For Skype Founders, Video Is The Perfect Picture
Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, alongside another key ex-Skyper Geoffrey Prentice and former investment banker Mattias Ljungman, are slowly and surely becoming big investors in European early-stage companies.
Their new VC fund, Atomico, is taking some of the gains they made from the sale of Skype and is actively investing in early-stage companies. And from a quick glance at their portfolio, it is clear they love startups and especially video.
Their most famous investment is Joost, a company also co-founded by Zennstrom and Friis. The Skype boys have also invested in video speed-dating company, WooMe, and DECA.tv, a content creation network based in Santa Monica (see our profile). They have also put money into Loic Le Meur’s startup, Seesmic (see our recent post). This information was confirmed by Niklas when I visited the Joost offices last week in London.
Niklas and his views on VCs, video and more will be part of a bigger story that I am going to publish on GigaOM later this week.
Update: We mistakenly included a company called ShangBy in an earlier version of this story, but it is not an Atomico investment.
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[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptThe Skype boys have also invested in video speed-dating company, WooMe; DECA…. [...]
dating » For Skype Founders, Video Is The Perfect Picture on October 8th, 2007 at 6:25 pm - Permalink
How much are these guys worth anyway?
jonas on October 8th, 2007 at 8:17 pm - Permalink
They sold Skype to eBay for close to $2.6 billion and got another $575 million, so that makes it close to $3.3 billion. A substantial portion of the company was owned by the the big three, though I don’t have any specifics.
Om Malik on October 8th, 2007 at 8:40 pm - Permalink
Om, thank you for your mention in this post. I appreciate it.
Loic on October 8th, 2007 at 10:18 pm - Permalink
“Video 1 Internet” seems to be the Holy Grail of more and more VCs and business angels thes days… Some investors are focused on the consumer experience and new services opportunities, some are more interested in empowering the IP network infrastructure to efficiently deliver rich video to consumers.
Skype founders are right: there are so many things to do, and so many projects to launch!
Pierre Col - UbicMedia on October 9th, 2007 at 5:52 am - Permalink
[...] that he did not want to disclose details of the round as it had not yet closed. We had previously confirmed that the company raised its first round from Atomico, Skype/Kazaa/Joost founders Niklas Zennstrom [...]
Seesmic Raising More Money « NewTeeVee on November 28th, 2007 at 5:00 am - Permalink
[...] $6 million). Talking to bloggers all the time, I have not been very good at keeping the secret as Om Malik was the first to talk about it on October 8, 2007. On November 28, Liz Gannes got almost the entire list of investors right. We have never really [...]
nilsnoack.de » Blog Archive » The full story on February 14th, 2008 at 2:07 am - Permalink
[...] $6 million). Talking to bloggers all the time, I have not been very good at keeping the secret as Om Malik was the first to talk about it on October 8, 2007. On November 28, Liz Gannes got almost the entire list of investors right. We have never really [...]
How Loic started Seesmic and raised $6 million | TowerOne.com on February 14th, 2008 at 5:49 am - Permalink
[...] has become an aggressive investor in Europe and has backed many online video startups, such as Deca, WooMe and Seesmic. While some of their investments — like FON and Joost — [...]
Skype Boys Raising a Massive New Fund - GigaOM on April 24th, 2008 at 8:00 pm - Permalink
[...] has become an aggressive investor in Europe and has backed many online video startups, such as Deca, WooMe and Seesmic. While some of their investments — like FON and Joost — [...]
Business News Research » Skype Boys Raising a Massive New Fund - GigaOM on April 27th, 2008 at 7:25 pm - Permalink