Hi Valtteri! Tell us, what do you do at QHeat?
I’m the Product Manager, which means I’m in charge of project management and developing the licensing business model of QHeat’s technology. In a nutshell I work on turning our patented heating and cooling solution into a scalable and profitable business, and identifying suitable partners to license the technology to. Our success is also our partners’ success, so it’s important to us that our product and services positively impact our partners’ businesses.
Before joining QHeat as a full-time employee in 2025, you were already familiar with the company. How did your journey with QHeat begin?
Back in 2021, when I was a business consultant at a professional service firm Reddal, one of my clients was The Finnish Climate Fund, which has since ceased its operations. The fund invested in green technologies in need of capital for scaling their innovations. My role was to help the fund assess the investment targets and decide which companies to invest in. One of them was QHeat.
Conducting the financial assessment provided me with the chance to work with co-founders Erika and Rami. Eventually the fund invested in the company, and it proved to be critical for QHeat’s success. I truly enjoyed working with the team at the time and was impressed by the technology. It’s an important and ground-breaking innovation for reducing heating emissions. The good impression lasted for a long time: last year, when I found myself looking for new work, I reached out to Erika.
What excites you most about QHeat’s mission?
I wholeheartedly stand behind the geothermal heat well technology. I think it’s a genuinely intelligent solution to decreasing heating emissions and one of the rare ones that’s not based on burning fuels for heat. It enhances resource self-sufficiency, minimizes emissions, and has great potential to be financially profitable internationally in the future. This one solution can benefit the energy system, our society, and the climate as a whole. Scaling QHeat’s technology globally is an important goal and an incredibly motivating challenge.
How would you describe QHeat’s potential to tackle that challenge?
Our current focus has been on the Nordics, partly due to the domestic market but also because of the region’s similarity in geology. On a broader scale, Northern Europe and Northern America are promising areas for our solution, given their cold winters and significant need for heating. Profitability is at its highest in cases where excess heat is produced in the summer but the need for heating is significant in the winter. Data centres and waste-to-energy plants are great examples: they produce heat year-round, also during summer months when demand is low. QHeat’s technology makes it possible to store that excess heat for use during the colder season when energy prices are at their highest.
You’ve worked in finance and consulting, renewable energy, and circular economy. What has been the guiding light in your career?
It’s important to me that the work I do is meaningful both personally and societally. Developing sustainable business and speeding up the green transition are increasingly relevant areas of expertise. The most motivating projects have always been the ones where I get to cultivate that expertise.
As a business analyst and developer, I witnessed the diverse challenges companies face in terms of sustainability. Later on I worked with renewable polymers and chemicals at Neste, and then in business development at Betolar, a material technology company that replaces emission-intensive cement with industrial sidestreams. It’s been a journey from singular projects and clients to working full-time towards a more sustainable built environment.
How does your experience in finance and investment shape your perspective on the green transition?
My background allows me to understand both the perspective of the financier and that of the company looking to grow their business. No matter how important the work is to a founder and for the climate, it has to be profitable in order to succeed. Understanding that starting point and helping build a path towards profitability and scalability motivates me.
You gave us a little tour of QHeat’s office. There are post-it notes on the walls and everyone’s doors are open. How does a start-up environment suit you?
After three months I already feel like I’ve been a part of the team for much longer. The QHeat way of doing things is very interactive and dynamic. We challenge each other and ask tough questions to develop the business together. You get to take risks and then act according to the consequences. While I’m a business major and not an engineer, I’ve managed to grasp the core of the technology: at the end of the day, it’s not rocket science, it’s just transferring heat between rock and water.
Learn more about QHeat as a company.
