Managing Partner
Maki.vc (Web3)Check size: Maki's stated sweet spot is first rounds below EUR 5 million from day zero; this describes target round size, not Pauliina's personal check authority. The firm continues to support later rounds selectively.
Pauliina leads a sector-agnostic Nordic first-round strategy centered on exceptional technical founders with global ambition. Her attributed portfolio work spans clinical sensing, autonomous-mobility safety, consumer products, voice agents, quantum, fintech, and sustainability. She favors non-consensus decisions, products rooted in a clear user problem, strong design and customer experience, and teams capable of building category leaders from the Nordics.
Bold Nordic founders, deep technical credibility, global thinking from day zero, product and UX obsession, experienced teams with specific domain knowledge, measurable customer outcomes, non-consensus insight, and technology that can define a category rather than follow one.
The firm's published strategy and her portfolio commentary imply weaker fit for later-stage-only opportunities, consensus decisions, local-only ambition, teams without technical or domain depth, AI features that do not complete a useful workflow, and consumer products without design quality or a clear behavior-changing insight. These are inferred filters, not her formal list.
Lead with why this Nordic team can build a global category leader from its first round. Show technical and domain depth, the non-consensus insight, a sharply defined user pain, product quality, evidence of demand, and the path to international distribution. For AI agents, demonstrate end-to-end task completion and business impact; for deep tech, show validation, commercialization, and capital milestones.
State what informed investors or incumbents misunderstand, why the founding team has earned a different view, and which early evidence can validate it before consensus forms.
Connect Nordic technical or domain advantages to international customer needs, recruiting, regulation, capital, distribution, and the milestones for global category leadership.
For AI products, measure whether the system executes the full customer job across integrated business systems with quality, reliability, and economics superior to the existing process.
Evaluate whether commodity sensors plus validated algorithms can expand access while meeting clinical accuracy, regulatory, workflow, privacy, and reimbursement requirements.
Voice agents create value when they complete high-volume customer workflows end to end, prevent missed revenue, and preserve a high-quality customer experience.
Clinically tested software can turn ubiquitous smartphone sensors into accessible diagnostic infrastructure when backed by strong science and healthcare collaboration.
An experienced cross-disciplinary team can codify driving expertise with AI, vision, simulation, and safety metrics to improve human training and autonomous systems.
Maki will remain a first-round, sector-agnostic, technically capable Nordic investor using non-consensus decisions and long-term founder support.
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Pauliina joined Maki in 2019 and became Managing Partner in 2024 after working across the team, portfolio, founders, limited partners, and the pan-Nordic ecosystem. She helped found Wave Ventures before Maki, holds graduate business studies associated with Aalto University, and in 2024–2025 served on Finland's Prime Minister-appointed Room for Growth working group. Maki's compliance page identifies her as an owner and managing partner.