• ROUND2 CAPITAL EXPANDS ITS NORDIC INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO WITH A TOTAL OF EUR 4 MIO. INVESTMENT IN VAINU.IO SOFTWARE OY, HELSINKI

• REVENUE BASED FINANCING BECOMES THE PREFERRED SOURCE OF NON-DILUTIVE GROWTH CAPITAL FOR SUCCESSFUL TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES

Vienna/Helsinki, December 1, 2021 – With its investment of a total of EUR 4 million in several tranches in the Finnish SaaS company Vainu, Round2 Capital, the leading European revenue-based finance provider, expands its commitment to the Nordic tech market. The investment fund, based in Vienna, Berlin and Stockholm, has been working with Vainu since 2019 and provided both revenue-based financing and equity in the current round. With this fresh capital, Vainu was able to transform its business, doubling its annual average customer value (ACV) while systematically moving away from a small standalone customer segment.

Vainu is a leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor that operates a company information platform to help customers achieve rich personalization in sales and marketing through real-time enterprise data. The company, which is based in Helsinki and currently employs one hundred and thirty people, partnered with Round2 Capital already in 2019.  The fast-growing European investment fund, which supports the growth of leading SaaS companies through revenue-based financing, and selectively with equity solutions, has invested a total of €4 million in Vainu. 

Mikko Honkanen, one of Vainu’s co-founders: “During the past three years, we have spent a lot of time and effort in building capabilities that mid-sized, large and enterprise customers need. At the end of the day, it comes down to data coverage and quality, and our ability to deliver proprietary information in a modern way. Sometimes it’s our native CRM connectors, sometimes our online platform and sometimes it’s the set of APIs they need. A good example of our enterprise capabilities is our new Vainu developer portal that we’re releasing today.”

Jan Hillered, Founder and Managing Partner of Round2 Capital: “Vainu plays a vital role in ensuring that sales and marketing teams across Northern Europe keep their customer data actionable and up to date. Vainu adds tremendous value by improving sales productivity and thereby the return on investment. Since the very first meeting with the Vainu team, I have been impressed by the way they go about their business. We at Round2 are thrilled to be part of their journey, providing the capital they need for scaling up the business. I also am convinced that the financing structure Round2 has provided fits extremely well to their needs and that it creates a sound base for the next phase of Vainu’s development.”

REVENUE BASED FINANCING FORECASTED TO GROW 40X

Revenue-based financing has been growing rapidly for years and is recognized as a fast and comparatively simple form of investment which allows entrepreneurs to expand sustainably and without having to sell company shares. According to a recent study by Allied Market Research, the market for revenue-based financing is expected to grow by a factor of 40x to over USD 40 billion in the next five years. An important factor for this is that a new market is developing in Europe for forms of financing that represent an alternative to conventional equity. Revenue-based financing is an innovative form of financing that takes advantage of the special characteristics of software companies, recurring revenues and intangible assets. 

About Vainu 

Vainu is building a company data platform that helps B2B companies achieve personalization at scale in sales and marketing. Powered by technology to collect and analyze a huge amount of structured and unstructured online information, Vainu

makes these real-time company insights easily actionable directly in its customers’ existing business systems. 

Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, the company launched in 2014 and is now serving more than 10,000 sales, marketing, and data professionals to understand their customers and prospects better and build hyper-targeted company profiles and segments.

About Round2 Capital

Round2 Capital is a fast-growing European investment firm. With business locations in Vienna, Berlin and Stockholm the company is a strong partner for European companies with digital and sustainable business models. Headquartered in Vienna since 2017, Round2 Capital has been the pioneer of revenue-based financing in Europe. The company is active in several European countries focusing on Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the Nordics. To date, Round2 Capital has invested in 23 companies. With this investment, Round2 Capital further strengthens its market position in Finland. www.round2cap.com