Mika Salmi

Venture Partner

2024 - Current

Managing Partner

2020 - 2024

Ran the investment team and overall investment process. Changed strategy from a generalist fund to be sector and thesis focus. Created Lakestar’s approach for earlier stage investing (seed and pre-seed). Launched a scout / angel program called Halo.

Partner

2019 - 2020

Lakestar is a European based venture capital firm with offices in London, Berlin and Zürich. It invests in all stages from Seed to Growth. It is thesis focused and looks for outstanding technology entrepreneurs worldwide but with a focus on europe and a desire to help bolster Europe’s tech sovereignty. Lakestar’s investments include 1047 Games, Aglet, Blockchain, GetYourGuide, Glovo, HomeToGo, Isar Aerospace, Opendoor, Oscar Health, Pitch, Public, Revolut, Rhino, Sennder, SoFi, Spotify, TerraQuantum, Uncapped, Yapily and many more. You can see my portfolio here - https://lakestar.com/team/mika-salmi-2

Board Member

2021

Hagerty is for people who love cars. Hagerty (NYSE: HGTY) is the world's leading paid automotive community with over 1.5 million members. Insurance for classic and enthusiast cars is their main product with a growing business in online auctions and live in person auctions via their subsidiary Broad Arrow Group. Among auto enthusiasts, Hagerty is an iconic brand seen around the world at car shows and concourse events. In addition to the overall Board of Directors, I am on the Finance and Capital Committee and the Audit Committee.

Chairman, Advisory Council

2021

Advisory Council

2020

Co-founder / Chairman of INSEAD San Francisco Hub for Business Innovation

2017

Board Director

2010 - 2020

The Business School for the World with campuses in France, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. #1 ranked global MBA program in 2016, 2017 and 2021 Financial Times rankings. I was the Chairman of the Remuneration (Compensation) Committee and have been a driver of INSEAD's efforts to be a leader in digital education. I was also on the Board of INSEAD Singapore.

Member

2000

I am a full voting member for the Emmy awards.

El Jefe, il Capo, Head Honcho, Top Dog, Big Cheese, Boss Dude, The Man

2008

Megatomic LLC is my angel investment vehicle. Portfolio track record as of September 2024 is 15.4x MOIC and 39% IRR. Most recent investments (2024) are the AI-first companies Praktika (https://praktika.ai) and VidLab7 (https://vidlab7.webflow.io). From 2011 to 2018 I Invested at pre-seed or seed in Betaworks, Dipsea, Enplug*, Feed Media, Houseparty (Meerkat)*, Meru Health, MileAuto, NextDoor (NYSE:KIND)**, Trace, Virta Health**, Volley, Welcome*, Young Alfred* and many others. * company acquired ** reached unicorn status

Executive Chairman

2011

Feed.fm is a turn-key music streaming solution for fitness companies, game publishers, online retailers, and app developers to enhance their products with popular music to drive consumer engagement, retention, and revenues.

Investor

2016 - 2019

Angel investor working with Accel.

Senior Advisor

2014 - 2019

Raine is a global investment and advisory firm focused on digital media, technology and sports industries with offices in New York, London, Shanghai, Mumbai, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Raine are investors in Soundcloud, Vice Media, Imagine Entertainment, Important Studios, DraftKings, Wanderlust, Tastemade, Cheddar, Huuuge and many more category leading companies. As a Senior Advisor I worked across Raine's portfolio of activities. This included assessing/sourcing venture investments, sourcing advisory relationships, working with companies in Raine's portfolio on projects and in general, bringing an operational and entrepreneurial skill set to the firm.

Scout

2010 - 2016

Angel investor working with Sequoia Capital.

Board Director

2012 - 2016

CreativeLive is forging its own path in online education by connecting students everywhere with the world’s top experts in a live, dynamic online classroom. CreativeLive is transforming the $100 billion continuing education market by offering frictionless, freemium access to the best teachers in the world through its social video platform. The company was founded in April 2010 and has raised over $40m from Greylock Partners, The Social+Capital Partnership, Comcast Ventures, Richard Branson and others. Fiverr (NYSE:FVRR) acquired the company in October 2021.

CEO

2012 - 2014

Joined the company as CEO at a nascent stage and grew it from 6 to 120 employees, drove an innovative product strategy, increased revenues over 600%, expanded content library by 10x, and raised over $40m from Greylock Partners, Social+Capital Partnership, Richard Branson, Comcast Ventures, CAA, WME and other top investors.