making Medical Imaging Intelligent

In the next 5–10 years, artificial intelligence is likely to fundamentally transform the $30+ billion diagnostic imaging market by speeding up the clinical workflows, improving diagnostic quality and enabling personalized treatment. To date all commonly used medical imaging solutions produce a set of separate 2D pictures from various angles, leaving the responsibility of compiling the puzzle to the physician.

New technologies are urgently required to extract and reconstruct the data in a way that reduces human labor, lowers costs, and improves accuracy to benefit patients and physicians alike.

> Standing at the crossroads of medical and technology, we think a lot about finding the common language with clinicians — to have a profound understanding of what they need, want and see as possible

Anna-Maria Henell
CEO at Disior 

Quote image Disior 

Making: Medical imaging intelligent 
Round size: €1.7M
Invested in: 2018

Disior

Glue upper imgae 

## Building collaboration platform that uses immersive 3D graphics, virtual reality, and cloud computing 

Glue facilitates virtual face-to-face collaborations in custom environments. In the post-pandemic era, remote work has become a norm, and Glue's mission is to help people and teams around the world collaborate remotely in more human, productive, and sustainable ways. 

Glue takes advantage of recent advances in immersive 3D graphics, virtual reality, and cloud computing. The platform is accessible on a variety of hardware platforms: VR, AR, mobile, and desktop.


> The need for remote collaboration tools that truly emulate the experience of being face to face with others has never been greater

Jussi Havu
CEO at Glue Collaboration 

Middle image Glue 

## Helping individuals and teams around the world to collaborate in more human, productive and sustainable way

Glue's team is drawn to an important challenge: to enable people thousands of miles apart to collaborate effectively in virtual environments, just as they might in a real physical setting. In 2016, the team revealed the first multi-user VR prototypes. These proved an instant hit. 

Since then, their 30-strong team has continued to break new ground in multi-user VR software, developing Glue into the fully-featured virtual collaboration platform we are today.

Glue quote image 

> Glue’s virtual environments and spatial audio immerses users and creates agency and presence within the friendly, smooth, and soft designed space

Jae Grant Maloney
New Technology Consultant at KLM. 

Making: Virtual collaboration platform
Round size: €3.5M
Invested in: 2018

Glue

Pixieray team picture

## Introducing a pioneering optical solution to adaptive eyeglasses

Pixieray introduces a pioneering optical solution to eyeglasses, giving perfect vision to the wearer in all use contexts. A traditional eyeglass lens is a mechanical and optical compromise, with fixed focal points. Pixieray’s adaptive solution delivers unmatched optical performance by constantly adjusting the focal point and applying the ideal correction. This reduces eye strain and substantially increases user comfort.


> Pixieray lenses truly enable the full potential of an individual's corrected vision

Rebecca Xu
COO of Pixieray

Middle image Pixieray 

## Giving anyone the perfect vision

"You can think of it as a pair of prescription eyeglasses where the lenses can zoom in or out, much like the camera on your iPhone, so that your vision is good no matter what you’re looking at. It’s like eyeglasses with autofocus," [writes](https://venturebeat.com/2021/06/10/pixieray-raises-4-4m-for-glasses-that-adapt-to-what-youre-looking-at-on-the-fly/) VentureBeat. 

Pixieray modernizes traditional eyeglass optics by introducing a pioneering adaptive solution giving anyone perfect vision.  Founded by veterans in Augmented Reality technology, the team has now raised there seed round and works on their first product that will enable people with a farsighted eyeglass prescription to read and work with optimal vision, removing cumbersome multifocals and the need to switch eyeglasses. 

>  We believe that Pixieray can make a meaningful difference for the millions of people around the world who rely on their eyeglasses for everyday life.

Niko Eiden
CEO of Pixieray

Making: Adaptive eyeglasses
Round size: €3.6M
Invested in: 2021

Pixieray

Quanscient logo image

## Accelerating breakthrough R&D with quantum simulation technology

Companies innovating in deep tech fields, from fusion energy and aerospace to electric motors and 5G technology, rely heavily on simulations to provide feedback for product development. However, existing solutions come with high costs and other inefficiencies resulting in long waits before bringing products to the market.

As world’s first cloud-and-quantum-computing-powered multiphysics simulation technology provider, Quanscient is radically accelerating simulations and transforming R&D processes across multiple industries. Quanscient doesn’t only enable speedy and highly complex R&D – their better simulations also help to make products more energy efficient and sustainable.

> With the help of our technology, innovation and product development become more efficient, and products are brought to market faster. With the existing solutions, it can take up to a month to run a superconductor simulation to provide feedback for product development. Quanscient can do this in a few hours.

