Founded by math teacher Pasi Savola, early stage ed-tech company Skillgrower provides a learning tool for mathematics with an extensive amount of rehearsals. The company raised its pre-seed funding round at the beginning of 2020 accompanied by angel investors Ali Omar, Janne Jormalainen, and Teemu Varpanen. In the follow-on round last November the investor group was accompanied by early-stage VC Gorilla Capital.

Next, the company is looking at international markets: After the ongoing pilot in Central Asia with the help of Peter Vesterbacka’s FinEst initiative, the goal is to embark on commercial use in Uzbekistan.

Trust and and adaptability the key factors in support services – “No need to glance backward”

Crucial support for their international endeavors has come from their legal partner, Alder & Sound with whom the cooperation began during the first pre-seed round as Alder & Sound assisted the company in streamlining its cap table in order for it to be ready for the investment round.

Savola has been especially content with the adaptability of its legal partner. “Our needs have varied from cap table arrangements to different contract templates from recruitment to international cooperation, also less typical cases. With Alder & Sound, we can trust that everything is handled with care and professionality from the beginning – there’s no need to glance backward”, Pasi Savola describes his experiences.

Boosting internalization – Alder & Sound

For Alder & Sound, Skillgrower represents a great example of a startup client with special types of needs for professional services. “Major part of our assistance relates to supporting the growth and internationalization of the companies and Skillgrower is no exception to these needs”, tells Annina Hyrskyluoto, Senior Associate at Alder & Sound.

In relation to internationalization, Alder & Sound has a long experience in international business consulting. “Thanks to our cross-disciplinary team, we are able to provide flexible advice for example in planning group structures in a tax-efficient way, execution of setting up of foreign entities, complying with international rules in relation to global mobility (tax and legal perspective), and international business contracts”, Annina tells.

“With our support, the companies can focus on their core business and outsource these types of compliance matters to us, to such extent they wish. With our assistance, we always focus on the client’s needs and aim to also be one step forward in proposing the client with alternative feasible methods to reach their objectives – instead of only executing an engagement which the client has initially requested.”

Alder & Sound is one of FiBAN Partners offering tax & legal, transfer pricing, and financial advisory services to FiBAN members.

Read more: Alder & Sound and FiBAN go partners – boosting startups’ international growth

More information:

Suvi Vänskä
Partner, Tax & Legal Services, Alder & Sound
+358 40 080 0012
suvi.vanska@aldersound.fi

Annina Hyrskyluoto
Senior Associate, Tax & Legal Services, Alder & Sound
+358 40 063 0900
annina.hyrskyluoto@aldersound.fi

Tuuli Saukkonen
Communications Strategist, FiBAN
tuuli.saukkonen@fiban.org