Morten Lund Will Help Anyone With €10,000 Invest In Startups Or Lose Their Money
Morten Lund, one of Northern Europe's "less traditional" investors announced on his blog that he's now allowing nearly anyone to invest in a pool of startups where he's focusing his time. He's looking to build a €500 000 fund with a €10 000 minimum investment, which may allow smaller investors to capture part of the crazy that saw Skype, ZYB, and his huge seed portfolio before their time. Lund has been one of the most active seed investors in Europe, and currently is the chairman of Everbread and Tradeshift.
Lund writes:
TradeShift Looking To Further Digitalize Payments
There's a startup in Denmark that went by the name of Porta for a long time. Since then, they have changed their name to TradeShift. TradeShift is looking to disrupt and shatter the oligopolies of EDI between large corporations and banks so that the technologies could be used by anyone - small and medium sized companies included. The founders of the company include an experienced bunch. They are Christian Lanng, Mikkel Hippe Brun and Gert Sylvest. Not a founder, but onboard the project is also Morten Lund who made himself famous by his personal bankruptcy some two years ago.
The Amazing Story Of Morten Lund
Morten Lund, one of the most famous Danish venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, was declared bankrupt last week by a Danish court. Morten Lund gave one of the most touching presentations in LeWeb last year and also telling how everything went wrong with his newspaper in Denmark.
Mr. Lund lost more about 105 million Danish crowns in the project that he had personally loaned against his personal assets. 105 million Danish crowns equal about 14 million euros. Despite being declared bankrupt and having his house being taken away (as he writes in his personal blog), he is extremely positive about the opportunities that lay before him. He has received tons of e-mail and messages in support of his struggle and one investor even told him through SMS; "Hey Morten - let me know if you need cash for kids and their schools. We don’t leave soldiers behind".
Morten Lund has invested in 80 or so startups in the last decade, including Skype in which it is believed he has made most of his money. He is believed to have invested 50,000 USD into the startup very early on and made some 15 to 25 million USD in the sell off to eBay.
Many people online have questioned the interests of Morten Lund in his ventures, being so dedicated and ready to lose his personal assets in what he does. You don't see many people doing that, especially when you have so much to lose. It will be interesting to see how he will bounce back, I'm sure he will. His 80 or so investments will also be sold off until he has paid his debt to his creditors. In this economic downturn he won't be getting the best price for his investments.
