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Bakken & Bæck
Bakken & Bæck is an Oslo-based venture studio and early-stage investor founded in 2016, known for backing and building companies like Sanity.io and Enode.
Bakken & Bæck
Bakken & Bæck was founded in 2016 by Tobias Bæck and Johan Bakken following their exit from a prior digital agency. The Oslo-headquartered firm began as a software design and development studio that accepted equity stakes in lieu of cash fees from early-stage startups — a model that organically produced a concentrated portfolio of technology companies. This origin shaped a firm that functions as a hybrid between a venture studio and an early-stage investor, with in-house engineering and design capabilities that most asset managers lack. The firm targets pre-seed and seed-stage companies across software, artificial intelligence, fintech, and climate technology. Bakken & Bæck typically acts as the first institutional capital, providing both cash and a dedicated product team to build the initial minimum viable product alongside founders. The portfolio includes Sanity.io, the structured-content platform that has become a leading headless CMS, and Enode, an energy-sector API company connecting electric vehicles, heat pumps, and batteries to the grid. Geographic focus spans the Nordics, with several portfolio companies serving global enterprise customers from day one. Exact deployment totals and headcount are not publicly disclosed, though the firm operates from its Oslo base and adds operational capacity through embedded product squads rather than a large investment team. In 2021, the firm raised external capital for the first time, securing a fund from institutional LPs to formalize its venture-building approach — marking a shift from purely proprietary balance-sheet investing to an open fund structure (per Sifted, 2021). This move aligned the firm more closely with the Nordic venture ecosystem while retaining its studio-led model. Bakken & Bæck's structural distinction lies in its refusal to separate investing from building. The firm employs software engineers, designers, and product managers as core staff, not external advisors, which means portfolio support is a fixed cost on its income statement rather than a variable promise. This architecture makes the firm resemble a software company with a venture portfolio more than a conventional fund manager — a posture that competes with incubators and studios far more directly than with traditional Nordic VC firms.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
2016
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
Norway
City
Oslo
Corporate office
Oslo, Norway
Principals
Tobias Bæck
Managing Partner
Johan Bakken
Managing Partner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Bakken & Bæck?
Managing Partners Tobias Bæck and Johan Bakken lead the firm and make investment decisions jointly. The firm is operator-heavy rather than committee-heavy, meaning the partners work directly with portfolio company founders and the in-house product team on build-versus-buy decisions.
How does Bakken & Bæck source proprietary deal flow?
The firm sources primarily through its reputation as a technical co-founder rather than as a passive investor. Startups approach Bakken & Bæck when they need a product team to go from concept to launch. The firm's own client network, built during its agency years, also generates referrals — founders who previously paid cash for development now send peers seeking the equity-for-build model.
Is Bakken & Bæck structured as a venture capital fund or a venture studio?
Bakken & Bæck operates as a hybrid. It began as a studio accepting equity for services and later raised a formal fund in 2021 (per Sifted, 2021) to co-invest alongside its own balance-sheet capital. The firm retains the studio model's core differentiator: an in-house team of software engineers and designers who build product for portfolio companies.
What investment stages does Bakken & Bæck typically target?
The firm concentrates on pre-seed and seed-stage rounds. It frequently serves as the first external capital check, writing tickets that combine cash investment with dedicated product team capacity. The model is designed to replace a founding team's need to hire early engineers and designers separately.
Which companies has Bakken & Bæck backed publicly?
Confirmed portfolio companies include Sanity.io, a structured-content platform used by enterprise teams, and Enode, which builds APIs for energy-grid devices. The firm does not maintain a public portfolio page, and additional positions are generally announced only when companies reach later funding milestones.
Does Bakken & Bæck participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
Bakken & Bæck invests exclusively in direct deals. It does not operate as a fund-of-funds or invest in other VC firms. The studio model requires hands-on product involvement, which precludes passive LP commitments.
What is Bakken & Bæck’s known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs?
The firm regularly co-invests alongside Nordic and European early-stage venture funds. Its equity-for-services model often anchors a pre-seed round that institutional VCs then join in subsequent seed raises — Sanity.io's financing history illustrates this pattern, with Bakken & Bæck holding early equity that later rounds from firms like Threshold Ventures and Ev Williams' fund layered on top.
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