- General
- November 21, 2020
- 5 minutes read
Skype Co-Founder Bets $132M On Startups
Jaan Tallinn, a co-founder of the popular video chat app Skype, has said that he’s put around £100 million ($132 million) of…
Jaan Tallinn, a co-founder of the popular video chat app Skype, has said that he’s put around £100 million ($132 million) of his fortune into startups around the globe. He spoke about his large investment to CNBC on Wednesday, revealing that he’s invested in somewhere between 100 and 200 companies, 100 of which are still “alive and kicking” today.
Tallinn makes his startup bets through several investment firms but makes use of Metaplanet Holdings as the main one. He says he’s still investing anywhere from $500,000 to several million dollars of his fortune in roughly one company each month.
Tallinn made a fortune as the co-founder of Skype, a video chat app that first sold to eBay for $2.6 billion and later to Microsoft for $8.5 billion. His investments of about £100 million ($132 million) in dozens of startups is notable, given that startups are known to be high-risk investments where one faces a higher chance of losing money.
Tallinn has profited from early bets on companies including DeepMind, which sold to Google for $600 million in 2014; Apprente, which was acquired by the fast-food chain McDonalds; and Frontier Developments, a publicly-traded gaming company with a market cap nearing £1 billion.
Overall, Metaplanet Holdings is one of the most prolific venture capital firms from Estonia. It’s made bets on companies across many countries including the US, UK, Canada, Israel, and China.
Photo: Jan Tallin|by Trondheim | Gjøvik | Ålesund is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0