Niklas Zennström

Niklas Zennström is CEO and Founding Partner at Atomico.

Niklas Zennström is an entrepreneur and investor, who has co-founded and managed a series of high-profile technology companies including Skype, Kazaa, Joost and Joltid.

He is best known for co-creating Skype, where he held the position of CEO from Skype's inception until September 2007. During that time, Skype became the global leader in internet voice communications, with more than 309m registered users within five years of launch.

In 2005, Skype was sold to eBay Inc for $3.1 bn, the largest European venture capital exit to date. In 2009, Niklas was part of the investment consortium that bought Skype from eBay and has now re-joined the Skype board. Skype posted Q3 2009 earnings of $185m and 521m registered users.

Prior to Skype, Niklas co-founded and served as CEO of Kazaa, which became the world's most downloaded internet software in 2003, and a number of other technology companies including Joltid in 2001.

Before following his entrepreneurial ambitions, Niklas was CEO of the European portal, everyday.com. Niklas began his professional career at Tele2, a pioneering competitive phone company in Europe.

He currently sits on the boards of Fon, Jolicloud, Rdio and Skype.

Niklas was recognized by Time Magazine as one of its 100 Most Influential People in 2006, and has received numerous other awards for innovation and entrepreneurship. He holds dual degrees in Business and MSc Engineering Physics/Computer Science from Uppsala University in Sweden, and spent his final year at the University of Michigan.

Niklas co-founded Zennström Philanthropies, where he is actively involved in combating climate change, improving the state of the Baltic Sea and encouraging social entrepreneurship.