Always a pleasure to have Hamilton Lane in town – and this time together with Lifeline Ventures!

We hosted a fireside chat on VC and Growth Equity with Matt Pellini, Co-Head of Venture & Growth Equity at Hamilton Lane, and Timo Ahopelto, Co-Founding Partner at Lifeline Ventures.

A warm thank you to Matt and Timo for an engaging, insightful and entertaining conversation, and for helping us unpack what is happening in one of the most dynamic periods the private markets have ever seen.

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A few takeaways that stayed with us:

Private markets are increasingly where much of the value creation happens. As companies stay private for longer, access to category winners often requires being invested before they reach the public markets.

AI is clearly reshaping the venture landscape, but not every AI company will become a $100bn company. The discussion was a good reminder that while some businesses are growing at extraordinary speed, discipline on valuation, substance and durability still matters.

Venture and growth equity are becoming harder to separate. As private companies scale faster and remain private longer, the line between “venture” and “growth” continues to blur, but the underlying risk-return profiles remain different.

Liquidity is still a key question for the ecosystem. The exit environment has been constrained, but there are signs of improvement, particularly around AI-driven exits and potential IPO activity.

Regarding Finland, Timo made a clear point – we already have the entrepreneurial spirit and ambition to build globally relevant companies, but to produce more category leaders, we need to keep strengthening the ecosystem around them. Capital, international talent, incentives and openness to global builders all matter.

And one last favourite point was Matt’s perspective from the LP side: in venture, the best managers are often defined not only by track record, but by the strength of their networks, access and founder relationships.

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Thank you to everyone who joined us, and especially to Matt and Timo for sharing your perspectives and making the discussion both thoughtful and refreshingly direct!