3DBear's founder and CEO Jussi Kajala appeared on episode 49 of the Rahoituskierros podcast. In a nearly 40-minute conversation, the entire 3DBear story is discussed with exceptional openness: how ideas evolve, markets change, external crises force adaptation, and funding dynamics can shift overnight.
Three Pivots Over Ten Years
3DBear was founded in 2016. The original vision was clear: give students more creativity and hands-on engagement in education. The journey to today's Simuna simulation platform has passed through several phases:
- 3D Printing — Students designed and printed their own toys as part of their education
- Augmented Reality (AR) — A tablet/phone app bringing 3D objects into real environments for learning geometry
- Simuna — Simulation-based digital learning materials for vocational education
Finding International Investors Face-to-Face
During the 2016 seed round, an American investor came on board — a rarity for Finnish EdTech at the time. Jussi explains how it happened: through the XEDU accelerator, the team traveled to EdTech Week in New York, presented the product to Matt Greenfield (Rethink Education), and demonstrated that their ambition level matched the investor's expectations.
International investors aren't found through cold emails from Finland — they're found in person, when you're at the right events with the right people.
Funding Dynamics Changed Overnight
In 2021, BrandCapital offered media-for-equity funding for the Indian market. The strategy shifted from B2B to consumer-facing: the app gained millions of downloads and good engagement, but the outbreak of the war in Ukraine changed everything. Investor requirements shifted to immediate profitability — the era of "grow first, monetize later" was over.
At the same time, 3DBear had already found project-based revenue approaching one million euros annually from simulation-based vocational education. This gave rise to Simuna and a new funding strategy, with Gorilla Capital joining in.
Even though I had been active in the ecosystem for ten years and knew investors, I didn't have the right contacts for this new direction. Admitting that and actively seeking the right network opened the door to the right investors.
EdTech Investing: From Unicorn Hunting to Camels
Jussi openly questions applying unicorn thinking to the EdTech sector. The typical customers in education have limited purchasing power, procurement processes are slow, and institutional culture is conservative. The sector is more likely to produce sustainable, long-lived companies — "camels" — than explosively scalable unicorns. This reality directly affects which types of investors are worth pursuing.
Five Lessons on Raising Funding
In the podcast, Jussi distills his ten years of fundraising lessons:
- Allow more time — Rounds always take longer than expected; perseverance is not an abstract virtue but a practical requirement
- Investor and company needs must align — Continuous balancing is necessary throughout the process
- Set clear timelines — Without clear windows, rounds stretch indefinitely
- Be in the right places — Cold outreach rarely works; networks are built face-to-face at the right events
- Wrong target audience is not your weakness — If meetings aren't happening, the reason may be the wrong investor profile, not a bad product