The Spotify Co-Founder Makes an ‘Insane’ $1 Billion Bet on Early Tech
Every startup dreams of being purchased by a big company for mega millions. The vast majority never approach that level of success, but the story is just beginning for SoundCloud.
The streaming music company has been given an offer to sell to Spotify for $1 billion, according to multiple reports today. That’s not enough for investors though who have valued the company at $700 million.
Daniel EK, He’s planning to expand beyond Spotify
Ek announced his investment company Prima Materia’s involvement with a green-steel start-up and other funds focused on artificial intelligence, life science, and climate change. Ek’s firm, which began operating in February 2021, has also committed 100 million euros to Startups. the Spotify Co-Founder Makes an ‘Insane’ $1 Billion Bet on Early Tech
According to The Guardian, Spotify’s 38-year-old co-founder and de facto CEO, who has recently been swept up in a media storm sparked by podcast host Joe Rogan, wants to be at the forefront of the region’s early-stage tech industry while also looking for methods to have an influence on innovation as a whole. “The ambition is truly insane,” Ek told “The Twenty Minute VC” podcast last year.
Prima Materia, a term from alchemy and philosophy that means “first matter,” was created by Ek with early Spotify investor Shakil Khan. In September 2020, when he invested in battery maker Northvolt AB, he announced his intention to put about a third of his current net worth in European startups.
Prima Materia has recruited Pia Michel and Brett Bivens from BlueYard Capital to head science translation and research, respectively. According to company records, Ek established the firm in late 2020 in Sweden before expanding it to include six additional local partners for its investments.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, they have net assets of $4.1 billion and $19.4 billion, respectively.“They’re more willing to invest in their own networks,”
On the early-stage investments among Europe’s technology billionaires, Chris Ivey, head of the European private client practice at Cambridge Associates, explained how they’re looking at growth capital with a focus on revenue.
Ek is the owner of real estate and a minority stake in Swedish machine-learning startup HJN Sverige, as well as an attempt to purchase London’s Arsenal Football Club last year.
Ek’s Spotify stake still accounts for the majority of his wealth. The firm’s stock prices reached a high in early 2021, shortly after Rogan’s podcast became exclusively available on the platform. They’ve slumped 56% since then owing to a decline in revenue and a tech stock crash.
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