Juha Riippi
Co-founder and CEO of Quanscient

## Advancing the foundations of simulation research

Quanscient’s founding team has been working to accelerate the performance of simulation platforms long before founding the company in 2021. The performant and modern set of algorithms they developed is the bedrock of their simulation platform which, as of now, is supporting 17 companies to carryout groundbreaking research and product development. With the new investment, Quanscient aims to further their product development and expansion to enable more and more companies to innovate and bring their products to market efficiently and sustainably.

Quanscient body image

> Quanscient’s product delivers unforeseen runtime speed, scale, and accuracy for simulations. The product enables flexibility by allowing the users to combine any physics in a single simulation, providing unforeseen accuracy and usability when solving multiphysics problems. We were impressed by Quanscient’s strong team with experience in quantum computing, software, and research, and look forward to helping them scale the business further.

Ilkka Kivimäki
Founding Partner of Maki.vc

Making: Cloud & quantum powered simulation tech
Round size: €3.9M
Invested in: 2023

Quanscient

Upper image 

## Building the digital infrastructure for consumer rental businesses to start, manage, and grow their business

By empowering the suppliers of sustainable consumption with groundbreaking software, Rentle accelerates the growth of access-based business models globally.

The rental industry has long been underserved by modern technology providers. This is why, when you engage a rental provider you are often greeted with outdated user experience or battle-tested but old systems - or sometimes just paper and pen. Does this sound like something that will empower sustainable consumption and business models globally? Nope. That is why Rentle is here to fix it.


> Users have access to top-tier products without the stress of having to buy them, and when the items aren’t needed anymore, they simply return the item(s) and leave with something more suitable

Tuomo Laine
CEO at Rentle


## This is the all‑in‑one eCommerce rental software 

Consumers are vying sustainable consumption models, as non-ownership attitude is becoming increasingly popular. And the rental industry has long been underserved by providers of modern tech.

Rentle's aim is to empower everyone from rental businesses to equipment manufacturers to focus on what they do best - designing and creating experiences. Renting becomes more approachable, profitable and scalable with less friction, and more businesses can be built around the sustainable consumption model of renting.

> I kid you not, lots of existing rental systems are still being run locally on Windows Vista or XP

Tuomo Laine
CEO at Rentle

Quote image Rentle

Making: Digital infrastructure for consumer rental
Round size: €3.8M
Invested in: 2022

Rentle

Revela logo

## Building universal, data-backed solutions for the cosmetics industry

The cosmetics industry is lacking science-based solutions and Revela wants to change that. They are starting with the hair loss space that hasn’t changed over the past 40 years. Time and time again, companies have simply remixed the same formulations and repackaged the promise of new and better hair growth. But now consumers  know that they can’t expect better results from the same old ingredients. 

Revela’s technology leverages the best of modern biotech and artificial intelligence to discover ingredients that tackle specific problems. So, Revela used their AI model to search through 7 million molecules for potential ingredients that can improve hair follicle health— and found a single never-before-seen ingredient to be the safest and most effective through rigorous testing. They’ve named it ProCelinyl, and it outperforms any other ingredient on the market.

> Revela is taking a unique stance in the cosmetic industry that has been plagued by ‘snake oil’ products for many years. The IP and science underpinning the company combined with a strong brand is opening the door for an industry revolution — exactly the sweet point for Maki.vc.

Pauliina Martikainen 
Investment Director at Maki.vc


## At Revela “science-backed” means something

In 2020, COVID-19 hit and Revela founding team was not able to work in their labs at Harvard, MIT and Princeton. After working on cancer treatments and solutions to other major health conditions, they wanted their next step to be able to help a large number of people address significant problems in their everyday life. That’s why Revela was created. To raise the bar and redefine an industry that makes lofty claims without any intent of delivering.

> At Revela, we begin our process by challenging the status quo to see where you can improve. Using AI, we lead the discovery of completely new ingredients to offer products with real, targeted results. Our technology allows us to scan the library of 3 billion molecules and create a shortlist of ingredients with the highest potential of being the perfect solution with no trial and error involved

Evan Zhao
Co-founder & CEO, Revela

Revela quote image

Making: A universal, data-backed solutions to hair loss
Round size: €6.5M
Invested in: 2022

Revela

Revonte upper image 

## Building a revolutionary e-bike platform 

The electronic bike market is growing rapidly, but to make it even more competitive the riding experience must be enhanced and simplified. Revonte's techonology gives manufacturers more flexibility, provides better after-sale services, and improves the user experience.

