Four investors, a mix of old and new media veterans with Xing, Bertelsmann, Gruner + Jahr and a search engine optimization firm on their resumes have united to launch a new early-stage fund in Hamburg, Germany.
Hanse Ventures, announced this morning in a press release sent to VentureBeat, claims to already have stakes in eight companies. It's looking for another six to eight companies to invest in over the next three years.
What do they want in a founder? "The four managers are particularly interested in working with young entrepreneurs looking to start their own company who are eager to work independently and assume responsibility," says Hanse's prepared statement. The partners expect to match their own business ideas with capable management teams, but they haven't ruled out experienced execs with good ideas of the their own.
From left to right in the above photo, the four managing shareholders are:
- Dr. Bernd Kundrun. He began working at Bertelsmann in 1984 and rose to chairman of the management board of Bertelsmann Club in 1993. He went on to Gruner + Jahr, while remaining on Bertelsmann's board.
- Jochen Maaß, who founded his first Internet company at age 15. Ten years ago, he founded SEO agency artaxo and grew it to a 30-person company.
- Sarik Weber, former vice president of sales for openBC, which is now Xing. He was on board for Xing's IPO, then went on to found a company called Cellity, which he sold to Nokia.
- Rolf Schmidt-Holtz. Born 1948 -- that makes him roughly as old as Iggy Pop -- he has decades of experience in journalism, including the German magazine Stern, before becoming chairman of Bertelsmann's board in 2001 and then CEO of Sony Music Entertainment in 2008.