Thomas Sandvall

Thomas Sandvall, Ph.D. (Econ.), is CEO and a Partner of Sponsor Capital, a Finnish private equity firm founded in 1997 that has invested in and developed more than 40 Finnish companies over 25+ years. He joined Sponsor Capital as a Partner in 2014, served as Deputy CEO from 2022, and was appointed Chief Executive Officer effective 1 February 2024.

Before Sponsor Capital, Sandvall was a managing partner and founding partner of HLP Corporate Finance, a Finnish M&A advisory boutique, and earlier worked at Goldman Sachs in London. His academic grounding is in finance: he became deeply familiar with financing theory while completing his doctoral thesis in the field, and he holds a Ph.D. in Economics.

At Sponsor Capital, Sandvall sits at the center of a mid-market buyout franchise that partners closely with management teams to build long-term value — through growth acceleration, international expansion, industry consolidation, and ownership transitions. He has been directly involved in flagship deals such as the firm's 2018 majority investment in bicycle-components and lighting maker Herrmans, where he publicly represented Sponsor Capital.

• Invests in profitable, stable Finnish SMEs with net sales in the ~€15–200M range, typically taking majority or significant ownership positions.
• Backs situations where current owners want to realize value while the company still needs a partner for its next phase: growth, international expansion, consolidation, or generational/ownership transition.
• Sector-agnostic — the portfolio spans food production, industrials, logistics, property services, media/directories, and technology.
• Emphasis on partnering with management and "building long-term value in close collaboration with management" rather than passive capital.
• Capital base is institutional: roughly 65% of the sixth fund came from leading Nordic pension funds, alongside meaningful GP co-investment.