Their e-bike drive system comes with integrated automatic transmission, built-in connectivity, and full customization. The service also includes a mobile app and cloud services to provide a holistic user experience for e-bike riders.


> Just like in electric cars, software plays a major role in future e-bikes

Otto Chrons 
CEO at Revonte

Revonte middle picture 

## The e-bikes of tomorrow are adaptable and robust

The growth of the e-bike business has been around 20–30% annually and in the summer 2020 e-bikes were sold out all around Europe. Until now, e-bike manufacturers have had little to no chance to influence what kind of technology is used in their bike motors as industry giants make motors with fixed, unmodifiable configurations. Revonte brings to market a drive system with automatic transmission that can be modified for different price groups and uses such as city bikes, mountain bikes, and cargo bikes.

Revonte is taking its drive system to mass production in 2021 with a selected customers and production will then be ramped up for e-bikes arriving in stores.

> We give control back to the electric bike manufacturers with a fully customisable system

Antero Jalkanen 
Co-founder of Revonte 

Revonte quote image 

Making: Smart drive system for e-bicycles
Round size: €2.4M
Invested in: 2019

Revonte

Singa upper image

## Building the digital standard for karaoke content

Karaoke is the last analog bastion of the entertainment industry and Singa is the first one to give a damn about the market and bring it to the 21st century. With Singa you can stream karaoke anywhere, any device and at any time from mobile to desktops and smart devices.

Singa gives you access to over 80,000 songs from classics to new hits. Whether you want to sing by yourself, throw a karaoke party, or are looking for professional karaoke software for your business, Singa has your back.

> While most other entertainment media were moving towards streaming, karaoke was still stuck in the 90s

Atte Hujanen 
CEO at Singa 


## Updating an entire industry 

Singa was founded to do for karaoke what Netflix has done for movies and what Spotify has done for music - to update an entire industry. For consumers they provide the easiest way to sing karaoke anytime, anywhere and on any device. For commercial use we provide a truly modern karaoke solution unlike anything else on the market.

At their very core, they are a technology company, focused on providing the best possible singing experience. As a uniquely product-focused company, serving both consumer and professional customers, coupled with deep knowledge of the industry, they are uniquely positioned to become the brand in a global market representing a $15 billion opportunity.

> Singa is digitising and redefining an entire industry, striking at something that people already love to do - singing

Atte Hujanen 
CEO at Singa


Making: Digital karaoke revolution
Round size: €3M
Invested in: 2019

Singa

TOTEM Co-founders 

## Improving companies' employee experience by building Office Stores as a Service

TOTEM is a modern concept of office stores including quality snacking and customizable food & convenience services designed for companies who value human interactions, co-workers’ well-being and respect for the environment. TOTEM believes your company shouldn't have to be Google to be able to provide an amazing employee experience. Instead, this should be accessible for everyone at a lower cost and with convenient options.

TOTEM aims to be more than a “peanut delivery service”: it offers more than a 1000 products without a delivery fee. TOTEM wants to act as an everyday facilitator that promotes healthy food, environmental respect, human interactions and wellbeing at the workplace.

> We want our products to be cheaper than the nearest supermarket.

Rafael De Lavergne
Co-founder of TOTEM 

TOTEM image 

## They are called "the new twist in the food delivery space"

Launched in 2017, Paris-based TOTEM is now serving more than 10,000 users via a ‘B2B2C’ model, which in this case means it installs customisable office micro-stores for employees. The team wants to take on the traditional catering giants, local convenience stores and the big food delivery players.

For smaller offices where it doesn’t really make sense to install the stores, TOTEM offers a healthy/organic food delivery service through its mobile app.

> But this could be a lot more than a pimped-up vending machine. 

Sifted 

TOTEM Quote image  

Making: Office Stores as a Service
Round size: €5.8M
Invested in: 2020

TOTEM

Valpas upper image 

## Building a branded and IoT-based bed bug safety protocol

Valpas is the hygiene protocol that reassures travellers and keeps hotels clean from the most uncontrollable: bed bugs. Valpas ensures travellers stay and return home safe from these unwanted guests and solves the biggest unsolved hygiene problem in living spaces worldwide.

Described as “an answered prayer to travellers everywhere”, Valpas has become an industry standard. Valpas’ smart bed legs capture the first few bed bugs before infestations, and the hotel staff is notified of the captured bed bugs by email. The room cleanliness can be monitored with the Valpas web app 24/7.

