Our roots

Founded by Lauri Hartikainen, Vilja Ventures (Maha Growth Oy) is a personal investment vehicle and family office supporting transformative early-stage ventures across deep tech and B2B SaaS.

Vilja carries layered meaning across languages:

• In Finnish, it means grain, a symbol of growth, nourishment, and continuity. It’s also a traditional girl’s name, not widespread but quietly rising in popularity and rich with promise.
• In Swedish, it means will, willpower, the quiet, persistent force behind breakthroughs
• In Lithuanian (Vilija), reflects both hope and a flowing river

Founder

Lauri exited Pointscene as Co-founder & CEO in 2023 via acquisition by ARKANCE, part of the Monnoyeur Group. He now focuses on enabling early teams to build globally scalable companies. All starts with increasing clarity, enabling structure, and providing hands-on commercial support.

He is also a member of FiBAN – Finnish Business Angels Network, contributing to early-stage innovation across Europe.

Values

Growth
We invest patiently and support founders with long-term commitment.

Clarity
We seek bold ideas which are grounded in purpose and direction.

Courage
We deal with complexity and help bring direction.

Flow
We move with intention, not force.

Trust
We back autonomy. Founders lead, we support.

Contribution areas

• 🧭 Strategic clarity and product-market fit
• 🎯 Value proposition & commercial packaging
• 🤝 Go-to-market design & early partnerships
• 📣 Sales enablement and channel development

Principles

• 🌱 Small yet meaningful bets with compounding potential
• 🧬 Respect for technical and systemic complexity
• 🐺 We value sharp thinkers and focused builders
• 🪵 Nordic mindset: clear, grounded, essential