Jaakko Salminen

Jaakko Salminen is a Finnish angel investor and board professional with more than a decade of active involvement in the startup ecosystem. He earned a Master of Science in Software Engineering from the Helsinki University of Technology (Teknillinen korkeakoulu / Tekniska högskolan), studying there from roughly 1984 to 1990. Earlier in his career he held international roles at a global IT company, managing business units, professionals and international accounts at large corporations, and later served as CEO/VP/Partner in two software companies that were subsequently acquired (exited).

Salminen has been a prominent figure in the Finnish business-angel community. He is a former Chair of the Board of FiBAN (the Finnish Business Angels Network) — he chaired the organization from 2016 — and is recognized by FiBAN as a Vice Chair / Chairman emeritus and honorary member. During his tenure as chair, FiBAN grew into an active investor community of close to 700 members. Alongside fellow long-serving presidents such as Janne Jormalainen, he is credited with helping build the association into a leading Nordic angel network.

From 2016 to 2023 Salminen was a Partner at Grannenfelt Finance Oy, a Helsinki-based independent provider of funding solutions for growth companies, where the work included capital-raising and M&A advisory for scaling firms. He combined this corporate-finance advisory experience (roughly eight years as an advisor/partner) with hands-on angel investing. Today he invests and advises primarily through Qpoli Oy and remains active as a mentor and coach, including with Startup Sauna and the A'Pelago accelerator community.

Across his career he has been an angel investor in 30+ companies and has served on 12+ startup and company boards as a board member or advisor. His self-described "super power as a mentor" is a focus on numbers — bringing financial discipline and corporate-finance rigor to early-stage founders.

• Invests at seed / early stage, typically as an individual angel and often alongside syndicates and co-investors rather than as a lead institutional fund.
• Concentrates on software and technology-driven growth companies, drawing on his own background as a software engineer and former software-company CEO/VP.
• Brings a strong finance and metrics orientation — his mentoring "super power" is described as a "focus on numbers," reflecting his M&A and capital-raising advisory background.
• Values founders building resilient companies that drive real-world change through innovation and entrepreneurship, and has expressed conviction that abundant global capital, low rates, and the maturing Finnish ecosystem would keep fueling growth-company funding.
• Stated view on the market (May 2021): *"The most dramatic change has happened in the funding of growth companies that are further along. Five years ago, a 10 MEUR investment round was still big news, but nowadays, it does not even make the top 12 list."*