Marc Samwer

Author: Stephan Salat

Marc Samwer is the co-founder and Managing Director of the European Founders Fund, a leading venture capital & private equity firm Marc runs with his two brothers Oliver and Alexander.

The Samwer brothers have started and built three of the most successful Internet companies in Europe in the last years, generating more than USD 1 billion in sales and employing more than 1,000 people. In January 1999, Marc and his two brothers returned from Silicon Valley to start the online auction website Alando. After the acquisition by eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) in June 1999, the three Samwer brothers became Managing Directors for eBay Germany and made it eBay's most successful international marketplace outside the United States. In August 2000, Marc and his brothers founded Jamba!/Jamster and built it into the global leader in mobile entertainment (music, ringtones, games, videos for mobile phones) with more than USD 500 million in sales worldwide. They also started iLove, Germany's most successful dating site for young people. In June 2004, Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) acquired Jamba! and iLove for USD 273 million. In 2006, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) acquired the majority in Jamba!.

The Samwer brothers now invest their own money in Internet and Mobile companies in Europe, the United States and China. Through investments in companies like StudiVZ, MyVideo, Lokalisten, Bigpoint, LinkedIn, Viagogo and Oanda, Marc and his brothers quickly became the most successful early-stage Internet investors in Germany.

In 2003, Marc was awarded the distinguished Eisenhower Fellowship (Multi-Nation-Program).

 

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