A well-known startup investor sells his shares for more than 10 million euros in Framery’s IPO

Startup-investor and familiar from TV entertainment programs Kim Vaisänen plans to sell Framery’s shares worth more than ten million euros in the Tampere-based company’s IPO.

Framery, which manufactures soundproof phone booths and workspaces, announced on Friday that it was suspending its listing due to multiple oversubscriptions. The final result of the share issue and sale will be announced on Monday.

The company’s goal is to collect gross assets of around 20 million euros in the initial public offering by issuing new shares. In addition, the company’s current owners are selling their shares worth around 180 million euros.

According to Framery’s IPO prospectus, Väisänen is selling approximately 1.6 million company shares in connection with the IPO.

The subscription price of the initial public offering is EUR 7.30–8 per share, so Väisänen is getting EUR 11.4–12.5 million from the sale of Framery’s shares.

Väisänen are early stage investors in Framery. According to Framery’s press release from previous years, he invested 450,000 euros in the company already in 2014.

“I’ve been a shareholder in Framery for eleven years. People usually misunderstand startup investing, that is, they think that profits will come quickly. Bankruptcies do happen quickly,” says Väisänen.

“Unfortunately, the old saying holds true in startup investing: profits are made slowly and losses quickly.”

Väisänen says that Framery has a rare professional management and praises the fact that the company has not gone sprawling.

“Framery has been a good investment, and I believe it will be an even better investment in the future. The company is a so-called category leader, which is number one in its own market segment.”

Väisänen is currently Framery’s sixth largest owner, with a 5.6 percent stake, before the IPO. Now he is selling about a third of his shares in Framery.

Väisänen is not the only current owner of Framery to reduce his holdings in the company. For example, the company’s main owner, the private equity company Vakaa Partners, also plans to sell about a third of its shares for more than 70 million euros.

Väisänen initially became wealthy in 2014, when the data destruction company he founded, Blancco, was sold for 60 million euros to the British company Regenersis. He owned 40 percent of the company.

After the acquisition, became an investor Väisänen has so far made about 150 startup investments in about 50 companies for about 15 million euros. He says that he will put his Framery millions forward to new startup investments.

“Yes, a good part of the startup ecosystem will return to Finns,” says Väisänen.

“I don’t have, so to speak by Larry Ellison expenses, and I don’t have any great need for money in my own consumption behavior”.

American billionaire Larry Ellison is the founder of the software company Oracle and one of the richest people in the world.

Väisänen became known to the general public when he was one of the five business angels The lion’s den in the entertainment program. He has been part of the program for several seasons.