- Sam Allen, CEO
Managing Partner
Before founding Nova Founders Capital, Mads worked as a Global Partner and Managing Director at Rocket Internet and Managing Director at Groupon in Asia. Prior to this, Mads was a Consultant to CEO and Board at ProSiebenSat1, a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company, and an Analyst with the Private Equity Fund DanKap.
Mads holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a BSc in Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School.
Mads has been named one of the top talents in Denmark and is an Expert Advisor on Web Entrepreneurship to the EU Commission. As of today, he has started over 30 companies globally.
Managing Partner
Before founding Nova Founders Capital, Raphael worked as a Global Partner and Managing Director at Rocket Internet and as Managing Director at Groupon in Asia. Prior to this, Raphael was in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs and Lazard in London and Frankfurt where he was involved in major European IPOs and equity transactions.
Raphael holds a Master in Business Administration from Vienna University of Economics and Business, and as of today has started over 30 companies globally.
Managing Partner
Before joining Nova Founders Capital, Stefan has worked as Marketing Managing Director for South East Asia at Rocket Internet and as Vice President at Groupon Asia. Stefan has been also involved in Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley in London and private equity with the Nordic Real Estate Partners across Scandinavia respectively. He is on the Forbes 30 under 30 lists.
Stefan holds a BSc in International Business from Copenhagen Business School and has so far started over 24 companies globally.
Philip is the Managing Partner of Stem Capital Partners, a private equity and advisory firm focusing on South East Asia and the Middle East.
Philip has been an investment banker in Asia, the Middle East and Europe for the past 25 years. Upon graduation from Yale in 1987, he joined Lehman Brothers in New York. In a 21-year career at Lehman, Philip served in numerous senior roles including Head of Asia Pacific Investment Banking, Head of International Capital Markets and Head of European Equities. He advised major companies and governments on numerous capital markets and advisory transactions.
Following the bankruptcy of Lehman, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Nomura Asia Pacific and Middle East. In 2012, Philip left Nomura to form Stem Capital Partners.
He lives in Hong Kong and is married with four sons under the age of 6. He is active in rugby both coaching children in Hong Kong as well as leading the development of the Yale Rugby Association worldwide. He has numerous philanthropic interests including Help for Heroes and the UK veterans charity.
Tim is Skillcapital’s Chief Executive Officer and has led the development of the company since its inception in 1998 backed by Soros Private Equity Partners.
Additionally, Tim is an investor director in a number of privately owned companies such as Ellas Kitchen (www.ellaskitchen.com) a baby food company recently sold to Hain Celestial, Joinin (www.joinin.com) a social media company, ScribeStar (www.scribestar.co.uk) a legal software company, and an investor at OPTO International (www.Optosystem.com) a US based retail display company along with a number of other private equity backed companies.
Prior to starting Skillcapital Tim had studied Law at Leeds University where he graduated with LLB Hons.
Jonathan Paul has more than 25 years of experience in a broad variety of financial markets globally, including having founded and run an event driven hedge fund, Ardmore Park Capital.
Prior to this, Jonathan worked at Deutsche Bank, where he held a variety of roles, including Global Co-Head of Client Coverage for Global Markets and Head of Corporate Finance in Asia. Previously he worked in the fixed income divisions of Goldman Sachs and Solomon Brothers. He was also a consultant to Decura, a fiduciary based fund in the UK.
Jonathan has a degree in mechanical engineering from Bath University. He lives in Singapore with his family.
Waldemar Schmidt is a global businessman with considerable CEO and Chairman experience.
His past experiences include roles such as CEO of ISS, a global facility services group, which employs 500,000 people; Chairman of Navision, Thrane&Thrane, Superfos, Deputy-Chairman of Majid al Futtaim; Non-Executive Director of G4S, Alfa Laval, etc; Advisor to APAX and IK Partners; Member of the first Corporate Governance Committee in Denmark, The Norby Committee.
Waldemar is presently Chairman of the Norbreeze Group Pty, Singapore, investor in 4 start-ups, etc.
Waldemar is an Adjunct Professor at CBS-Copenhagen Business School, Goodwill Ambassador for Copenhagen and author of 4 books: “Winning at Service”, “Denmark Limited-Global by design”, “From MBA to CEO” and "The job of the CEO".
The Position: As a management associate, you will enter a newly developed role that is crucial to reaching our strategic goals. You will expand, build, and run our portfolio companies, which means assuming responsibility for high-impact decisions that will develop you to be part of the next generation of CEOs. Our culture is rooted in an ever-unquenched thirst for knowledge where we listen to each other and desire to deliver extraordinary results. You will be forging the path that others will follow You will become a frontrunner in a business that others will hope to follow. Attaining the extraordinary means investing lots of time, effort, and move fast when new insights or opportunities arise. The program lasts 18 months and you will work at our HQ in London and at our portfolio companies across the globe. Your tasks will vary, but your key responsibilities will be to:
A unique growth opportunity Leveraging our management and partners experience we have tailored a program that makes you excel beyond your own expectations. The Management Associate Program is one of the toughest in the market because we believe that you grow faster and better if you are pushed out of your comfort zone. After a successful program you have the opportunity to continue on a senior track towards becoming CEO of a portfolio company or partner in Nova. To ensure your growth we provide you with:
To become successful, you must share our passion about building companies, possess a relentless drive, and be able to deliver under extreme pressure. As you will be an ambassador of Nova to CEOs, investors, and board members we entrust you with responsibility and expect that you are the most humble and well prepared person in the room. Further, we consider the following requirements key:
You will be responsible for supporting the growth of Nova Founders’ latest fintech companies. You will need to deliver analytical and operational excellence to solve challenging business problems.
We’re not actively seeking candidates for this position, but if you think you’re a perfect fit we’d love to hear from you.
Reporting directly to the Nova Founders Capital management team, you will be responsible for analytical and operational excellence.
We’re not actively seeking candidates for this position, but if you think you’re a perfect fit we’d love to hear from you.