Journey to a User Centric Data World
We are global entrepreneurs working in Silicon Valley towards our vision to change the way how private data is owned and controlled. We envision that in the future individuals will be able to actually own and control their private information and manage who can access it. Therefore, we are building tools that empower individuals to actually have control of their data.
We are delighted to introduce you to our leadership team. Prifina’s team consists of six serial entrepreneurs who have more than a hundred years of experience in data science, fintech and information technologies. Prifina’s team members have built more than ten companies of which several were later acquired by publicly traded corporations. We believe that our diverse and rich experience will help in disrupting and improving the way how private critical data is going to be utilized in the near future.
From An Early Idea to Today’s Reality
In 2004, Jouko Ahvenainen and Kimmo Kiviluoto were running a data analytics company (today we would call it Machine Learning and AI) and were contemplating fundamentally new ways to manage data and how to generate value for all stakeholders. After a long strategy call one night 2 am in summer 2004, Jouko started to think about an opposite way to control and use data. In particular, Jouko was wondering what would happen if data is controlled not by some company, but by individuals themselves. What if individuals could actually own their data and could get value from it?
Having discussed such a transformative approach to data ownership, Kimmo, Jouko and the company’s chief data scientist filed the first patent application about in 2004 (processing device, a system and a method for providing a message to a user). The idea was to have an app inside a handset which would help learn more about the user behavior, find relevant information about the user, filter messages and content.
Kimmo’s and Jouko’s company had also another unique idea to conduct social network analytics. In 2005, social network sites were only starting to emerge, and the idea to analyze the data of those social network sites was totally new. In fact, social network analytics took all the time and resources and the distributed data model was probably too early then (six months before the launch of iPhone, one venture capitalist bluntly told Jouko and Kimmo that people will never install apps to their phones and it was not realistic they would care about controlling their data in their smartphones).
Since then, the company raised money and it was sold. Kimmo started running another data analytics company, while Jouko teamed-up with Valto Loikkanen and Markus Lampinen and founded and invested in several fintech companies. Jouko, Valto, and Markus played an important role in getting equity crowdfunding legalized, they also implemented the first investment platform, and created a cloud-based finance back offices and finance engines to disrupt the finance IT market.
In 2017 Jouko and Valto talked about data businesses and came to the conclusion there was nothing unique in trying to collect and monetize data anymore. Everyone is trying to do it nowadays. Nevertheless, only a few companies possess enough data which really works for their business purposes. This was the realization to led to a portfolio company’s ramp down, that was aggregating and utilizing data in crowdfunding and p2p lending in what initially seemed like an innovative way, but did not go far enough in addressing the paradigm shift needed.
At the end of 2017, Jouko and Valto came to the conclusion that people, regulators, and technology are ready for a change of how people own and use their private data. They invited Tero Ahola to start building some technical trials and test systems related to private data storage and managing which third parties can access that data controlled by a private individual.
Jouko met Paul Jurcys at the Blockchain Economic Forum which took place in San Francisco in June 2018. It led to several interesting discussions about data, privacy and new models to empower individuals with their private information. Paul joined the team with his significant experience legal questions in personal data and privacy, including working at Google on issues related to Right to Be Forgotten.
In August 2018, Kimmo and Jouko met after a few years, after Kimmo had just exited one company. Kimmo curiously asked Jouko about his opinion regarding “new approaches to distribute data and give more control to users” Jouko smiled and replied suggesting Kimmo to “look at Prifina and the concept we have thought.”
Most recently, in December 2018, Jouko invited Markus to join Prifina as its CEO. After initial hesitations of leaving the position he had held for years at fast-growth fintech company Difitek Inc., he was then leading and which was also co-founded with Valto and Jouko. Soon thereafter, Markus officially became part of Prifina’s team and took the position of CEO and Kimmo joined Prifina as the CTO.
We are based in Silicon Valley because we believe that our vision and ideas are most likely to gain support in the hottest innovation hub of the planet. Prifina’s technical team and expertise are led from Europe.
Your Data. Your Life.
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