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Our mission


At Taito.ai, we believe in the power of continuous growth, both for people and for organizations. We’re reimagining performance management by automating feedback, 1:1s, and growth plans, making them seamless and integrated into everyday work. Our mission is to enable teams and individuals to drive real progress with minimal friction, making employee performance enablement effortless for companies of all sizes, to unlock their full potential and thrive.

Our Story

Built on Personal Experience


Taito.ai was born from personal experience. Our founding team has been through the journey of scaling startups from zero to 1,000 employees, all while creating world-class products. We saw how traditional performance management holds teams back, so we built something better—a tool that makes growth continuous, feedback seamless, and development plans actionable.

Taito.ai team

Our name, `Taito` means `skill` in Finnish language, reflecting our focus on skill development. Taito.ai empowers employees and team leads to grow their skills through regular, meaningful feedback. By leveraging AI, we connect continuous feedback directly to performance improvement.

Taito.ai’s platform is one we wish we’d had at Smartly.io – a scalable, AI-powered solution that enables continuous feedback and coaching. We are transforming performance management by embedding growth and feedback directly into daily workflows, empowering leaders and employees to control their own growth and performance and freeing everyone up to focus on what matters the most.

Kirsto Ovaska, CEO & Co-founder of Taito.ai


The team

Meet the Taito.ai Team

Portrait of Kristo Ovaska

Kristo Ovaska

Founder, CEO

Founder and ex-CEO of Smartly.io; led it to $100M+ revenue and $5B in ad spend.

Portrait of Noora Zein

Noora Zein

People Lead

7+ years of experience building and scaling people functions; ex-Silo.ai and Slush.

Portrait of Mikko Kivelä

Mikko Kivelä

Founder, CPO

Early Smartly.io employee; scaled tech, design, and automation as the company emerged as a global online marketing leader.

Portrait of Tatu Virtanen

Tatu Virtanen

Customer Success Lead

6th employee at Smartly.io; grew EMEA revenue from zero to 5 M€, and hired +10 people.

Portrait of Juho Eräste

Juho Eräste

Founder, CTO

Early Smartly.io employee and first Swarmia hire; led teams, culture, and products.

Portrait of Antti Pitkänen

Antti Pitkänen

Senior Software Engineer

Experienced senior engineer with stints at Smartly.io, Flowdock, and Elevate Labs.

Portrait of Joona Piirainen

Joona Piirainen

Software Engineer

Strong technical expertise with a focus on developing robust and correct software; ex-Reaktor and Adalyon.

We are hiring!

Join our dynamic team and help shape the future of Performance Enablement

Apply now