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 & partnershipsPrefers mixed syndicates: specialists + generalists. Strategic offtakes are a bonus, not a condition. Materials-heavy startups need partners with deeper pockets.

Macro & climate politicsMessage 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 takeawayFamily capital + sector expertise + VC discipline is Europe’s winning recipe for building startups in the sustainable built world.

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