---
title: "Voland's Technology Fund | Veera Sylvius and Erkka Niemi | Negotiator 148"
titleOriginal: "Voland teknologiarahasto | Veera Sylvius Erkka Niemi | Neuvottelija 148"
episodeNumber: "148"
guest: "Veera Sylvius, Erkka Niemi"
datePublished: 2022-08-15
duration: "41:06"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["saas_software","ma_exits","ownership_capital_tax"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one. The marks are genuine: twenty-seven of them, with gaps from 48 to over 150 seconds, tracking the recording rather than a grid. No transcript is published here — the channel has no English caption track for this episode and the Finnish one is YouTube's automatic track. The guests were actively raising the fund described when this was recorded, which makes the episode promotional; nothing in it is an offer or investment advice, and the fund size, first close and valuation multiples are those of mid-2022. The host works in corporate finance, and the episode discusses the advisory role directly."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/206-voland-teknologiarahasto-veera-sylvius-erkka-niemi-neuvottel"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep148-voland-teknologiarahasto-sylvius-niemi/
---
# Voland's Technology Fund | Veera Sylvius and Erkka Niemi | Negotiator 148

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=0s) The guests, and how Voland Partners came about
- [01:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=64s) The team of four: Jyrki Laune and Samuli Siljamäki
- [02:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=132s) Veera Sylvius's background in space technology
- [04:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=270s) Voland's position in the Finnish investor field
- [05:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=325s) Why the fund was set up
- [07:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=439s) Fundraising, an 80 million fund and first close
- [08:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=525s) The team and the advisers
- [09:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=584s) The megatrends: technology and responsibility
- [11:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=661s) Does responsibility create value or reduce returns
- [12:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=737s) ESG in a technology company: the weight falls on S and G
- [14:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=890s) Deal flow and Voland's competitive advantage
- [16:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=1010s) Value creation and the hundred-day plan
- [18:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=1120s) Finnish companies are sold too early
- [20:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=1209s) Technology expertise and sparring for portfolio companies
- [22:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=1322s) An entrepreneur team as an alternative to a banker team
- [23:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=1390s) Falling SaaS valuations and the fund's vintage
- [24:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=1481s) Investment criteria: profitable, with a proven business model
- [25:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=1552s) A growth fund between venture capital and private equity
- [27:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=1639s) Responsibility, competitiveness and returns at the same time
- [29:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=1748s) Acquisitions as an instrument of growth
- [30:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=1838s) Siili's growth story and the Finnish IT market
- [32:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=1931s) B2B, B2C and cloud-based ERP systems
- [34:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=2063s) Vertical and horizontal SaaS
- [35:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=2112s) MedTech and hardware-enabled SaaS
- [37:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=2236s) Energy and data as a new growth area
- [38:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=2284s) The first investment and the fund's time horizon
- [39:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw&t=2399s) Veera Sylvius reads a poem to close

## Summary

Veera Sylvius and Erkka Niemi are raising Voland Partners' 80 million euro technology fund, which takes minority stakes in profitable Finnish technology companies; first close was on 30 June 2022 at roughly half the target. Sylvius ran Space Systems Finland for ten years and led a management buyout of it, Niemi was Siili's chief technology officer while the company grew roughly tenfold to a thousand people, and Jyrki Laune and Samuli Siljamäki complete the four. The episode covers the fund's position between venture capital and private equity, a deal-flow band of five to thirty million in revenue, a hundred-day plan, and why Finland has lacked a growth financier at exactly this stage — with the consequence that companies are sold abroad too early. Responsibility produces the sharpest disagreement with the host. Also SaaS multiples falling from sixteen times to seven, the return of cloud ERPs, MedTech and hardware-enabled SaaS.

## The stage nobody in Finland finances

A profitable technology company with five to thirty million in revenue is too large for venture capital and too small for most private equity. Voland's argument is that this gap is why such companies get sold to foreign buyers before they have grown — the exit is the only financing event available. Whether an 80 million fund closes that gap is a separate question from whether the gap is real.

## The disagreement worth listening to

The host puts the conventional trade-off — responsibility against competitiveness against returns — and the guests reject it outright. Their supporting point is narrower and more interesting than the headline: in a software company there is very little E to measure, so an ESG framework applied there is really measuring people and governance.

## Sixteen times to seven

The collapse in SaaS revenue multiples over the preceding year sets the terms for everything the fund will buy. It is the reason a 2022 vintage is a good one to deploy and a bad one to have raised against, and the episode is candid about both halves.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Voland teknologiarahasto | Veera Sylvius Erkka Niemi | Neuvottelija 148](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8RJa8rbuw).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/206-voland-teknologiarahasto-veera-sylvius-erkka-niemi-neuvottel).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep148-voland-teknologiarahasto-sylvius-niemi/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/economy/ep148-voland-teknologiarahasto-sylvius-niemi/).

## Explore the ideas in depth

- [Nordic SaaS Valuation & M&A: How AI Reprices Software Companies](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/nordic-saas-valuation-and-ma/): How software companies in the Nordics are valued and sold as AI moves inference into the cost of goods sold — where multiples stand in mid-2026, the metrics that get repriced, why vertical SaaS defends its premium, AI due diligence, and the shift from seats to outcomes. Grounded in Translink's SaaS valuation work and Neuvottelija conversations.
- [Enterprise AI Agents: Economics, Governance and the Shift From Tools to Workers](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/enterprise-ai-agents-economics-and-governance/): A guide to enterprise AI agents — the real cost model behind agent work, why owning your own stack is becoming a strategic question, a working governance framework with approval gates and audit trails, the agent risk matrix, the EU AI Act timeline as it stands, and who captures the productivity gains. Grounded in a real multi-agent lab, two 2026 keynotes, and Neuvottelija conversations.
- [How to Sell a Company in Finland: An M&A Banker's Guide to a Clean Exit](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/how-to-sell-a-company-in-finland/): A practical guide to selling a company in Finland and the Nordics — the process phase by phase, share deal vs asset deal, valuation, due diligence, buyer types, deal structures, taxes on the sale, minority squeeze-outs and the ownership context that shapes every exit. Grounded in Neuvottelija conversations and Translink M&A practice.

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Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Voland's Technology Fund | Veera Sylvius and Erkka Niemi | Negotiator 148, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep148-voland-teknologiarahasto-sylvius-niemi/, 2022-08-15. For quotes include episode 148 and timestamp.