Founding Partner
Maki.vc (Web3)Check size: Maki targets first rounds below EUR 5 million and supports consequent rounds; this is a firm round criterion, not Pirkka's personal check range. Active new investments come from Fund III.
Pirkka backs ambitious Nordic teams at their first rounds, combining an operator's technology and scaling perspective with Maki's sector-agnostic, non-consensus approach. His attributed investments favor experienced teams rebuilding large industries with scalable platforms—payments, sustainable construction materials, physical-world digital twins, enterprise systems, and other deep or brand-driven technologies.
Founders with proven operating depth, a future-proof full-platform approach, technology ready to scale, a large global market, strong product design and go-to-market thinking, measurable cost or sustainability advantage, and teams blending hardware, software, and industry knowledge.
His attributed case commentary suggests weaker fit for teams missing domain expertise, narrow point tools without global platform potential, sustainable materials that sacrifice cost or performance, technical products without go-to-market strength, and companies too late for Maki's first-round strategy. These are inferred, not a declared pass list.
Show why the founding team is unusually qualified, the global market and first wedge, and the platform that follows. For industrial or hardware-software companies, bring technical validation, manufacturing and deployment economics, customer evidence, competitive benchmarks, sustainability impact, and a realistic scale-up plan. Make clear why Maki's first check changes the next 18 months.
Assess whether the founders have previously owned the relevant product, technology, industry, and scaling problems and can recruit equally strong talent around gaps.
Verify technical maturity, unit cost, throughput, sourcing, quality, certification, factory or deployment plan, and customer commitments before assuming a lab result can scale.
Map how the initial product grows into a broader platform through adjacent workflows, data, compliance, distribution, or hardware-software integration.
A future-proof cloud payments platform can scale globally when deep industry expertise, compliance, speed, security, and a broad product surface reinforce one another.
Sustainable construction materials are compelling when novel process technology is technically ready, industrially scalable, carbon-negative, recyclable, and cost-competitive.
A repeat founder and cross-disciplinary team can move costly physical measurement and network design into an automated cloud digital-twin workflow with strong execution and go-to-market potential.
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Pirkka co-founded Maki in 2017 after scaling technology companies across Europe and the United States. A Finnish technology foundation biography describes him as an industrial-engineering-and-management graduate who founded his first company as a student and later held Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and CEO roles. Maki's compliance page identifies him as an owner and chair of the board.