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Helen Ventures
Helen Ventures was established as the dedicated corporate venture capital unit of Helen Ltd, a major Finnish energy utility serving over 500,000 customers.
Helen Ventures
Helen Ventures was established as the dedicated corporate venture capital unit of Helen Ltd, a major Finnish energy utility serving over 500,000 customers. Terhi Vapola, a veteran of the Nordic energy sector, founded and led the fund from its inception, shaping its mandate to back early- and growth-stage companies at the intersection of digital technology and the energy transition. After Vapola's departure to found Greencode Ventures, a separate climate-tech fund, leadership passed to Mikael Myllymäki, who now serves as Vice President and Head of Helen Ventures. The fund operates as a pan-European investor, seeking companies that address the digitization and decarbonization of energy systems. Its focus spans e-mobility, energy-efficient software, logistics optimization, circular economy, and smart-grid technologies. Investments typically range from Series A to growth equity, with the fund taking minority positions. Portfolio holdings include Virta, a European electric-vehicle charging platform scaled across 30 countries, and Synavision, a German building-energy optimization firm. Helen Ventures structures direct equity investments and co-invests alongside other corporate and financial VCs. The fund's geographic concentration skews toward the Nordics, Germany, and the Netherlands, where it can leverage Helen Ltd's operational know-how. June 2025: Redstone Nordics, a venture capital firm focused on climate and industrial technology, assumed management of the Helen Ventures portfolio. The transition places existing holdings and future investment decisions under a new external manager while preserving the strategic link to Helen Ltd as limited partner. Helen Ventures participates in the Finnish Venture Capital Association and has historically engaged in co-investment syndicates across the Nordic energy-tech ecosystem. Direct reports publicly list only a handful of investment professionals, including a director and an associate. The fund's structural differentiator is its tight integration with a utility-scale limited partner. Rather than pursuing purely financial returns, Helen Ventures sources companies that can pilot commercial contracts with Helen Ltd's power-generation and district-heating assets. This corporate-LP model—where the anchor investor is both capital source and potential customer—shapes a deal flow pipeline oriented toward technology that can be stress-tested within a real urban energy network.
General information
Firm type
Venture Capital
Year founded
2019
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
Finland
City
Helsinki
Corporate office
Helsinki, Finland
Principals
Mikael Myllymäki
Vice President and Head of Helen Ventures
Terhi Vapola
Founder and former Head of Helen Ventures
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Helen Ventures?
Mikael Myllymäki leads the fund as Vice President and Head of Helen Ventures. The original investment thesis was established under founding head Terhi Vapola, who left to launch Greencode Ventures, a climate-focused fund. In June 2025, external manager Redstone Nordics took over portfolio management, meaning day-to-day investment decisions now sit with Redstone's team under the Helen Ventures mandate.
Is Helen Ventures a single-family office or a corporate venture fund?
Helen Ventures is a corporate venture capital unit, not a single-family office. Its sole limited partner is Helen Ltd, a Finnish energy utility. The fund invests off Helen Ltd's balance sheet and seeks strategic alignment with the parent company's energy-transition objectives rather than operating as a family-directed vehicle.
How does Helen Ventures source proprietary deal flow?
Deal flow derives from the parent utility's ecosystem: Helen Ltd's supplier networks, pilot partnerships across district heating and electricity distribution, and relationships with Nordic energy clusters. The fund also co-invests with venture firms active in European climate-tech hardware and software, creating visibility into Series A and B rounds before they reach broader syndication.
What is Helen Ventures' relationship with Redstone Nordics?
Redstone Nordics, a climate and industrial-technology venture firm, assumed management of the Helen Ventures portfolio in June 2025. While Helen Ltd remains the limited partner, Redstone now originates and oversees investments under the Helen Ventures banner. The arrangement effectively outsources investment management to a specialized external team while preserving the strategic capital link.
Does Helen Ventures participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
The fund primarily makes direct equity investments in startups, taking minority stakes. It has also co-invested alongside other venture funds. There is no public record of Helen Ventures acting as a limited partner in third-party commingled funds outside its own direct-deal strategy.
What investment stages does Helen Ventures typically target?
Helen Ventures targets early to growth-stage companies, typically from Series A onward. Its investments support scaling commercial deployments in energy-related sectors. The fund seeks companies with existing revenue or at least a validated pilot that can be integrated into Helen Ltd's infrastructure for further development.
Which sectors does Helen Ventures explicitly avoid?
The fund does not publish an explicit exclusion list. However, its mandate focuses exclusively on digital solutions for the energy transition. Sectors without a clear decarbonization angle—consumer internet, general SaaS, biotech—fall outside its stated scope. The parent company's utility core likely precludes investments in pure-play fossil-fuel extraction or generation.
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