Oliver Holle

Webit Speaker, Founder of Speedinvest

Bio:
Oliver is a serial entrepreneur with deep experience in the mobile and internet industry.  While still a student in 1992, Oliver founded SYSIS, one of the first European internet startups that took smart, interactive games to the exploding online market. Facing the challenge of the internet crisis, Oliver turned SYSIS’s focus towards mobile, which resulted in 2004 in the formation of 3united AG, a local 3-way merger that created a top European player in the mobile content industry.  Leading 3united, Oliver oversaw 2 years of rapid growth which lead to the acquisition of the company by VeriSign Inc. at a valuation of USD 67m in early 2006. Post transaction, Oliver relocated to California, to take on the global responsibility for VeriSign’s mobile media business as Vice President. Mid-2008, Oliver left VeriSign to start his company, The Merger, the predecessor of his current Fund Speed Invest.

Speedinvest brief description:
Speedinvest aims high and comes with a very distinct model, that may show a 3rd way between the wave of incubators / accelerators on the one side and the traditional VC model on the other. Specifically, it aims to build a bridge between Central Europe and Silicon Valley.
The idea is, besides cash from the fund, to staff the portfolio companies with part- or full time entrepreneurs from the team and thereby fill gaps that almost all startups have to a degree, especially in a region with a much thinner talent ecosystem than the US.