> Before, hotels haven’t really had any choice in exposing themselves and their guests to bed bugs. Today, with Valpas, hotels have the choice to not be open for them

Martim Gois
CEO at Valpas

Valpas middle picture 

## Getting rid of bed bugs with bioengineered material and IoT

During the past years, one third of global travellers have in one way or another changed their behavior when it comes to booking and planning their trips because of bed bugs. And over time, the insects have developed an immunity to existing chemical extermination methods. 

Valpas produces specially bioengineered bed legs that look like they are made of military-grade carbon fiber, and which the bugs can easily use to climb up. At the top of the leg, they fall into a small trap equipped with a real time smart sensor, through which the hotel staff can monitor the rooms with traps that need emptying. The legs are simply screwed in, just like any other bed leg in your regular Ikea catalogue, and no special installation is required.

Valpas quote image 

> We founded North Europe’s first bed bug heat treatment system. So once we were developing the first company into an industry leader, we realized that the true opportunity is in prevention

Martim Gois
CEO at Valpas

Making: Bed bug safety protocol
Round size: €1.6M
Invested in: 2018

Valpas

Volare 2nd image block 

## The circular approach for producing protein & lipids

Insect proteins can significantly reduce the environmental load of animal feed, pet food and cosmetics industries. With the purest form of circularity, Volare radically reduces the environmental burden of the food chain.

Volare uses food production side streams, such as non-edible parts of grains, to produce high-quality proteins and oils in order to replace other animal proteins, soy and palm oil. 100% new products, 0% new side streams.

> Volare can turn waste streams into valuable proteins without straining the environment, and their team is an excellent combination of research and customer expertise

Paavo Räisänen
Investment Director at Maki.vc


Volare middle picture

## 100% new products, 0% new side streams.

Volare is a spin-off from Finland's VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The founders came together while developing a highly effective process to make black soldier fly farming suitable for industrial scale.

Now this tech serves as a backbone for Volare’s process to utilize food side streams. Today, the team of engineers, agronomists, operators and researchers combine decades of experience in the industry and research - ready to build a truly circular food industry.


> Our production makes use of upcycling, which is circular economy at its purest. The value of the upcycled material grows without any waste.

Matti Tähtinen
Co-founder & CTO at Volare 

Making: Protein & lipids
Round size: €700K
Invested in: 2021

Volare

Yaak logo picture

## Building a AI & VR platform to teach and learn how to drive

Driver coaching is a market that has seen very little innovation over the years. While ineffective driver training is costing €25B annually, a growing instructor shortage has driving schools buckling under increasing demands and narrowing profit margins. Yaak Technologies presents SafetyOS—the ultimate driving coaching platform that ties together 360 degree vision-based driver coaching, in-vehicle VR simulation training and consolidated safety scoring. Simulation lessons are cheaper and enable students to train good driving habits effectively, while allowing instructors to simply handle more students.


> We're working on a solution that can certify the safe driving of autonomous vehicles and human drivers. At the same time, our experience in gaming helps us to make driving lessons motivating and exciting. 

Martin Zielinski
CTO & Co-founder of Yaak
Technologies

Yaak Technologies middle image

## The journey to building safe autonomous vehicles

Yaak Technologies’s expert team fluent in building cars, maps, autonomous systems, robots, simulation and cloud services realized one thing - autonomous vehicles (AV) would need to be significantly safer than human drivers to hit our roads. So putting safety before autonomy, they built a technology that can quantify and improve the safety of human drivers which will also provide the metrics to develop their autonomous stack. The result is SafetyOS that ushers in the new age of driving coaching using state of the art AI & VR.

Yaak Quote Picture

> It’s great to see a seasoned founding team with essential experience building cars, maps, autonomous systems, robots, simulation, and cloud services enable the next generation of mobility through codifying the knowledge of driving instructors.

Pauliina Martikainen
Investment Director at Maki.vc

Making: Building a AI & VR platform to teach and learn how to drive
Invested in: 2021
Round size: €7.3M

Databutton

Making:

AI-powered apps at the speed of thought

Round size: €4.5M

Invested in: 2023

Ever Dye

Making:

Low heat & low-energy dyeing pigments and processes

Round size: €3.4M

Invested in: 2023

Lollipop

Making:

A smart grocery shopping assistant

Invested in: 2022

Round size: €5.8M

Membrane Finance

Making:

Tech that facilitate hybrid financial markets

Invested in: 2022

Round size: €2M

Onego Bio

Making:

Creating egg whites without chickens

Round size: €10M

Invested in: 2022

QDI Systems

Making:

The first x-ray detector based on quantum dot technology

Round size: €1.3M

Invested in: 2022

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