Pauliina Martikainen-Rahnu
Managing Partner, Maki.vc
Where do you see Finland’s greatest opportunities in the age of AI?
“Our leading deep-tech fields, such as quantum and space technology, are already on the radar of international investors. In AI, Finland should aim to be the world’s fastest and most agile adopter rather than trying to compete with the US and China in frontier models. For example, we could look for use cases in industry, where we already have strong sector expertise, and apply them to create new business and growth.”
The Nordic countries produce world-class technology, yet few companies grow to rank among the world’s largest. What is holding us back and what should we have the courage to do differently?
“There is no shortage of technological expertise or ambition. The bottleneck has been a lack of scale-up capital, which causes ownership to move abroad too early. We should have the courage to channel more domestic capital into unlisted growth companies so that entrepreneurs can think big from the outset.”
What do investors need to understand about AI and deep tech right now to distinguish major long-term trends from short-lived hype?
“New technology does not create value on its own. A sustainable long-term trend is one in which technology solves a real problem for a real customer and builds a defensible advantage, such as a deep customer relationship. Hype is when everyone is building the same thing and the winner is determined solely by who moves fastest. One question currently on my mind is whether the rise of the defence sector represents a lasting shift.”
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