HELSINKI, Finland — May 12, 2020-Aiven, a startup that combines the best open source technologies with cloud infrastructure, announced today that Emma Paajanen and Jani Asikanius joined the company as the new VP of marketing and VP of sales, EMEA, respectively. Both executives bring a wealth of experience to the team and will look to continue the company’s growth initiatives.

The strategic additions come shortly after Aiven’s recent $40M Series B. Following the round, Aiven put an emphasis on several new growth initiatives to expand sales teams and heighten global recognition of Aiven’s product offering.

“We’re excited to have Emma and Jani join the Aiven executive team,” said Oskari Saarenmaa, CEO of Aiven. “Both have tremendous expertise, and we look forward to them bringing their years of knowledge and experience to help propel Aiven's growth initiatives.”

Paajanen has more than 10 years of communications and marketing experience. Prior to joining Aiven, she served as director of marketing at F-Secure, a global cyber security company, as well as a communications consultant for Nokia Technologies.

“Aiven is entering an exciting growth phase, and I look forward to being part of a team that gets to help foster the brand and generate product demand through direct digital customer acquisition,” Paajanen said. “There’s a rising importance and recognition around open source software, and I’m looking forward to creating opportunities for Aiven to be a part of those continued conversations.”

Asikanius brings more than 20 years of sales and leadership experience with him to Aiven. Before joining the company, he held the position of VP of sales for EMEA and APAC at Idomoo, a personalized video as a service (PVaaS) platform. His experience also includes leadership and sales roles at technology leaders like NetCracker and Amdocs.

“Following the recent funding round and major expansion of the sales team in the Americas, I’m thrilled to lead the sales team’s growth initiatives in EMEA,” Asikanius said. “Aiven has grown at a tremendous rate, and I’m looking forward to continuing that by extending our business with the existing customer base and bringing Aiven’s cutting edge solution to new customers.”

To learn more about Aiven’s leadership team, visit https://aiven.io/about.

About Aiven

Headquartered in Helsinki with offices in Berlin, Sydney and Boston, Aiven is an SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified cloud data platform provider, operating managed open source database, event streaming, cache, search, and graphing solutions for over customers worldwide.

You can visit https://aiven.io for more information or follow Aiven on Twitter: @aiven_io.