AI-powered digital facilitation platform supports organizations where collaboration and social learning through digital channels are essential for positive outcomes.

Midinvest has been an investor in Howspace since 2017 when the seed round was closed.

Howspace has announced the closing of a €12M Series A funding round led by European investors Forestay Capital and Inventure. The funding will be used to scale the core business and to create jobs to drive growth in North America and Central Europe.

Organizations like The United Nations use Howspace to encourage and facilitate more engagement through digital channels in settings that include learning, change management, and strategic planning. Howspace lets organizations move away from collections of arbitrarily assembled tools that make it difficult for people to connect in today’s remote—and tomorrow’s hybrid workforce worlds.

“We want to be at the forefront of the future of work by enabling people to be truly involved and impactful in the organizations they devote their time to,” said Howspace CEO Ilkka Mäkitalo. “In Forestay and Inventure, we are partnering with investors that deeply understand our industry and how to make an impact at scale in European and North American markets.

“Most importantly, we all believe that the future of work is social. We are excited to see how we can build new connections and continue to scale the great partner ecosystem we have built across 30 countries,” he concluded.

Forestay Capital’s Managing Partner Frederic Wohlwend said: “Howspace’s highly talented team has already grown an impressive business that is seizing upon—and helping to direct—the growing trend for innovative digital collaboration in the ways that we work.

“Vitally, Howspace’s products differentiate it from the market, offering one ecosystem of collaboration with AI acting in the background to facilitate remote interactions at scale. That gives us cause for excitement about what the future holds, and we fully believe in—and back—management’s vision for achieving global growth.”

“We followed Howspace for more than two years, and they ticked all the boxes we look for in SaaS companies,” said Tuomas Kosonen, Partner at Inventure. “They have a seasoned team building a product that people love coming back to in a huge market with lots of chances to become a global-scale platform company.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic changing the way we communicate, work, and learn together, Howspace’s platform is a clear forerunner in bringing people together in the future, whether through online learning programs, hybrid events or face-to-face workshops,” he concluded.

Howspace has previously raised €3M, including a €1.4M Seed round in 2017 and a €1.6M bridge round that closed in October 2019. The company’s roots extend back to its founding under the Humap name in 1999 by Olli-Pekka Juoperi, Ilkka Mäkitalo, and Vesa Purokuru. Founded as a spin-off in 2008, the company today employs 60+ people in Europe and North America, offering support to customers and partners in more than 30 countries.

Further information:

Jukka-Pekka Nikula, Managing Director, Midinvest Management Ltd, +358 50 539 9378

Midinvest Ltd is a private equity fund managed by Midinvest Management Ltd. The fund was established in 1994 and, throughout its history has invested 20 million euros in over 70 companies in Central Finland in their early and later stages of development. www.midinvest.fi