Kaj Hed's First Major Investment Outside Rovio Goes To Kiosked In A €4.5M Round
The other week we asked where were Helsinki's big startups, and today Kiosked responded with a new funding round. €4.5 million is a nice number for the "content activation platform," but what gives the funding more weight is that this is the first major public investment made by Kaj Hed since pumping money into and buying up 70% of Rovio. The funding round was also joined by private investors and Tekes, and Hed will join the Kiosked board as chairman.
Of the €4.5 million, a million euros comes from Tekes' Young Innovative Companies -program and the direct investments by investors is around €3 million. Kaj Hed's stake in the round is the largest by far.
On the funding round, Hed says, “Disrupting and re-shaping any industry is always interesting. Kiosked is the first to connect brands with their online business logic through their content and fans. It is going to create new paradigms that will change the way brands engage with consumers forever.”
Rovio Ownership Structure Revealed
The Finnish Arvopaperi magazine has announced the ownership structure of Rovio, the creators of Angry Birds. The information has not come up in any IPO filing, but through public information in the Finnish governmental registry. The biggest chunk of the Rovio is owned by Trema Holdings International BV, the holding company of Kaj Hed. Kaj Hed is Mikael's father and Mikael is Niklas' cousin. It seems that Accel and Atomico, who together invested $42 million into the company last year, own around 20% of the company.
Rovio Wants To IPO In New York
Finnish business magazine Talouselämä has published a story on Rovio, the creators of Angry Birds, where they state that the company is seeking to go public in New York. Rovio Board Chairman Kaj Hed, father of Mikael Hed, the CEO, has stated that the $42 million in financing it announced last week was the first step towards this direction. In the story, Kaj Hed also discloses that they were pretty much able to choose their investors and state the terms of the deal - something not many startups get to do in their lifecycle.
