Ralf Wahlsten
Chairman @ OpenOcean
Helsinki, Finland
Ralf Wahlsten is a Series A investor at OpenOcean in Helsinki focused on Software and Open Source. Since 1999, Ralf Wahlsten has been actively helping entrepreneurs as a business angel with company start-up processes, collaboration with international investors, providing guidance on strategic due diligence, management assessments, and planning for exits. Ralf carried a key role in assisting the MySQL AB founders develop the first business plan,strengthening the Board, hiring of the CEO (Mårten Mickos), and structuring the first Financing Rounds. Ralf remained an active advisor to the MySQL Founders and the MySQL leadership until the exit to Sun Microsystems.In Management Consulting, Ralf has broad experience in areas like Corporate and Business Strategy Development, Business process reengineering and Marketing Strategy from top consulting firms like AT Kearney, Booz-Allen and Indevo. Ralf has industry experience across multiple areas from IT and telecom to manufacturing and industrial services.Ralf holds a Master of Science in Engineering from Helsinki University of Technology.
- Total investments:
- 9
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 44%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Ralf Wahlsten invests in
Stages Ralf Wahlsten invests in
Countries Ralf Wahlsten invests in
Investment Focus
Industry
- Software 5 (56%)
- Open Source 2 (22%)
- Enterprise Software 2 (22%)
- PaaS 1 (11%)
- SaaS 1 (11%)
Stage
- Series A 7 (78%)
- Series B 2 (22%)
Country
- Finland 2 (22%)
- Germany 2 (22%)
- Spain 1 (11%)
- France 1 (11%)
- United States 1 (11%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
HeavenHR
|
HeavenHR changed the world of personnel management. Their goal is to provide the only software available that companies need to manage staff. Businesses should save time and concentrate on what sets them apart from the competition. From hiring new staff members to the payroll, they combine all the separate HR processes in a single and easy to useplatform for free . | $6.5M / Series A / Aug 15, 2016 | |
Oppex
|
Oppex is a quickly growing business information company that helps companies find new business opportunities from the public sector - across borders and over language barriers. | $2.3M / Series A / Nov 10, 2015 | |
EyeEm
|
EyeEm is a photography company that builds computer vision technology to connect its global creative community with iconic brands. EyeEm’s collection features more than 90 million images from more than 20 million photographers around the globe. | $18M / Series B / Apr 16, 2015 | |
Upsun
|
Platform.sh is an automated, continuous-deployment high-availability cloud hosting solution that helps web applications scale effortlessly and serve the most demanding traffic. Developers can develop, test, deploy, and maintain their applications faster and more consistently thanks to its unique feature of cloning the full production cluster,including all the data, in under a minute. | $7.3M / Series B / Jun 02, 2014 | |
|
EyeEm
|
EyeEm is a photography company that builds computer vision technology to connect its global creative community with iconic brands. EyeEm’s collection features more than 90 million images from more than 20 million photographers around the globe. | $6M / Series A / Jul 17, 2013 | |
Nordic TeleCom
|
Nordic Telecom is a privately held company operating internationally. We have 14 employees and operations in Spain, Estonia, Germany, and Sweden.Nordic TeleCom offer an easy-to-use call management system, which helps you do right things at the right time. It’s the missing piece between a service provider and a customer. In addition to improvingcustomer satisfaction and the possibility of additional sales, our system eliminates queuing, increases customer retention and saves missed calls. Our service is ideal for sectors, where customer contacts are golden and good customer service is a priority.Our customers include Vianor, Ponsse PLC, Örum (Autoasi, Autonomi and Bosch Car Services), Seinäjoki health-care centre, Futursoft Oy, Coronaria eye clinic, Fysi Partners Finland and Helsinki Reuse Centre. International customers include Reebok Madrid, Periocentrum Segovia L.L., Jihupa Postventa Digital Servicio 10, Retamares Gestion SL, and Notaria Jose Luis Ruiz Abad in Spain and Stokker and Feritilas in Estonia. | $1.3M / Series A / Dec 11, 2012 | |
|
Upsun
|
Platform.sh is an automated, continuous-deployment high-availability cloud hosting solution that helps web applications scale effortlessly and serve the most demanding traffic. Developers can develop, test, deploy, and maintain their applications faster and more consistently thanks to its unique feature of cloning the full production cluster,including all the data, in under a minute. | $5M / Series A / Mar 06, 2012 | |
Zentyal
|
Zentyal, the Linux Small Business Server, offers small and medium businesses (SMBs) an enterprise-level, affordable and easy-to-use network infrastructure. By using Zentyal server and its cloud-based services, SMBs are able to improve the reliability and security of their computer network and to reduce their IT investments and operational costs. | $1M / Series A / Dec 02, 2011 | |
MySQL
|
MySQL is an open-source database that supports scalable web-based and embedded database applications. Its product offerings range from enterprise level support packages, complete with full service support, to free downloads of the latest MySQL versions. MySQL’s online platform offers forums, articles, labs, worklogs, podcasts, community,downloads, documentation, and more.MySQL was launched by David Axmark and Michael Widenius in 1995 and is based in Cupertino, California. | $1.8M / Series A / Nov 12, 2001 |
Co-Investors
About OpenOcean
OpenOcean is a thesis driven pan-European early-stage Venture Capital investor with offices in Helsinki and London. Our investment strategy focuses on leading or co-leading Series A investments in European companies driving the data economy with a focus on B2B platforms and Enterprise Software technology. Our investments are driven by three coretheses: Automation, Data Infrastructure and Future of Software Development, with initial average investment sizes of €5m. Our founding team members include key persons behind MySQL AB (sold to Sun Microsystems Inc. for $1 Billion in 2008), after which the team jointly built category leader MariaDB Corporation Ab, as well as forming and managing OpenOcean. Our DNA is rooted in having a deep understanding of the underlying technology and software stacks, which drive the growth of innovative new digital platforms and services. Our strong technical background and expertise allows us to identify and invest in the next game-changing and category winning start-tups at the early-stages, whose unique solutions can be rapidly scaled and adopted globally.
OpenOcean Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Naureen Zahid
Investor Relations Director
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Patrik Backman
General Partner
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Ralf Wahlsten
Chairman
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Tom Henriksson
General Partner
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Tony Nysten
Principal
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FAQ
What does Ralf Wahlsten invest in?
Ralf Wahlsten invests primarily in Software, Open Source and Enterprise Software startups, most often at Series A and Series B stage. Most of the 9 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Finland. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
When did Ralf Wahlsten last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Ralf Wahlsten closed in Aug 2016. Shizune tracks 9 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 Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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