Askel Ventures 🦔
Helsinki
Meeting
Partner session — June 2026
Present: Varia Wahlroos-Kaitila · Niklas Slotte · Mike Solomon · Mikael Ylinen · Jonas Bertilsson
Agenda: Cases · Platform · Capital Model · Sweden & Venture Partner Role
Session Overview
Today's agenda
Morning · 11:00–13:00
11:15 – 12:15
Act I · Case Learnings
- Melers Oy — rationale, financials, valuation
- Post-acquisition development & lessons learned
- Auran Pesupojat — the add-on thesis
12:15 – 13:00
Act II · Askel as a Platform
- Founding team & roles
- Steve — AI sourcing engine
- DD & IC process · Holdings & cap table
Afternoon · 14:00–16:00
14:00 – 14:50
Act III · Capital Model
- Seven-year plan & acquisition pace
- Financing model · Target returns
- Key assumptions
15:05 – 16:00
Act IV · Sweden & VP Role
- Swedish market opportunity
- Role, time commitment & IC involvement
- Economics, governance & next steps
🌿 Terrace & informal close · 16:00
I
Act I · 45 min
Case learnings &
acquisition pattern
Melers Oy as the core case — financials, acquisition rationale, valuation logic, post-acquisition development, and lessons learned so far. Auran Pesupojat as an add-on case — the Melers plug-in logic, transition plan, integration assumptions, and upside.
Act I · Case Learnings
The Askel acquisition pattern
In this section
Here's the model behind every deal we do.
→
Playbook
Systems · AI · Commercial
→
→
→
Redeploy
Fund next acquisition
- We target boring, cash-generative essential services — laundry, cleaning, waste, B2B trades — facing founder succession
- Entry criteria: revenue €400K–1.5M, EBITDA €100K+, asking price max €1M
- Debt + equity structure per deal — bank leverages the acquisition, portfolio cash flows service the debt
- Value creation has three levers: de-risk the operation, grow the business, let the market reprice both
- Every acquisition sharpens the pattern. Melers is Case 1. Auran is Case 2.
Act I · Melers Oy
Melers Oy — why we bought it
In this section
Why we bought Melers, what we paid, and how we structured the deal.
€500K
Revenue at acquisition
€100K
Corrected EBITDA (20% margin)
€400K
Total consideration
4×
Entry multiple (EBITDA)
- Sector: laundry and cleaning services, Turku, Finland — essential, recurring, low disruption risk
- Owner-led business, founder at exit age — classic succession signal
- 500+ customers — B2B and B2C mix; elderly care and hotels are the largest segments
- Customer base well-distributed: top 10 customers spread such that losing three largest still leaves the business profitable
- Cash-generative, no external debt — but entirely paper-based operations with no succession plan
- Financing: €72K founders equity · €228K Osuuspankki (Finnvera 70% guarantee) · €100K seller financing · €50K credit facility (tililuotto)
Act I · Melers Oy
Melers at acquisition
In this section
What the business looked like when we took it over.
- Operations entirely paper-based — booking, scheduling, invoicing all manual
- Owner-dependent: customer relationships, institutional knowledge, all routines lived in the founder's head
- No CRM, no brand system, no documented processes
- Revenue: ~€500K/year, margin: ~20%
- Key DD risks: equipment age, no SOPs
What the bank required
- EBITDA covenants reported annually — failure triggers rate increase
- Default repayment term offered: 5 years — we pushed to 7
- Personal guarantees: €30K per partner (×4 = €120K total — Varia, Niklas, Mike, Mikke)
- Capital structure: 80% debt — bank (Osuuspankki/Finnvera) + seller financing
Act I · Melers Oy
Melers — post-acquisition & development
In this section
What we've built since day one — and where things stand now.
What we built
- Technology & operations: booking system rebuilt on modern stack (Cloudflare Workers + D1 + Google Calendar), new website + customer-facing booking linked to logistics calendar, accounting ERP MVP ready for invoicing
- Marketing & brand: full brand refresh (Melers.fi, brand kit, vehicle branding, print materials), SMS campaigns, marketing & sales assistant ready to launch, 300+ contact customer database built
- People & process: new operator recruited (owner-led → professionally-led), ConnectTeam installed for scheduling/tasks/comms, video SOPs for every founder routine
Where we are now
- Revenue stayed the same — successful transition phase
- Management fee: €10,000/month
- Operations no longer owner-dependent — the core transition is complete
- Growth systems in place and ready to deploy Aug/Sep
- LaaS — Business Finland innovation project starting in next phase
Act I · Lessons
What Melers taught us
In this section
Things we do differently now.
