Serial entrepreneurs co-creating growth companies
in life sciences and telecoms information technology

LIFELINE VENTURES IS A NEW KIND OF STARTUP ACCELERATOR.
We are execution-driven. Instead of just mentoring entrepreneurs, we are in the game together with them, working as startup core team members. Depending on the specific needs of the company and its founders, we take responsibility for sales, marketing, business development, operations and/or technology.

WE LOOK FOR TEAMS WITH A UNIQUE CONCEPT AND PASSION FOR MARKET LEADERSHIP.
We specialize in taking startups from the inception to successful Series A investment and beyond. By focusing on life sciences and telecoms information technology, we allow entrepreneurs to benefit from the industry experience, skills and contacts we have accumulated over the last 10+ years.

CONTACT US TO DISCUSS YOUR IDEA

Timo Ahopelto [timo (AT) lifelineventures.com] co-founded Lifeline Ventures after being Head of Strategy at Blyk. Timo was part of the very first Blyk team, working broadly across the entire business with the key responsibilities in Blyk's media industry offering, country expansion, funding and analyst relations. Blyk – the mobile engagement media – has been broadly cited as the company who brought the media business model into the mobile telecoms – the only mass media channel not funded by advertising today.

Prior to Blyk, Timo was the Co-Founder and Founding CEO of CRF Health. Today, CRF Health is the global market leader in electronic patient diaries in clinical R&D, and among the top 3 venture-funded technology companies in Finland measured in revenue and profit. Under Timo's leadership, in just five years, CRF Health grew to serve nearly all the top 20 pharmaceutical companies with phase I-III clinical programs running in over 60 countries.

Timo has also worked at McKinsey&Company and Nokia, focusing on projects in new venture development. He has a M.Sc. degree in Industrial Management and Telecommunications Software from Helsinki University of Technology.

Jarkko Joki-Tokola [jarkko (AT) lifelineventures.com] is a serial entrepreneur and start-up co-creator. Jarkko has been working with several life-sciences start-ups to drive growth plans, get funded and properly staffed. Prior to Lifeline Ventures, Jarkko was Chairman at IHQLife, a diagnostics company optimizing diabetes self-management.

Until late 2007, Jarkko was a Co-Founder and COO and VP at CRF Health. CRF Health is the global market leader in electronic patient diaries in clinical R&D, and among the top 3 venture-funded technology companies in Finland measured in revenue and profit. Jarkko was responsible of building and managing Company's global customer delivery operations and support infrastructure including direct-to-patient support across 60 countries, a team of 100 clinical and IT professionals in the US and Europe, and 21 CFR Part 11 -compliant processes. Today, Jarkko is member of the Board of Directors at CRF Health.

Jarkko has also worked at Teliasonera, Nokia and Fortum, focusing on new business development. He has a M.Sc. degree in Industrial Management from Helsinki University of Technology.

Petteri Koponen [petteri (AT) lifelineventures.com] has founded five companies and successfully exited two - the other three continuing to grow. Prior to Lifeline Ventures, he founded the mobile microblogging pioneer Jaiku with Jyri Engestrom. After Google acquired the company on October 2007, Petteri spent two exciting years working in Google's mobile product and new business development teams in Mountain View and London.

Petteri's education in the harsh, but ever so fascinating, reality of the start-up world began in 1997 when he founded First Hop, the leader in mobile value-added service management solutions. Petteri worked as the CEO, CTO, VP of Professional Services and, lastly, board member until the company was acquired by Airwide Solutions on January 2008. Before Jaiku, Petteri was first an adviser and later, being in charge of technology and operations, a member of the initial team of four that bootstrapped Blyk, world's first ad-funded mobile virtual network operator.

Petteri has studied applied mathematics and computer science in Helsinki University of Technology and logistics in Helsinki School of Economics. In his free time Petteri reads, practices martial arts and yoga, and chills out with his wife and two daughters.

LIFELINE VENTURES WAS ACCEPTED INTO THE VIGO STARTUP ACCELERATOR PROGRAM. Under Vigo, Lifeline Ventures is uniquely positioned to drive startups towards Series A investments and international growth. The program, which provides Finnish companies with substantial, flexible early-stage funding, is managed by the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy and coordinated by Tekes. The first three Vigo accelerators were selected by a steering committee chaired by Risto Siilasmaa on June 2009.

© 2009 LIFELINE ventures. All Rights Reserved.