DevCo's €520M fund buys Vexve, returns six times investors' money
What's the deal? Finnish development firm DevCo PartnersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised a €520 million continuation fund that acquired valve manufacturer VexveDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → from DevCo's earlier fund. The deal returned the original investors six times their money, according to the book Pääomasijoittajat (Otava, 2026), which details the firm's model.
Why now? DevCo has received several buyout offers for Vexve over the years but turned them all down. Instead, in summer 2025 it set up the continuation fund to keep hold of the asset, and most existing investors chose to stay on for the next fund.
Who's backing it? The lead investor was US private equity firm Pantheon, making its first investment in Finland. DevCo's earlier backers include the investment vehicles of the HerlinDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, EhrnroothDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and RettigDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → families, plus Supercell co-founder Ilkka Paananen.
What's the endgame? DevCo, founded in 2014 by Otto Kukkonen, Teemu Alahuhta, and Lauri Stadigh, borrows its approach from US search funds — raising capital to find a target, then running the company directly. Kukkonen moved to Sastamala for a year to serve as Vexve's chief executive after the 2016 acquisition.
By the numbers: When DevCo bought Vexve, the company had revenue of €46 million and 160 staff. Across the wider DevCo group, revenue has since risen to €300 million and headcount to 1,500, driven by organic growth and acquisitions of valve makers in the Czech Republic, Denmark, and Germany.
The signal: The continuation fund — and Pantheon's debut Finnish cheque — shows international capital is willing to back a Nordic hold-and-build strategy over a clean exit, betting that a regional family business can keep compounding as a global platform.
Read more: kauppalehti.fi
Image credit: Solarbotics