Month 1–6 playbook
- Don't break it. First six months = continuity, not growth. Revenue same as previous year is success.
- Knowledge transfer takes the full six months. Founders hold everything in their heads — plan for it, not around it.
- Hiring key roles takes 2 months. Account for the gap — don't assume someone is in place before they are.
- Onboarding starts one week before the operator arrives. Video training library and first ConnectTeam tasks must be ready before day 1.
- No Growth Zone. If the business is seasonal, schedule the Wannado & Upwork growth push for the right season — don't force it.
Before & at close
- Document workflows before closing. Founders don't know when they "task switch" — it's all a blur. Video every routine.
- Banks default to 5-year repayment — push hard for 7. It's on the table.
- Operators need TES knowledge, time management skills, and project management fluency — not just energy. Vet for this.
Act I · Auran Pesupojat
Auran Pesupojat — the add-on thesis
In this section
Our second deal — why it fits alongside Melers.
- Sector: Cleaning & laundry services, Turku, Finland — same city as Melers, est. 2015
- Revenue FY2026: €190K (flat YoY), acquisition price: €200K (van included)
- Entry multiple: ~4× Opco EBITDA (€49K mgmt-basis EBITDA)
- Financing: 30% equity · 70% bank debt · 70/30 payment split
- IC decision: GO at €200K
The Melers Plug-In Logic
- Shared city: both in Turku — combined route network, shared logistics van, potential for single operations team
- Same sector: cleaning & laundry — identical playbook applies, no new capability needed
- Customer overlap: B2B mix comparable to Melers (elderly care, hotels, B2B clients in same metro)
- Combined EBITDA: ~€150K (€100K Melers + €49K Auran) — from two companies with overlapping cost structures
II
Act II · 30 min
Askel as
a platform
What sits inside Askel Ventures Oy today — Steve and the sourcing logic, the DD and IC processes, the partner network, the founding team, the acquisition playbook, current cap table and shareholder structure, and how portfolio companies are held.
Act II · Platform
The founding team
In this section
Who we are and what we each bring.
Varia Wahlroos-Kaitila
CEO · Acquisition & Commercial
Founded 5 companies across agency, SaaS, and venture-backed startups. Built a marketing business from 0 to €2M ARR. Sold a company. Led negotiations with banks and institutional partners for the first acquisition.
Niklas Slotte
CRO · Deal Execution & Revenue
Serial entrepreneur. Scaled an international company to €8M ARR. Sharp commercial judgment, team leadership, and hands-on ownership during roll-up execution.
Mikael Ylinen
Board · Operations & Industrial
Entrepreneur and long-term board operator. Broad end-to-end business understanding. Practical experience in production environments, hardware, and operational realities that determine whether acquisitions hold together.
Mike Solomon
CTO · AI Systems & Leverage
PhD Mathematics, Stanford graduate. Full-stack AI systems builder. Develops internal software and AI agents that increase sourcing capacity, accelerate diligence, and create operating leverage across the portfolio.
10 companies founded
€8M ARR scaled internationally
Stanford · Hanken ×2 · PhD Mathematics
AI & full-stack systems
VC-backed + traditional business experience
Act II · Platform
Steve 🦔 — the sourcing engine
In this section
How we find deals — our AI sourcing engine, Steve.
- Steve is Askel's proprietary AI agent — monitors listings, job ads, owner interviews, trade press for succession signals
- Three active sourcing hypotheses:
- H1 — Finnish broker listings (yrityskaupat.net weekly sweep, thesis-scored)
- H2 — Nordic broker listings (bolagsplatsen.se, covers Finland + Sweden)
- H3 — Finder.fi weak signals (owner age 55+, declining revenue, stale web presence)
How a lead becomes a Trello card
- Signal detected → scored against thesis criteria
- Revenue ✓ · EBITDA ✓ · Age ✓ · Geography ✓
- Passes → card created from template, posted to #prospecting
- Partners review → screening lenses applied
- Survives → outreach initiated by Niklas
- This is operational IP — not a spreadsheet or a manual broker relationship. It scales without headcount.
