Mika Salmi
Managing Partner @ Lakestar
San Francisco, United States
Mika Salmi is a seed investor at Lakestar in San Francisco focused on Gaming and Online Games. Mika is a serial entrepreneur whose work life has been primarily centered on discovering talent and driving new ideas. He has done this in numerous industries and have discovered Grammy, Oscar and Emmy winning artists, created the original online short video company, run the internet’s most popular casual games web sites, built one of the first sports tracking apps, and pioneered new business models in education. A few examples are the Nine Inch Nails (music), Jason Reitman (film), JibJab (animation), AtomFilms (online video), Shockwave/AddictingGames (games), MadRaces (sports) and the INSEAD San Francisco Hub for Business Innovation (education). he did this as a founder, a CEO, or as a senior executive. Entrepreneurs are Mika's favorite kind of talent, and he enjoys helping them realize their ideas and dreams for their start ups. He has done this working with Accel, Raine, and Sequoia and now leads Lakestar, a top global VC based in Europe.
- Total investments:
- 16
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 38%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Mika Salmi invests in
Stages Mika Salmi invests in
Countries Mika Salmi invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Round size
- Seed
- $1.2M–$7.5M
- Series A
- $1.7M–$30M
Investment Focus
Industry
- Gaming 3 (19%)
- Online Games 3 (19%)
- Media and Entertainment 3 (19%)
- Audio 2 (13%)
- Software 2 (13%)
Stage
- Seed 6 (38%)
- Series A 3 (19%)
- Funding Round 2 (13%)
- Pre-Seed 1 (6%)
- Series B 1 (6%)
Country
- United States 6 (38%)
- United Kingdom 3 (19%)
- Germany 1 (6%)
- Iceland 1 (6%)
- The Netherlands 1 (6%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| We are a Boston-based startup using machine learning, AI, and audio technologies to create safer & more inclusive voice chat experiences with ToxMod | $25M / Venture - Series Unknown / Sep 28, 2026 | ||
| Producing world-class original content | $3M / Pre-Seed / Apr 14, 2025 | ||
| Graswald engages in the creation of natural and digital 3D worlds for the entertainment industry. | $3.3M / Seed / Mar 20, 2024 | ||
| Quest Portal makes role-play and tell fantastical stories together by means of crafting and creates characters. | $7.5M / Seed / Oct 19, 2023 | ||
| Netspeak Games operates as a zero-crunch studio that develops online multiplayer games. Its first game is a non-violent social MMO, designed to be a fun place to hang out with friends. Players can relax, play, or just get some headspace. | $12M / Series A / Sep 07, 2022 | ||
| We are a Boston-based startup using machine learning, AI, and audio technologies to create safer & more inclusive voice chat experiences with ToxMod | $30M / Series A / Aug 16, 2022 | ||
| Graswald engages in the creation of natural and digital 3D worlds for the entertainment industry. | $1.3M / Seed / Jun 09, 2022 | ||
| Agora World discover and create honest beauty content. | $6.9M / Seed / Dec 07, 2020 | ||
| Gameye's orchestrator decides where to run each session based on current demand. Simply select your locations and submit your containerized game picture. The entire procedure can be completed in as little as an hour. After that, Gameye can start spinning up sessions in minutes. | $2.4M / Seed / Sep 08, 2020 | ||
| Volley is the leading creator of AI-powered games for smart TVs and Amazon Alexa devices. Popular Volley games include Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, 20 Questions, and Question of the Day. The company's platform offers a wide range of voice-based games and develops interactive stories and podcasts with artificial intelligence systems, enablingusers to enjoy audio entertainment experiences. | $1.2M / Seed / Mar 15, 2018 | ||
| See all 16 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Lakestar
Lakestar is a venture capital firm investing in technology companies led by exceptional entrepreneurs. Early investments included Skype, Spotify, Facebook, and Airbnb. Since raising the first fund in 2013, Lakestar manages an aggregated volume of over EUR 1bn across three early-stage funds, and more recently a growth fund. The company has expanded and broadened its portfolio and holds investments in the likes of Opendoor, Oscar, GetYourGuide, Glovo, Sender, Eigen, Five, Revolut, and Hometogo to name a few. Lakestar has a presence in Berlin, Zurich, and London. Lakestar helps companies to identify new markets and expand into them rapidly, with a focus on the US and Europe. The team advises and supports portfolio companies in business development, recruitment, technology, and marketing. The investments range from early-stage companies to those in their growth stage.
Lakestar Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Mathias Haniel
Partner
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Mika Salmi
Managing Partner
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Oliver Heimes
Partner
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Stephen Nundy
Partner & Chief Technology Officer
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Steven Jacobs
Partner & Chief Product Officer
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FAQ
What does Mika Salmi invest in?
Mika Salmi invests primarily in Gaming, Online Games and Media and Entertainment startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 16 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What round sizes does Mika Salmi invest in?
Mika Salmi typically joins rounds of $1.2M–$7.5M at Seed and $1.7M–$30M at Series A. These are whole funding-round sizes, not Mika Salmi's own check, which is rarely disclosed: the 10th–90th percentile of the confirmed public funding rounds Mika Salmi took part in.
How do I contact Mika Salmi?
Public channels for Mika Salmi include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Mika Salmi last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Mika Salmi closed in Sep 2026. Shizune tracks 16 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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