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October 12, 2012

Atomico Ventures Helping Startup Companies Make it Big in Smartphone and Internet Marketing

By David Gitonga, TMCnet Contributing Writer

Skype (News - Alert) and Kazaa co-founder Niklas Zennstrom’s investment firm, Atomico Ventures III LP, is creating $386 million in funding to give back global technology companies.



According to leaked information, Atomico (News - Alert) has gathered around $324 million, an amount that surpasses the initial $165 raised in the year 2010. Another of the potential investors, the European Investment Fund, based at Luxembourg, is currently a limited partner according to information posted at its website. However, Olivia Doherty, the spokesperson at Atomico, refused to give a comment about the matter.

Zennstrom birthed the venture capital firm in 2006 to search for companies attempting to exploit the increasing popularity of smartphones and Internet shopping. The venture is a lucrative one bearing in mind that many customers are unearthing the increasing power of smartphones leading to increased Internet transaction networks from mobile devices.

Atomico is not new in developing companies exploiting the Internet. The company was involved in the sale of Skype, which Zennstrom co-founded with Janus Friis in the year 2003, to Microsoft (News - Alert) Corp. last year for $8.5 billion.

Niklas founded Atomico after realizing that startup conventional firms were struggling to feature in the tight market. The company has so far come to the rescue of over fifty companies spread out in a record four continents. Apart from Atomico, Niklas also sits on the boards of Atomico-related companies like Rovio, Fon and Jolicloud.

In an interview in Istanbul during a meeting with local entrepreneurs, Zennstrom said, “It’s extremely hard to build a company with a product that everyone loves, is free and has no business model, and then to innovate a business model.” He gave an example of the venture he undertook with Kazaa. Though he hit the half a billion downloads mark, the venture was in no way sustainable for business.

Apart from helping startup companies, Atomico has more than fifty investments globally, according to information posted on its website. It also has offices in Sao Paulo, Beijing, Istanbul and Tokyo.

 

Atomico Ventures - Q and A with the Audience from Reto Hartinger on Vimeo




Edited by Rachel Ramsey
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