Karnell

Petter Samlin, the firm's co-founder and CEO, is the primary decision-maker for acquisitions, though the firm's industrial board evaluates each target. Samlin has built a track record in Nordic mid-market buyouts and leads the sourcing funnel alongside Investment Manager Michael Jonson, who heads deal execution from the Stockholm office.

Karnell sources primarily through its deep networks within Nordic industrial communities — chambers of commerce, industry conferences, and the advisory networks serving succession-driven manufacturers. The firm specifically targets the 'ownership-succession gap' segment, reaching founder-owners of profitable family businesses who wish to sell their entire or majority stake rather than transfer internally.

Karnell is structured as a permanent-capital holding company, not a single family office or a venture firm. The firm holds acquired businesses indefinitely rather than raising a series of blind-pool funds with fixed life spans. This makes its balance-sheet profile more akin to a long-term industrial group such as Indutrade or Lagercrantz, rather than a typical Nordic VC or PE fund.

Karnell has not publicly disclosed an explicit exclusion list, but its observable investment pattern avoids consumer-facing brands, pure software businesses with no hardware component, and capital-intensive heavy-industry plays like mining or commodity processing. The firm's energy is concentrated on specialized industrial technology with defensible manufacturing niches.

Karnell has not historically participated in co-investment vehicles alongside external GPs in the manner a fund-of-funds or LP co-invest program would. Since it operates with permanent holding-company equity, external co-investment is structurally not required for its acquisitions, though the firm may partner with minority sellers or managers who roll equity into group-level shares.

Karnell targets profitable expansion-stage and late-stage family-owned industrial companies with revenues typically ranging from SEK 50 million to SEK 300 million. The firm pursues control-equity buyouts, management buy-ins, and generational succession transitions, not early-stage venture capital or pre-revenue technology startups.

Karnell has not publicly disclosed the exact composition of its underlying capital base, but given its permanent-capital holding structure, it does not raise committed-fund LP capital in the standard closed-end private equity model. The firm likely maintains patient equity from a concentrated base of Nordic family offices or high-net-worth backers with long-duration horizons, though this has not been explicitly confirmed through public filings.