The city of Oulu, Finland has selected Butterfly Ventures to manage the Northern Startup Fund, which will be established in Oulu. The fund will start its active operations early fall. Butterfly Ventures will be expected to boost the regional startup ecosystem through knowledge and networks, as well as by bringing in the Techstars style acceleration model.
Oulu has historically been known as town with a good deal of technical talent (IRC was created at the university there) with a large Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks presence.
At first the fund capitalization will be roughly €10 million, of which half will come from the City of Oulu. The other half will be gathered from private investors. In second phase, during 2014, the fund capitalization will be expanded into €35 million.
“The asymmetric model is particularly interesting from the private investors’ point of view.” said Matti Kanninen, managing partner of Butterfly Ventures “In asymmetric model the private investor has preference over the public financier, which benefits in any case in a form of tax income. The private investor is preferred both in return of the invested capital as well as in distribution of the profits.”
