Niklas Zennström

Niklas Zennström was born in 1966 in Järfälla, Sweden, and grew up in Uppsala. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in engineering physics from Uppsala University, and spent a year as an exchange student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Zennström began his career in 1991 at Tele2, where he hired Janus Friis to lead customer service in Denmark. In 1999, he left Tele2 to co-found Get2Net and Everyday.com with Friis. In 2001, they launched Kazaa, a peer-to-peer file-sharing service that became the most downloaded software of its time and was sold to Sharman Networks in 2002.

In 2003, Zennström and Friis launched Skype, the internet telephony service that disrupted global communications. eBay acquired Skype in 2005 for about €2.1 billion, and Zennström served as CEO until 2008. He later joined an investor group that bought back a majority stake, and Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion.

In 2006, Zennström founded Atomico, a European venture capital firm headquartered in London. Atomico has invested in technology companies including Supercell, Klarna, Skype, and DeepL, and its Fund VI raised $1.24 billion. He is also the founder of Zennström Philanthropies, which focuses on climate change and human rights.