Takomo is a Finnish golf equipment company challenging the traditional golf industry with its direct-to-consumer business model. The company designs and develops high-quality golf clubs that are sold directly to consumers without intermediaries. Thanks to this direct sales model, Takomo is able to offer its products at significantly lower prices than traditional industry price points. In just a few years, the company has built a strongly international brand, with North America as its largest market.
Takomo’s story began in 2019 from founder Sebastian Haapahovi’s own need. Haapahovi had played golf as a junior but had taken a long break from the sport. When friends invited him back onto the golf course years later, his enthusiasm quickly returned. At the same time, he needed to update his own clubs, and their high price point raised a question: could golf equipment be sold to consumers in a completely different way?
Haapahovi began exploring whether the direct-to-consumer model familiar from other consumer markets could also work in golf. He immersed himself in club design, studying old books on the subject, searched globally for the same manufacturers used by major golf brands, and began sketching the first products himself. Eventually, he took the risk and ordered an initial production run of 200 clubs.
The first clubs were sent to golf-focused YouTube creators for testing. One evening, Haapahovi’s phone suddenly began filling with notifications: one of the reviewers had published a video about Takomo’s clubs, and orders started coming in immediately. The first batch sold out in less than ten days. In spring 2021, Takomo launched its first products, and during the same year the business began developing and its first employees were hired.
Takomo’s competitive advantage is built on offering high-quality golf clubs through a direct-to-consumer model without the intermediaries of traditional retail. The company works with the same manufacturers and components as many of the world’s largest golf equipment brands, while being able to offer its products at significantly lower prices.
The e-commerce-based model also enabled Takomo to build an international business from the very beginning. The company ships products from its warehouses around the world, and around 65 percent of its business currently comes from North America. Takomo also has a strong position in the Nordics, but its largest growth investments are focused on the United States.
Takomo has also taken a different approach to building its brand. Rather than relying on the traditional sponsorship of professional players, the company has invested heavily in YouTube content creators, gaining both visibility and independent validation for its products.
Rapid international growth also brought new needs. Takomo had to expand its inventories in the United States and Europe, improve product availability and build operations capable of serving a rapidly growing customer base more efficiently. The next phase of growth required additional working capital, but also stronger backing for developing the company further.
Mandatum Asset Management became an investor in Takomo in spring 2025. For Takomo, it was important to find an investor that could provide not only capital but also support in building the company to the next level of scale.
“Mandatum was already very active before the investment and genuinely wanted to understand our business and the market. From the very first discussions, it was clear that they had done their homework and knew the industry. That created a strong foundation for the collaboration,” says Takomo founder and CEO Sebastian Haapahovi.
From Mandatum’s perspective, Takomo combined several compelling elements for growth.
“Takomo had managed to break through in the United States in a way that is rare for a Finnish consumer company. At the same time, it entered a very traditional industry with a completely different business model. We saw that the timing was right for this kind of challenger and that there was still significant growth potential,” says Alexander Antas from Mandatum Asset Management.
Mandatum’s involvement has been particularly visible in the structures built around Takomo’s growth. Before the investment round, the company did not really have a formal board, but the investment marked the beginning of more structured board work and more established management team practices.
In Takomo’s early years, strategic planning typically extended only about a year ahead. Since the investment round, the company has taken a more long-term approach and started building a three-to-five-year view of what the next stages of growth will require. At the same time, the finance, operations, marketing and customer service teams have been strengthened to support the company’s new scale.
Takomo’s growth is also clearly visible in the numbers. In the financial year preceding the investment, the company generated just under €30 million in revenue and employed around 20 people. Today, revenue has risen to more than €70 million and the company employs 53 people.
Haapahovi estimates that Takomo would have continued to grow without an investor, but considerably more slowly. In his view, not even half of the development achieved over the past year would have happened within the same timeframe without the support of a private equity investor.
Takomo’s growth is built around e-commerce, which also creates a particular challenge in golf equipment: customers cannot try a club before making a purchase in the same way they could in a traditional store. Despite this, Takomo’s product return rate has remained consistently low.
The company is now exploring how artificial intelligence could help customers choose the right clubs. In the future, for example, simulator data and a player’s swing could be used to provide club recommendations. AI is already being used internally for tasks such as processing and forecasting logistics data.
Takomo’s key sustainability questions relate particularly to its international supply chain and logistics. Together with Mandatum, the company has launched a project to further develop its ESG work, with a particular focus on supply chain responsibility and measuring impact.
Takomo’s next phase of growth will be built around both geographic expansion and a broader product portfolio. The company is currently particularly strong in irons, but there is still considerable market potential in drivers, putters, fairway woods and other product categories. The goal is to build a so-called full bag offering that allows Takomo to serve golfers across an increasingly broad range of product categories.
At the same time, the company remains strongly focused on the United States and other international markets. Takomo’s long-term ambition is to become one of the five largest golf equipment manufacturers in the world.
Takomo has entered a traditional industry with a new approach and succeeded in breaking through in a market dominated by long-established and highly recognised brands. It is an achievement rarely seen among Finnish consumer product companies. In its next phase, Takomo is no longer aiming simply to challenge the industry’s established players, but to build its place alongside them.
***
This article is part of the Building Growth 2026 blog series by the Finnish Venture Capital Association and PwC, introducing the growth stories of this year’s finalists. You can find the competition page here! The final will take place at the Finnish Venture Capital Association’s main annual event, Finnish PE-VC Summit, on 8 October 2026.
