This week, Andreas Munk Holm and Jeppe Høier sit down with Matti Rönkkö, Managing Director of Kiilto Ventures, the venture arm of Finnish family-owned Kiilto.
From Rocket Internet to running a corporate-backed, family-owned venture arm, Matti shares how Kiilto Ventures blends family capital, industry know-how, and VC pace to back startups in the sustainable built environment. They dive into portfolio examples, CVC vs VC dynamics, co-investing with generalists, and why superior product performance at price parity is the only path forward in climate and construction tech.
🎧 Here’s what’s covered:
00:30 – Cold open & setup: why this is a “CVC episode”
01:00 – Who is Matti? From Rocket Internet & scale-ups to Kiilto Ventures
02:00 – What is Kiilto Ventures: mandate, geography, and ownership model
04:56 – CVC, VC, or family office? Matti’s “best-of-all-worlds” answer
07:30 – How Kiilto’s mothership helps: labs, chemists, and customer intros
10:44 – Rocket Internet lessons: speed, scale, and culture
18:12 – The built environment’s big four problems: carbon, circularity, health, inefficiency
20:25 – Portfolio snapshots: Recoma, Nobody Engineering, Acembee
24:21 – Co-investing & partnerships: specialists + generalists, and when offtakes make sense
37:27 – Macro & climate politics: why only price-parity products will win
You can listen to the full session on Apple Podcasts and Spotify 🎧
✍️ Show Notes
Kiilto Ventures in one glance
Owner & capital base: Single-family, 4th-generation Finnish owner behind Kiilto (chemicals/building materials; >100 years old). No external LPs; no formal fund vehicle.
Mandate: Early-stage sustainable built environment across materials, hardware, and software. Typical entry: angel/Pre-Seed to Seed, with follow-ons.
Geo: Nordics & Baltics focus; Europe opportunistically.
Extras: Select fund investments; an invite-only accelerator.
Hybrid model: Strategic proximity (labs, chemists, customers) without forced tie-ins; VC-style pace; family-office patience.
Where they hunt (problem clusters)
Decarbonization & biodiversity in construction and materials.
Circularity: construction consumes huge material tonnage, recycling lags.
Indoor health: a known Nordic issue, bigger globally.
Construction inefficiency: site delays, diesel waste, fragmented workflows.
Portfolio snapshots
Recoma (Sweden): Boards from cardboard waste, replacing gypsum; fully operational.
Nobody Engineering (Nordics): “Chromecast for buildings,” enabling legacy BMS to plug into modern optimization.
Acembee (Denmark): Emissions tracking and energy optimization for construction sites.
Lessons from Rocket Internet
Bias to speed and scale from day one, paired with a later-found appreciation for culture and resilience. At Kiilto Ventures, this translates to startup-style iteration inside a 100-year-old corporate context.
Co-investing & partnerships
Prefers mixed syndicates: specialists + generalists. Strategic offtakes are a bonus, not a condition. Materials-heavy startups need partners with deeper pockets.
Macro & climate politics
Message to founders: product parity matters. Startups can’t win with “green but worse” or “green but 10× costlier.” Survivors of today’s scrutiny are stronger, price-aware, and more scalable.
Matti’s playbook for founders
Build better, price-competitive products first; sustainability is the differentiator, not the excuse.
Own the investor relationship — manage your VCs and corporates actively.
Syndicate smartly: use specialists for validation, generalists for scaling.
If in materials/FOAK, plan financing with long-term, deep-pocketed allies.
💡 One-liner takeaway
Family capital + sector expertise + VC discipline is Europe’s winning recipe for building startups in the sustainable built world.
🤗 Join the EUVC Community
Looking for niche, high-quality experiences that prioritize depth over breadth? Consider joining our community focused on delivering content tailored to the experienced VC. Here’s what you can look forward to as a member:
Exclusive Access & Discounts: Priority access to masterclasses with leading GPs & LPs, available on a first-come, first-served basis.
On-Demand Content: A platform with sessions you can access anytime, anywhere, complete with presentations, templates, and other resources.
Interactive AMAs: Engage directly with top GPs and LPs in exclusive small group sessions — entirely free for community members.
