IThe Case
Overview
Askel Ventures at a glance.
Company
Askel Ventures Oy
Strategy
Micro private equity. We buy, operate, grow, and selectively exit. Building a portfolio of 10–25 companies.
Sectors
Cleaning, laundry, waste collection, maintenance, industrial trades. Essential blue-collar industries.
Geography
Finland (primary) · Sweden, Estonia & UK (secondary)
Team
4 founders, serial entrepreneurs, hands-on operators
Deal profile
Revenue €500K–3.5M · EBITDA min. €100K+, 20% margin · entry ≤€1M
Platform
Steve — proprietary AI sourcing system, live and sourcing today. Broker network of 70+.
Advantage
Documented operational playbook + AI sourcing — no passive PE competes here. Hyper custom software development capability. Experienced founders.
Round
Raising up to €1M, ordinary shares, min ticket €100K
Mission
Acquiring boring businesses. Building a compounding portfolio of 10–25 companies.
IThe Case
3x Why
Why we exist. Why now.
Why you should invest.
Why we exist
Finland has 20,000+ profitable small businesses about to lose their owner to retirement — and no buyer built for businesses this size. We exist to be that buyer.
Why we're raising now
The succession wave is peaking this decade, multiples are still rational, and deal #1 already proves the model. We're raising to fund the next 5 acquisitions — to speed up the compounding of the portfolio, and before this space gets crowded.
Why you should invest
We've built the sourcing engine, the screening and DD framework, Marketing & Sales systems, and a live, cash-flowing case — this isn't a thesis you're betting on, it's a system already running.
IThe Case
The Opportunity
This isn't one deal.
It's a structural wave.
73,000+
Finnish entrepreneurs aged 54+
34,000
intend to sell to an outside buyer within the decade
20,000+
viable businesses at closure risk — no suitable buyer exists
Not one country's problem. Finland, Sweden, Estonia, and the UK all face the same demographic wall — this opportunity doesn't disappear if one market tightens.
Not one sector's problem. Cleaning, laundry, waste, maintenance, trades — essential services spread across an entire category of the economy, not one lucky find.
Real businesses, real cash flow. These are decades-old, profitable, cash-generative operations — not turnarounds, not distress. The only reason they're available is an owner ready to retire.
IIThe Engine
Find01 / 03
How we find acquisition targets
before they reach the market.
20+
active brokers
400
deal pipeline
31-point
screening process
<100 days
first close
Sourcing
Weekly
→
Screening
Active
→
IC
Selective
→
DD
Rigorous
→
Acquired
✓
Steve — AI sourcing agent. Scans marketplace listings and finds weak signals — owners nearing retirement, flagged through social media and public news — scored against thesis fit.
Broker network. 20+ active brokers working with us, access to off-market deals, and a live deal pipeline of 400 cases.
Rigorous process. 31-point screening, an Investment Committee decision process where 3/4 must agree, and a repeatable Due Diligence template for every deal.
IIThe Engine
What Is a Boring Business
Our thesis, in six traits.
01Real, proven cash flow
10+ years old, real customers, no story — just proof. We look for customer registries of 500+ contacts sitting untouched by any marketing.
02Essential, not optional
Customers can't skip it, even in a downturn — cleaning, waste, laundry, maintenance.
03Recurring, not one-off
Contracts and repeat relationships, not project-by-project revenue.
04Asymmetric upside built in
Old, non-digital industries where the right software could unlock outsized returns — upside that isn't priced into the deal, and isn't required for it to work.
05Undermanaged, not broken
Profitable today, run on paper and spreadsheets — not systems.
06Succession-ready
The owner is ready to hand over — a clean, structural opening, not a fragility.
IIThe Engine
Why This Matters To You
Real cash flow. Real ownership.
Downside protection. You're buying into profitable, cash-generating businesses from day one — not a pre-revenue bet.
Asymmetric upside. Digitalization and AI unlock multiple expansion no one else at this deal size is pursuing.
Alignment. Same share class as the founders. No preference stack, no games.
A liquidity path, on a compounding timeline. Dividends from Year 3, exit optionality at 5–10× as the portfolio matures — this is patient capital, not a quick flip.
IIThe Engine
Fund02 / 03
Equity in Askel Ventures.
