For the fourth year in a row, Finnish Venture Capital Association is looking for the best graduate degree thesis, which looks at PE & VC industry from an innovative perspective. Participation for the competition is open again until mid-october.
The purpose of the FVCA’s Master’s thesis competition is to find a thesis that has something fresh and meaningful to offer the Finnish private equity and venture capital scene. You can be from any faculty or branch of science, as long as your topic is relevant for the industry. The winner is chosen by a jury that consists of a FVCA research committee and will be awarded with 2500 euros as well as and the opportunity to present their work to professionals in the PE & VC industry.
This year’s competition is open for submissions until the 15th of October. Send your finished thesis and grade in PDF format to Jonne Kuittinen (jonne.kuittinen@paaomasijoittajat.fi) before the end of the competition and you are in. We won’t publish the grades anywhere, we only want to know it for background information.
Criteria for participation
Any student who has completed their master’s thesis and has received a grade for the work sometime between 15.10.2021 – 15.10.2022 can participate in the competition. In addition, the topic of the thesis has to be related to private equity and/or venture capital industry. Topic and its impact from the industry’s point of view, innovativeness and boldness, as well as analytical and critical take on the topic are all considered when choosing the winner. You can participate in either Finnish, Swedish or English.
Previous winners
Last year the winner was Henri Lencioni from the department of industrial engineering and management at Aalto University with his thesis Assessing Venture Capital Investor Performance Drivers – A Practical Application of Machine Learning. The aim of the project was to build a practical machine learning model on existing venture capital investors and their future success with target companies. According to the research committee of FVCA, the project was ambitious and technologically advanced. The committee also noted the relevance of utilizing machine learning in private equity funding and the overall quality of the work.
Two honorary mentions were awarded to particularly successful theses. One was for Nikke Mikkonen from Aalto University withEffect of Fund Size Growth on Subsequent Fund Performance in European Buyout Funds. The other was for Jaska Mäkkylä with his thesis Operational Consequences of Private Equity Buyouts in Finland.
Previously the master’s thesis competition has been awarded to The venture capital gender gap from female founder perspective (2020), written by Christa Anttila from Hanken Business School, and New Tax Law Welcomes Foreign Investments in Finnish Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds (2019), written by Isabella Kartila from the University of Helsinki.
Did you know, that the blog posts written by our previous winners and those who received honourable mentions have traditionally been among the most popular content in our social media channels and website! You can read last year’s winner’s post here.
