Ilkka Kivimäki

Who they are

Ilkka Kivimäki is Co-founder and Partner at Maki.vc — a former professional rally co-driver who navigated for Markku Alén across Fiat, Lancia, Toyota, and Subaru before pivoting to seed-stage venture capital.

Person

Ilkka co-founded Maki.vc in 2018 when it was a brand-new seed fund with no portfolio and initial ticket sizes of €200k–€2M — he's been building it from zero. Before VC, his career was spent in professional motorsport: he was a rally co-driver and navigator for Markku Alén from 1973 to 1993, competing with Fiat, Lancia, Toyota, and Subaru factory teams, and later served as a rally driver coach and held a role with the Finnish motorsport federation. He also has a connection to Wolt on his pre-Maki.vc record, and has held a Chairman role. The through-line is high-stakes navigation under pressure — literally calling pace notes at 200 km/h, then calling investment decisions at the seed stage. He writes occasionally on the Maki.vc Medium blog, including an essay on the chairman-CEO relationship, and has been a recurring podcast guest in 2024–2025 on shows including Futucast, The Growth Pod, and Venture Capital Unlocked, where his topics run from deep tech investing to the Nordic startup ecosystem. Possibly — the motorsport background informs how he thinks about founder coaching: reading the road ahead, not just the current corner.

Network

Ilkka's closest professional anchor is Pirkka Palomäki, his co-founder at Maki.vc. The fund's LP base includes notable Finnish tech figures: Risto Siilasmaa (Chairman of Nokia) and Ilkka Paananen and Mikko Kodisoja, co-founders of Supercell — a signal that Maki.vc drew credibility from Finland's most prominent tech exits from the start. His longest personal relationship on record is with rally driver Markku Alén, a partnership spanning two decades on the competitive circuit.

Pirkka Palomäki· Co-founder, Maki.vc
Risto Siilasmaa· Investor in Maki.vc; Chairman of Nokia
Ilkka Paananen· Co-founder of Supercell; investor in Maki.vc
Mikko Kodisoja· Co-founder of Supercell; investor in Maki.vc
Markku Alén· Rally driver; long-time co-driving partner (1973–1993)

How they likely show up

Two decades as a professional rally co-driver — a role defined by split-second decisions under pressure with incomplete information → likely comfortable making fast calls and moving on rather than cycling through endless deliberation.
Founded Maki.vc from scratch in 2018 and has stayed for the long arc → thinks in fund cycles and multi-year relationships, not short-term wins.
Recurring podcast appearances in 2024–2025 across multiple platforms (Futucast, The Growth Pod, Venture Capital Unlocked, NORDEEP, A Grid Open) → comfortable being public-facing and articulating a VC thesis out loud; probably responds well to direct, substantive conversation.
Wrote a Medium essay specifically on the chairman-CEO relationship → has a defined view on governance and founder-board dynamics; likely brings that lens to portfolio companies.
Motorsport background followed by a Chairman role followed by co-founding a VC fund → pattern of taking on navigating/supporting roles rather than sole driver roles; probably sees himself as an enabler of founders rather than the protagonist.
LP base includes Supercell founders and Nokia's chairman → operated from day one in Finland's most credentialled network; likely values quality of relationship over volume of connections.

Conversation tips

→ The rally career is genuine texture, not small talk — ask about what the co-driver role taught him about working with a lead under pressure; it maps directly to how he works with founders.
→ He has a specific published view on chairman-CEO dynamics (the Medium essay) — if governance or board structure comes up, reference it; he'll know you've done the reading.
→ He speaks publicly about deep tech and brand-driven companies as distinct investment theses — ask him how he holds those two together in a single fund rather than treating them as separate strategies.
→ Reference the Supercell / Nokia LP base if relevant — it signals you understand that Maki.vc was credibility-built from the Finnish ecosystem, not just a generic Nordic fund.
→ Don't treat him as a generic seed investor — the motorsport-to-VC arc is central to his identity; show you know the full story, not just the VC chapter.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the rally co-driver career — he navigated for Markku Alén across four factory teams from 1973 to 1993, and the transition from pace-note caller to VC partner is a genuine throughline worth pulling on.
Reference his Medium essay on the chairman-CEO relationship — it's a specific published view on governance that signals he thinks carefully about founder-board dynamics from the inside.
Mention his 2025 Venture Capital Unlocked appearance, 'Building and Backing Bold Ideas' — it's his most recent podcast on record and the title is a thesis statement worth probing.

Discovery questions

You've described Maki.vc as investing in both deep tech and brand-driven companies — how do you underwrite those two categories differently at seed, given how distinct the risk profiles are?
The rally co-driver role is about reading what's coming and communicating it fast to the person making the decisions — how consciously does that model show up in how you work with portfolio founders today?
You launched Maki.vc in 2018 with a €200k–€2M ticket size and no prior portfolio — what's changed most about how you evaluate seed deals now versus in those first two years?

Avoid

Don't treat the motorsport background as a quirky footnote — it's a two-decade professional career that predates his VC work and shapes how he thinks about risk, partnership, and decision-making under pressure; flattening it to a fun fact will land badly.

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