Raising up to €1M.
Instrument
Ordinary shares via private placement. Same share class as founders — no preference stack.
Use of funds
Next 5 acquisitions to reach compounding scale — each financed with bank leverage (50–70% of purchase price) alongside equity, so €1M in capital supports several multiples in deal value.
Financial target
Grow portfolio companies 10%/yr. Selectively exit at 6–8× EBITDA.
Minimum ticket
€100,000. Closing on a rolling basis.
Exit strategy
Scale & sell each portfolio company at 5–10× entry value, or hold for long-term dividend income.
Dividend timeline
Predictable payouts starting Year 3, distributed pro-rata to shareholders.
IIThe Engine
Grow03 / 03
The Askel Playbook. How boring
becomes extraordinary.
Recruitment
Our job: hiring and enabling the right operators — CEOs and managers. We incentivize them to run and grow the business day-to-day, without the founder or Askel's involvement.
Marketing & Sales
Standard operating procedures for outreach, lead generation, and conversion — systems that turn one-off effort into repeatable growth.
Software & AI
Custom ERPs, CRMs, and AI agents built for each business. This is where asymmetric upside gets built.
These activities move a company from owner-operated to professionally managed — clearing the systemic bottlenecks that were capping revenue growth, and lifting the company's exit value.
IIThe Engine
Case Study
Proof-of-concept: Melers Oy.
Deal overview
Commercial dry cleaning & laundry, Turku region — operating since 1967 (founded 2001). 100% acquisition, closed Jan 2026 in <100 days.
Business snapshot
Revenue ~€490K, EBITDA €115K (23% margin). 400 customers, 60/40 B2B/B2C mix. 4.5 FTE + 2 owners transitioning.
Financing
€400K purchase price — OP bank loan (Finnvera-backed), seller earn-out, founder equity. No outside capital needed.
Value-creation plan
Workflow automation, AI-enabled booking & customer service, standardized SOPs. Target: +30–100% EBITDA in 24 months.
Backed by
What We've Already Done
Scroll to explore →
Screening
35-point checklist applied
Passed thesis & financial fit
→
Due Diligence
20-point DD framework run
Contracts & assets verified
→
Financing
€400K secured, Finnvera-backed
Seller earn-out + founder equity
→
Knowledge Transfer
Seller stayed 3 months to hand over
KT charter & video training built
→
Recruitment
Key operating hire recruited
New operator onboarded & trained
→
Marketing
Modern brand & systems stood up
First systematic outreach, ever
→
Sales System
CRM built & live
SOP active, €100K pipeline
→
R&D w/ Business Finland
Enrolled in R&D funding program
Co-funding digitalization roadmap
→
Growth Stage
Tracking toward EBITDA target
Positioned for deal #2
IIIThe Ask
The Vision
One acquisition is proof.
A portfolio is the business.
Compounding toward
€100M+
A portfolio of 3–5 verticals — cleaning, laundry, waste, maintenance, trades — running roll-ups within each.
Selective exits of mature companies at premium multiples, proceeds reinvested into the next wave.
Not a thesis — a trajectory already underway, with acquisition #1 cash-flowing and #2 closing.
IIIThe Ask
The Team
Four founders. Four obsessions.
Varia Wahlroos-Kaitila CEO
Why: has built and sold companies before — knows firsthand what it takes to get a deal over the line, and what happens after.
Right fit: the operator who turns due diligence into a closed deal. Founded 5 companies, built one to €2M ARR, ran the bank negotiations that closed Melers.
Niklas Slotte CRO
Why: scaled revenue from zero internationally — knows what actually makes a boring business sellable and growable.
Right fit: the commercial engine behind every acquisition's growth plan. Scaled a business to €8M ARR internationally.
Mikael Ylinen Board
Why: decades on the ground running operations — the reality check every deal needs before it's signed.
Right fit: makes sure the plan survives contact with an actual workforce. Deep operational experience, on the ground and in the boardroom.
Mike Solomon CTO
Why: built Steve, the AI system sourcing every deal in this pipeline — believes boring businesses are where AI proves it creates value, not hype.
Right fit: the reason this scales past deal #1 without headcount scaling with it. PhD Mathematics, Stanford.
