Aboa /Advest
Aboa Advest is a family-owned investment company focusing on growth companies and venture capital funds. Founded in 2015, we have been particularly interested in impact investing: Impact investing generates a beneficial social or environmental impact, as well as a financial return.
We are an active investor in Finnish and Nordic growth companies.
We revised our investment strategy in January 2020: our primary focus is to invest in Venture Capital funds. To date we have invested in two buyout funds and six VC funds.
Our investment strategy is based on a long-term perspective: we expect a significant return on our investments in 10 years time.
Investment criteria
Our investments focus mainly on DeepTech i.e. science-based ventures and ecological products & services based on sustainable business. We have a particular focus on Blue Economy, as we are a co-founder in A’Pelago running the blue Accelerator programme in the Baltic Sea region combining science with business initiatives. Our goal is that in the next five years we will help create 30 new companies in the blue economy in the Baltic Sea region and that within 10 years we will see the first Unicorn in the Blue VC funds we are investing in.
According to the World Bank, the blue economy is the “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem.” The European Commission defines it as “All economic activities related to oceans, seas and coasts”.“The ocean economy is worth between $3 and $6 trillion and offers opportunities to build resilience. Business related to the use of the oceans provides the livelihoods of approximately 3 billion people, says UNCTAD in the latest report Trade and Environment Review 2023”, UNCTAD, January 2024. It is worth pointing out that the market for the blue economy in Europe alone amounts to more than 620 billion euros.
Education and services
Our passion is to help startups grow profitably. Our services include advisory work and personal coaching. Our Founder Timo Ketonen is a Certified Board Member (CBM). He is a guest lecturer at the CBM courses at the Chamber of Commerce.
We assist our portfolio companies in marketing and communication. We also co-operate with the best experts in business law, branding, communication, financial administration and venture capital.
We also arrange tailored teambuilding events in co-operation with A’Pelago: Welcome to spend your next team day sailing on board the A'Pelago Yacht in the fresh winds in the Archipelago Sea.
Entrepreneurship is about resilience
This we do know from our own experience, as an entrepreneur and investor in several startups and as shareholders in a 120-year old family business. We have studied what are the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur.
Below are some of our observations:
Motivation – the desire to create a successful concept to go from ‘Zero to One’ - a systematic and results orientated way of working.
Empathy – it will help you to understand customer needs and to lead the team.
Passion – a real desire to win.
Resilience – the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
We wish to share two quotes from the book Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (Peter Thiel, Blake Masters, 2014). We recommend reading the entire book.
In our experience:
Resilience is also required from investors: there are no quick gains in Venture Capital.
Resilience is required when sailing long-distances, especially weathering a storm.
"Doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1.
The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of creation, and the result is something fresh and strange. We are unique."“Most of a tech company’s value will come at least 10 to 15 years in the future.”