Ex-Spotify managers found a business angel syndicate in Berlin
The streaming service Spotify has rewarded its early employees with big bucks
Quelle: pa / NurPhoto / Jakub Porzycki
In Berlin, three former Spotify employees have formed the “Spoti Angels”. In the future, the group wants to finance start-ups and support them with their experience. The model for this is likely to be the “PayPal Mafia” from the USA.
Man almost notices how the German start-up scene is maturing. What? Above all, because more and more scene heads from the older generation are distributing money and, above all, knowledge among younger start-ups.
The latest example is three who met at Spotify about ten years ago and made a lot of money there. Their names are Katia Yakovleva, John Bonten and Axel Bard Bringéus and, as Sifted reports, they have now joined forces in Berlin to form the “Spoti Angels” – a group of ex-Spotify employees and business angels at the same time.
The trio therefore does not want to distribute large sums of money, but instead wants to get involved in the very early phases of the company: They want to buy in with 25,000 to 150,000 euros. The money should not necessarily be in the foreground, but rather the experience that Yakovleva, Bonten and Bringéus want to bring in.
This is mainly due to the fact that they opened up the German-speaking market for the music giant – it was Spotify’s first step out of the home market of Sweden. Bonten and Bringéus repeated the procedure in 60 other markets, as Sifted writes.
Spotty Angels: Mr.together – or separately
The three Angels want to divide up pitch decks and the “deal flow”. Whether they then invest together, individually or not at all, will be decided on a case-by-case basis. The focus is on consumer tech, creator economy and the future of work.
By the way, Yakovleva, Bonten and Bringéus left Spotify a while ago – and have since advised young start-ups in various roles. Bonten, for example, is on the board of the meditation app Calm, Bringéus helped venture capitalist EQT to gain a foothold in Germany and is on the advisory board of the Dresden robotics startup Wandelbots.
It is of course not the first time that former founders have formed a business angel network. A few years ago, successful founders from the Rocket Internet environment joined forces.
Under the name Saarbrücker21 – the address of the former headquarters of the notorious Company Builder – well-known scene heads such as Home24 founder Philipp Kreibohm, Nebenan.de maker Christian Vollmann and Ladenzeile founder Robert Maier are investing in young start-ups.
Model “PayPal Mafia”
The model for such a cooperation is likely to be – consciously or not – the “PayPal Mafia” from the USA. There, the founders of the fintech have created a remarkable network of start-ups with their exit money – as investors and in the form of other start-ups.
In Germany, too, after years of the startup boom, the first comparable structures are emerging. In addition to Zalando, the Berlin smartphone bank N26 stands out as a start-up forge. At least 25 companies have emerged over the years through the involvement of former N26 employees. Their financial influence on the ecosystem is not yet close to that of the PayPal heirs from the USA. But the networks are growing steadily.
Another example: the online furniture mail order company Westwing. 31 companies with 4,400 jobs have already emerged in this area.
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