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Kristo Ovaska
Born
Kristo Ovaska
EducationAalto University School of Economics (2004–2010)
OccupationsEntrepreneur, technology executive
Known forCo-founder of Smartly.io
Co-founder and CEO of Taito.ai
Founding group member Aalto Entrepreneurship Society

Kristo Ilari Ramunda Ovaska is a Finnish entrepreneur and technology executive. He co-founded and served as CEO of Smartly.io[1], a social advertising automation company, and is the co-founder and CEO of Taito.ai, an artificial intelligence-powered performance management platform.[2][3]

Early life and education

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Ovaska grew up in Helsinki, Finland.[1]

Ovaska studied at Aalto University School of Economics (formerly Helsinki School of Economics) from 2004 to 2010, where he earned a degree in Economics, with coursework in Statistical Analysis, Mathematical Methods, and Finance.[4] During his studies, he attended programs at the Moscow School of Economics and MIT's Center for Entrepreneurship, which he later cited as influencing his interest in entrepreneurship.[5]

Career

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Entrepreneurship ecosystem building

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Aalto Entrepreneurship Society

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In 2008, while still a student, Ovaska founded the Aalto Entrepreneurship Society (Aaltoes), a student-run entrepreneurship community.[6] At the time, Finland's startup culture was underdeveloped, and entrepreneurship was not widely viewed as a desirable career path. Aaltoes organized events, brought in entrepreneurial role models, and created networking opportunities for students interested in startups.[5]

Under Ovaska's leadership, Aaltoes expanded, attracting 5,000 members in its first year and establishing replica organizations at 10 Finnish universities within 18 months, creating a network of 25,000 entrepreneur enthusiasts.[5] The organization contributed to changes in Finland's entrepreneurial culture and increased interest in entrepreneurship among Finnish academic youth.[7]

Aalto Venture Garage and Startup Sauna

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In 2009, Ovaska led a grassroots effort to establish Aalto Venture Garage, a campus-based startup incubator that provided entrepreneurs with mentoring, office space, seed funding (€5,000), and intensive training programs.[5] The Venture Garage helped launch more than 50 companies in its early years.

In 2010, Ovaska formulated some of Aaltoes' activities into seed accelerator programs, including Startup Sauna.[8] Startup Sauna offered coaching to startup teams from Finland, Sweden, the Baltic states, and Russia, with some teams receiving seed funding and networking trips to Silicon Valley.[5]

Stanford partnership

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Ovaska's work at Aaltoes helped establish Aalto University as the first official European partner of Stanford University's Technology Ventures Program (STVP) in 2011. He brought figures such as Steve Blank to Finland and facilitated exchanges between Aalto faculty and Stanford.[9][10]

Recognition

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In 2011, Ovaska received the Science Business Academic Enterprise Bridge Award for his achievement in forging an entrepreneurial ecosystem at Aalto University.[5] He also received a Finnish government award as one of ten creative young people recognized for their contributions.[11] In 2023, he was named Aalto University School of Business Alumnus of the Year 2022.[6]

Business ventures

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Early ventures

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Before founding Smartly.io, Ovaska launched several ventures:

  • FunRank (2010–2011): A mobile app company aimed at directing people to local events. The startup ceased operations after five months due to difficulties recruiting developers.[5]
  • Metrify (2012–2013): A cloud data platform for mobile apps and games that provided lifetime value prediction for mobile gaming companies, helping them optimize user acquisition investments.[1]

Smartly.io

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In April 2013, Ovaska co-founded Smartly.io with Tuomo Riekki.[12][13] The company developed a SaaS platform to automate and optimize social advertising campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and later TikTok.[12] The platform combined creative production, automated ad buying, and performance optimization.

Smartly.io became profitable in early 2015 after raising €100,000 in 2013 and €1 million in 2014.[1] The company achieved official Facebook Marketing Partner status in 2014 and worked with advertisers including eBay, Uber, Under Armour, Samsonite, and Skyscanner.[14][15]

Under Ovaska's leadership as CEO (2013–2022), Smartly.io grew to generate over $100 million in revenue annually and managed more than $5 billion in ad spend across its platform.[16][17] By 2019, the company had over 350 employees across 16 global offices.[18]

In December 2019, Providence Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in Smartly.io for €200 million, valuing the company at €300 million.[15][18][19] As part of the transaction, Ovaska and Riekki retained significant ownership and continued to lead the company. Laura Desmond, a Providence Operating Partner and former Publicis Groupe executive, became chairperson of the board of directors.[15]

Ovaska served as CEO until September 2022, when he transitioned to a board member role while remaining actively involved with the company.

