We are delighted to announce the placement of Ilkka Halila as VP Engineering at Calm, where he will take a leading role in the development of Calmlings, the company’s new mobile game.
Ilkka joins Calm at an exciting stage in the development of Calmlings, which represents an important new extension of the company’s consumer proposition. He will work closely with Calm co-founders and Executive Chairmen Alex Tew and Michael Acton-Smith, as well as the company’s product and creative leadership, to define and execute the technology strategy for the game.
He will also work alongside Jesper Gustavsson, VP Product, who was recently placed at Calm by Neon River. Together, Ilkka and Jesper will play important roles in building Calmlings, combining deep experience across engineering, product development and mobile games.
As VP Engineering, Ilkka will be responsible for shaping the technical vision for Calmlings, building and leading its engineering team, and ensuring the game is developed to a high technical standard. His remit will span technology architecture and tooling, engineering culture, rapid prototyping and iteration, and the adoption of emerging technologies across areas including mobile games, AI and real-time systems.
Ilkka brings extensive games development and technology leadership experience to the role, having worked across start-ups, independent studios and larger international games businesses.
He began his career at Rovio, initially developing web-based games, before leaving with a group of former colleagues to co-found Finnish mobile games studio Boomlagoon. As CTO and Lead Programmer, Ilkka helped build both the company and its portfolio of original casual mobile games. Boomlagoon raised investment from Northzone and London Venture Partners before eventually being acquired by Wargaming.
Ilkka later joined Seriously Digital Entertainment, the Finnish mobile games company best known for Best Fiends. Following the acquisition of Seriously by Playtika, he progressed to CTO, combining senior technology leadership with extensive experience of developing and operating successful mobile games at scale.
He subsequently founded Korppi Games, where he created Goblin Camp, a complex PC simulation game inspired by titles such as Dwarf Fortress. Most recently, Ilkka has worked at Futureplay Games, part of MTG, where he has been leading the development of an ambitious new puzzle game.
Across his career, Ilkka has remained unusually close to both the technology and the creative process of making games. His experience combines hands-on software development, technical leadership, company building and the creation of new games from the earliest stages of development.
That background made him particularly well suited to Calmlings, where the challenge is not simply to manage an established engineering organisation, but to help create the technology, team and engineering culture behind an entirely new product.
Commenting on the appointment, Peter Franks, Partner at Neon River, said:
“Ilkka has a rare combination of deep technical expertise, games development experience and entrepreneurial leadership. He has built games himself, founded and scaled studios, led engineering teams and worked through the different challenges that come with taking games from an initial idea through to commercial operation.
“Calmlings is a particularly exciting project because Calm is creating something genuinely new rather than simply extending an existing product. That requires a technology leader who is comfortable working at the earliest stages of development, making fundamental technical decisions and building an engineering organisation around the product as it evolves.
“We are delighted to have helped Ilkka join Calm and to see him working alongside Jesper. Between them they bring exceptionally strong product, engineering and mobile games experience, and we are excited to see what the wider Calmlings team creates.”
About Calm
Calm is a mental health company with the #1 app to help you sleep more, stress less and live mindfully, available in both the App Store and Google Play store.
Launched in 2012 by Alex Tew and Michael Acton Smith, Calm was named as Apple’s 2017 iPhone App of the Year; by Google Play as an “Editors’ Choice” in 2018; and found by a major study of 200,000 iPhone users to be “the world’s elated app” – the single app that left users feeling happiest from spending time on it.
Calm offers a large library of content and tools to help people get better sleep, manage stress or anxious feelings, practice gratitude, build a mindfulness practice, and so much more. . One of the most popular offerings on Calm is ‘The Daily Calm’, a 10-minute meditation which explores a fresh mindful theme and inspiring concept each day. Calm is also the creator of the Sleep Story (audio bedtime stories for all ages) and has more than 500+ Sleep Stories today, in addition to a large library of meditations, mindfulness exercises, soundscapes, music, and more delivered by experts and beloved voices.
Through Calmlings, the company is now exploring a new form of interactive entertainment, bringing together mobile gaming and its broader mission of improving mental health and wellbeing.
See also
Placed: Jesper Gustavsson joins Calm as VP Product
Placed: James Watkins joins Star Stable Entertainment as CFO and COO
Placed: Steve Bennett joins Wireless Logic as Chief Software Engineer
Placed: John Dillon joins Wireless Logic as MD Product & Marketing
About Neon River
Neon River is a boutique executive search firm that helps technology and digital companies hire exceptional leadership talent. We work across VC-backed scaleups, PE-owned businesses, and global tech companies, bringing deep sector expertise, high-touch service, and a track record of delivering outstanding candidates quickly and effectively.