Estonian-Finnish real estate startup Bob W raised €3M from a Danish Nordic secondary fund

Estonian-Finnish real estate startup Bob W raised €3M from Danish Nordic secondary fund (N2F). The deal was closed in December 2022. The fund bought secondaries of the startup’s employees, early investors, and founders.

Bob W is Helsinki and Tallinn-based real estate startup that allows renting apartments in better locations for a short period. The apartments are usually supplied with fully equipped kitchens, fast WiFi, 24/7 support, regular professional cleaning, local gym passes, and others.

Apartments are available in Tallinn, Tartu, Helsinki, Madrid, London, Florence, and Oslo. In 2022, Bob W has acquired Estonia’s largest short-stay serviced apartment operator, Estonishing Stay Apartments. Bob W was founded by Finnish and Estonian entrepreneurs Niko Karstikko and Sebastian Emberger in Helsinki in 2018. The company has a program for employees -  ESOP, which allows them to buy company shares at a set price on a specific date. 

According to the Nordic secondary fund, the reasons to invest were strong traction in the business, previous backers, including Estonian fund Superangel, and the belief that Bob W is a smarter alternative to hotels and hosted apartments.

Nordic secondary fund is a Danish fund established in 2018 by Peter Sandberg and Frank Lyhne Hansen. NSF buys secondaries (minority and non-public stakes) in Nordic and Baltic companies that completed series A rounds. Thus the founders or early investors can realize their investments without relying on a future IPO or acquisition. N2F has already bought secondaries in the Baltics for more than €30M. Some of them are Lithuanian digital health & wellness company Kilo Health and Estonian Eurora which develops an e-commerce suite of customs compliance tools.