Taito.ai

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In April 2024, Ovaska founded Taito.ai, an AI-powered performance management platform, together with co-founders Juho Eräste (CTO) and Mikko Kivelä (CPO), both former Smartly.io colleagues.[20][21] The idea for the company emerged from conversations at Slush 2023, where Ovaska and Eräste reconnected and discussed the performance management challenges they had experienced while scaling Smartly.io.[21]

Taito.ai (the name means "skill" in Finnish) shifts the focus from traditional annual performance reviews to continuous performance enablement.[16][2]

In November 2024, Taito.ai announced a €2.5 million seed funding round led by Accel, with participation from angel investors including Eléonore Crespo (Pigment), Robert Gentz (Zalando), Miki Kuusi (Wolt), and Ilkka Paananen (Supercell).[2][21] The investment made Taito.ai Accel's second investment in Finland, following Supercell.[21]

Business philosophy

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Ovaska emphasizes rapid product development, recommending that the first version of a product (MVP) should not take more than three months to develop.[4] He advocates for leveraging LinkedIn in early sales phases to build professional profiles and automate outreach.[4] Ovaska has also emphasized the importance of focus and time management for startup CEOs, including learning to say no to non-essential activities such as press interviews and speaking engagements.[22]

In interviews, Ovaska has stressed the importance of product-market fit demonstrated through customer willingness to pay, company culture for employees, and maintaining transparency and trust within organizations.[1] He believes that satisfied and engaged employees are important to creating products and marketing them to customers.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Helsinki Born Kristo Ovaska Built Smartly.IO Into A Social Ad Automation Leader". Forbes. May 16, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2026. Cite error: The named reference "forbes2019" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Cendon Garcia, David (November 20, 2024). "Helsinki-based Taito.ai raises €2.5 million toward employee performance management". EU-Startups. Retrieved February 5, 2026. Cite error: The named reference "eustartups2024" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ Villamor, Kay Aloha (November 22, 2024). "Taito.ai Raises €2.5 Million in Seed Round". The SaaS News. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  4. ^ a b c "Smartlyn perustaja Kristo Ovaska korostaa..." Markkinointiuutiset.fi (in Finnish). November 19, 2024. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "ACES profile: Finnish student brings entrepreneurial fervour to his university". Science Business. May 10, 2011. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  6. ^ a b "Kristo Ovaska is the Alumnus of the Year 2022 of the School of Business". Aalto University. January 25, 2023. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  7. ^ "Yrittäminen kiinnostaa akateemisia nuoria". Yle (in Finnish). Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  8. ^ "Fake news: Startup Sauna is dead". Startup Sauna. October 1, 2018. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  9. ^ "About AVP – Our story and vision". Aalto Ventures Program. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  10. ^ "Finnish Strong: Entrepreneurial Muscle in the Arctic North". Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  11. ^ "Valtioneuvosto palkitsi 10 luovaa nuorta". Yle (in Finnish). Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  12. ^ a b "About Us". Smartly.io. November 9, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  13. ^ "Kristo Ovaska". Highland Europe. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  14. ^ "Smartly.io". The Hub. February 25, 2017. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  15. ^ a b c "Providence Agrees to Invest in Smartly.io" (Press release). Providence Equity Partners. December 31, 2024. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  16. ^ a b "Our mission". Taito.ai. September 21, 2025. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  17. ^ "First 365 Days as a Founder – Kristo Ovaska (Taito.ai)". Innohub.fi. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  18. ^ a b Lunden, Ingrid (December 17, 2019). "Social ad company Smartly.io sells majority stake to Providence Equity for $223M". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  19. ^ "Providence Equity Invests $223 Million in Smartly.io". The Wall Street Journal. December 18, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  20. ^ "Taito.ai Helsinki, Finland". StartupSeeker. November 2, 2025. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  21. ^ a b c d "How Finnish startup Taito.ai went full circle at Slush". Sesamers. December 2, 2024. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  22. ^ "Why you must learn to say 'NO'". School of Herring. October 4, 2015. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
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Selected interviews and talks

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Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Finnish businesspeople Category:Finnish chief executives Category:Aalto University alumni Category:People from Helsinki Category:21st-century Finnish businesspeople