Straightforward Capital

Straightforward Capital

Straightforward Capital was co-founded by Andrej Srsen, CFA, and Seppo Savolainen, MBA, who combined senior corporate finance and entrepreneurial backgrounds to address a structural gap they observed in the Finnish market: a lack of early-stage capital for locally built technology companies poised for international scale. Srsen, a former investment banker and M&A advisor who also managed cleantech companies, partnered with Savolainen, a serial entrepreneur with over two decades of experience founding and exiting software and hi-technology firms. The firm writes initial investments of €500 thousand to €2 million for technology companies with a global vision. Its team, which includes an analyst focused on marketing and PR support, takes a hands-on, lead-investor posture across a range of venture stages. On-the-ground experience in corporate financing and entrepreneurship informs a deal pipeline that spans software, hi-technology, and renewables from Finland — a country with a small home market that forces founders into an international mindset from day one. The partners maintain a lean operating structure with all three team members based out of the firm's Helsinki office on Hiilikatu. The firm's website lists no adjacent vehicles, philanthropic foundations, or co-investor club memberships. The last published dated activity referencing the firm's own presence was the Slush 2018 conference in Helsinki, a gathering that historically surfaces many Finnish venture-backed companies. Straightforward Capital operates an unusually quiet public profile for a venture platform — its website lists no portfolio company names — making its selection a pure dependency on the partners' personal origination networks. That absence of marketed pipeline data forces external allocators to rely entirely on direct manager references to verify scale and track record.