For the past 22 years, we have built the Northzone franchise from the ground up. In that time, we have been lucky to support some of Europe’s biggest successes; companies like Stepstone, Spotify, Klarna, iZettle, and Trustpilot. The thesis that we have cultivated from day one is that being truly connected to local ecosystems matters. It matters to our ability to find and support the entrepreneurs who are building tomorrow’s game changing companies. It matters to our portfolio companies, and it matters to our role in adding value and helping ecosystems evolve.
The European startup scene is flourishing. Real winners are being created at a faster pace than ever before, and the ambition of the entrepreneurs we meet every day blows us away. With proportionally more billion dollar companies being created outside Silicon Valley, tomorrow’s successes need to be plugged into global markets earlier than ever. We are well-placed to capitalize on this with our latest €350 million fund, from our offices in Stockholm, London, New York and Oslo, and our feet on the ground in Berlin. From our Nordic roots extending across Europe and to the US, we are dedicated to building the best platform for supporting our entrepreneurs, maintaining a local eye view, while leveraging our global network to help entrepreneurs achieve their potential.
And with a market that’s moving ever faster, we are very happy to announce that we are further strengthening our team and geographical coverage.
We are delighted to welcome Paul Murphy to the Northzone family as a Partner. Paul is both a seasoned serial entrepreneur and angel investor, behind successes like Dots and Giphy at the startup studio Betaworks in New York. He has a strong enterprise background from a decade in senior positions at Microsoft in the US, Europe and India, and is deeply connected in the New York tech ecosystem. Paul will relocate with his wife and daughter to London this spring, and he will further strengthen the networks we are building for our portfolio companies between Europe and US.
We are also very happy to announce the promotion of Marta Sjögren to Partner. Since Marta joined Northzone in Stockholm in 2012, she has been instrumental in building up our platform in the Nordics, from investing in companies such as Seriously, Labster, and HappyorNot, to supporting groundbreaking initiatives like Slush, Wave Ventures and RisingNorth. As Partner, she will continue to focus on investing in disruptive early stage companies across Europe, while spearheading the development of franchise initiatives with Northzone as an active partner in building stronger local ecosystems.
We are excited to see what 2018 will bring, and look forward to continuing to build a platform that truly supports entrepreneurs across the key startup ecosystems in our geographies.