Act II · Platform
DD & IC process
In this section
How we evaluate a company before buying it.
→
Sourcing
Signal + outreach
→
→
→
Screening — 4 lenses
- Financials — revenue quality, margin, debt
- Operations — systems, staff, dependencies
- Owner — motivation, knowledge transfer, psychology
- Market — demand resilience, competition, moat
IC — kill questions
- Can we run this without the founder in 90 days?
- Does the debt service work at current EBITDA?
- Is the customer base defensible?
- Would we do this deal at 1.5× the ask?
Act II · Platform
Structure & holdings
In this section
How Askel Ventures is structured and how we hold companies.
Legal Structure
- Askel Ventures Oy = HoldCo (TopCo)
- Portfolio companies held as wholly-owned subsidiaries
- Management fee / group contribution mechanism for cash upstream
How future acquisitions slot in
- Each acquired company becomes a new subsidiary of Askel Ventures Oy
- Deal-level debt sits at OpCo — not consolidated at HoldCo for banking purposes
- OpCo free cash flows are upstreamed via group contribution (Finnish tax mechanism) or management fee
- Investors hold equity at HoldCo level — exposure to full portfolio, not individual deals
Act II · Platform
Shareholding structure
In this section
Who owns Askel Ventures Oy — and how.
25%
Varia Wahlroos-Kaitila
via her Holdco
25%
Niklas Slotte
via his Holdco
25%
Mike Solomon
via his Holdco
25%
Mikael Ylinen
via his Holdco
- Each founder holds their stake via their own personal Holdco — tax-efficient ownership structure standard in Finnish founder setups
- Equal partners — no majority, no preference. Each has identical economic rights and exits at the same multiple.
- Future investors acquire shares in Askel Ventures Oy directly — same ordinary share class as founders
III
Act III · 30 min
Capital model &
compounding logic
The seven-year plan, acquisition pace, financing assumptions, equity/debt structure, target returns, reinvestment logic, and the key assumptions that need to hold for the model to work.
Act III · Capital Model
The seven-year plan
In this section
The plan — how many companies, over how long, and what it builds toward.
20
Acquisitions target (7 yr)
€23.6M
Illustrative terminal value
25.1×
Illustrative equity multiple
Yr 3
First portfolio exits
- Years 1–2: establish the engine — 5 acquisitions, playbook refined, team in place
- Years 3–4: compounding begins — first exits generate cash, reinvested into next acquisitions
- Years 5–7: self-funding flywheel — portfolio cash flows + exit proceeds fund growth without further equity raises
- Finland first, then Nordic scale — Sweden entry planned for Q1/2027
Act III · Capital Model
Financing model — per deal & portfolio
In this section
How we finance each deal and how cash flows through the portfolio.
Per-Deal Structure
- Average acquisition price: €700K
- Equity contribution: 30% from HoldCo
- Bank debt: 70% at OpCo level
- Interest rate: 8%, term: 7 years
- EBITDA margin assumption: 25%
- EBITDA growth: 8%/year
Portfolio Cash Flow Mechanics
- Each OpCo services its own debt from operating cash flow
- Surplus cash upstreamed to HoldCo via group contribution (Finnish tax-efficient mechanism)
- HoldCo pools cash for the next equity tranche or distributes to shareholders
- Transaction costs budgeted at 2% per deal
- Capital gains tax applied on exit proceeds above acquisition basis
Act III · Capital Model
Target returns
In this section
What the numbers look like — for Askel and for investors.
25.1×
HoldCo equity multiple (illus.)
5.02×
Investor MOIC (€1M · 20%)
26.1%
Investor IRR (illus.)
- Value creation is not a single bet — EBITDA growth + multiple expansion work in parallel across each company
- EBITDA: €250K → €1.5M over 5 years — operational improvement, commercial development, AI layer
- Multiple: 3–4× → 6–8× — de-risked ops + professional management repriced by market
- Portfolio exits generate holdco liquidity from year 3 — secondary transfer available with ROFR
Act III · Capital Model
Key model assumptions
In this section
What needs to be true for this to work — and where the risks are.
