SEED Capital joins Matrikel1 and moves closer to entrepreneurial scene
SEED Capital has chosen to make a change of scenery. From May 2018 Denmark’s largest and most active early stage investor will be residing at Matrikel1, a new and ambitious initiative by The Creators Community. From here they will continue identifying, financing and developing the next generation of tech entrepreneurs. The Creators Community is the largest creative community in the northern region and the people behind the space are already running Founders House and Startup Village in Copenhagen and MESH in Oslo.
As announced on February 21st, The Creators Community will open the largest innovation house in Denmark in the very heart of Copenhagen. Matrikel1 will be the home of leading creators from several industries in Denmark, and since SEED Capital is the largest early stage investor in the country and helped built some of the greatest companies to come out of Denmark — companies like Endomondo, Trustpilot and Vivino among others, Matrikel1 seemed like the perfect fit.
The core idea of Matrikel1 is to attract people who have built and grown their own projects and businesses. The idea of creativity isn’t limited to one certain area of business, which is why Copenhagen’s new creative community will host entrepreneurs, artists, creators and investors. According to Tine Thygesen, CEO of The Creative Community, SEED Capital fits the creative mold they are aiming for:
“SEED Capital is a core, established part of the Danish startup community and Ulla and the rest of the team have shown on many occasions how skilled they are at picking great young companies. They have been in the game for many years and we are pleased to have them at Matrikel1, because they are ambitious people with great networks, and they genuinely care about helping the startup ecosystem grow.”
The new SEED Capital team, who will be moving to M1 consists of Managing Partner Ulla Brockenhuus-Schack, General Partners Lars Andersen, Ulf Rosén, Carsten Schou, Niels Vejrup Carlsen, Partners Anne Cathrine Wilhjelm, Jakob Fuglede Nielsen and Venture Partner Peter Egehoved.
SEED Capital will continue their close partnership with PreSeed Ventures. Director of Talent Mads Klarskov Petersen, who helps create optimum growth conditions for PreSeed Ventures’ portfolio companies by providing them with knowledge, network, candidates and strategy to support scalability and create winning teams will also be assisting the later-stage companies in SEED Capitals portfolio.
Managing Partner of SEED Capital, Ulla Brockenhuus-Schack states:
“Matrikel1 is an extremely important initiative and is exactly the kind of innovation house that Copenhagen needs. We need to move away from thinking about different industries as silos and let them flow together more. If we allow creative pioneers from all industries to be and work in the same space, I think we can create an incredible and blooming working environment at Matrikel1. The Creative Community has really nailed it here,” says Ulla Brockenhuus-Shack.
Partnership with PreSeed Ventures continues
After more than 15 years of residing at the Technical University of Denmark, SEED Capital will continue their close partnership with PreSeed Ventures, who will be continuing their business at DTU investing in Danish startups at the earliest stage.
Pre-Seed Ventures and SEED Capital shared and grew a symbiotic partnership for over 15 years and became famous for the SEED Capital brand in the process. Individually successful, the time is now right for each to operate as an independent company. The close collaboration, which has resulted in the rise of some of the greatest companies to come out of Denmark, will continue to thrive and guide the evolution of successful entrepreneurs from pre-seed to exit strategy.
Matrikel1 will open in May 2018 right in the middle of Copenhagen at Højbro Plads 8–10, and The Creators Community has already announced several prominent partners who are engaged in the project including Mette Lykke from Endomondo, Morten Strunge from Onfone and Mofibo, Jimmy Fussing Nielsen who is Managing Partner at Sunstone and several other renowned entrepreneurs and investors.