- Acquisition pace: 2/year in Y1–2, ramping to 7/year by Y7 — requires consistent deal flow and operational capacity to execute
- EBITDA growth: 10–20%/year sustained — requires successful operator placement and commercial development in each portfolio company
- Exit multiples hold: buyers continue to pay 6–8× — depends on continued interest from passive investors and strategic acquirers in Nordic SMEs
- Bank debt availability: lenders remain willing to finance acquisitions at similar terms — relationship-dependent, covenant-sensitive
- Team capacity scales: each new acquisition requires an operator — finding and retaining good operators is the hardest constraint
- Group contribution mechanism remains viable: Finnish tax law assumption — verify with advisors on a per-deal basis
IV
Act IV · 30 min
Sweden entry model
& Venture Partner role
The Swedish opportunity, broker network, deal sourcing and structuring, IC involvement, deal champion responsibilities, expected time commitment, conflict carve-outs, governance rights, and how the role, investment, and ownership structure would fit together.
Act IV · Sweden
Swedish market opportunity
In this section
Why Sweden is next — and what we already see in the market.
- Same structural dynamic as Finland — large wave of founder-owned SMEs approaching succession
- Swedish deal sizes often larger than Finnish equivalents — broader addressable universe
- Broker landscape: bolagsplatsen.se — Askel already scanning weekly (H2 hypothesis)
- Sectors: cleaning, laundry, maintenance, waste, trades — same playbook applies
- Micro-PE in Sweden is more developed than Finland — competition exists, local relationships and local presence are the differentiator
What Steve already sees in Sweden
- H2 cron scans bolagsplatsen.se weekly — covers Finnish and Swedish listings
- Swedish listings: ~900 total; ~20 in thesis scope across 5 sectors
- Sectors with highest hit rate: VVS-installation, fastighetsservice/cleaning, bilverkstad
- Most promising live leads: VVS-företag Sörmland (€1M rev, 80+ yrs, gen. handover); Fastighetsservice Helsingborg (€1M rev, asking €174–435K — strong multiple)
- Gap: local broker relationships and deal champion — that's the unlock a VP provides
Act IV · VP Role
The Venture Partner role — what it looks like
In this section
What the Venture Partner role actually means in practice.
Responsibilities
- Deal sourcing — build and maintain broker and owner relationships in Sweden
- Deal champion — lead from first contact through LOI on Swedish acquisitions
- IC involvement — full participation in investment committee for Swedish deals
- Post-acquisition — [support during transition period or ongoing?] Fill
Time & Support
- Expected time: [X hours/week baseline, more during active deal] Fill
- Askel provides: Steve sourcing, DD support, playbook, software development, growth marketing
- VP provides: local presence, Swedish network, deal judgment
- Conflict carve-outs: [specific carve-outs] Fill
- Non-compete scope: [define] Fill
Act IV · VP Role
Economics & governance
In this section
The terms — investment, ownership, and governance.
Investment & Ownership
- Investment: €250,000–500,000 into Askel Ventures Oy
- Resulting ownership: 5–10% of HoldCo
- Share class: ordinary shares — same as founders
- No preference, no ratchet, no separate class
- SHA: to be negotiated Fill
Governance
- Board seat: [yes / observer / no] Fill
- Voting rights: [describe] Fill
- Information rights: quarterly financials + board materials + Sweden IC
- Liquidity: exits from year 3 — secondary transfer with ROFR
- Strategic acquisition of HoldCo provides full exit for all shareholders
Act IV · Next Steps
Next steps
In this section
What happens after this meeting.
Near-term (next 60 days)
- Investor confirmed intent / term sheet discussion Fill
- Shareholder agreement drafted and reviewed
Open questions to resolve before next steps
- What information is missing before you can decide?
- Is there someone affecting your decision on joining?
- Is there a timeline pressure on your side?
- What does success look like for you in year 1 as VP?
Askel Ventures · Helsinki · June 2026
Acquiring boring
businesses.
Building compounding value.
Micro private equity · Nordic small business acquisitions
varia@askelventures.com · niklas@askelventures.com
pitch.askelventures.com · effect.askelventures.com