Taavet Hinrikus & Sten Tamkivi Launch New Investment Firm

A New Investment Venture is Launched by Skype and Wise Founders

Taavet Hinrikus, a pivotal figure as the inaugural employee of Skype and the co-founder of the fintech leader Wise (previously known as TransferWise), is collaborating with Sten Tamkivi, co-founder of Teleport and currently Topia’s CPO, to establish a novel investment platform.

Both individuals possess substantial investment experience; Hinrikus is recognized as a prominent super angel investor in Europe, having made over 100 investments. They have previously collaborated on numerous investment opportunities.

Not a Traditional VC Fund

The newly formed venture, currently unnamed, will formalize their investment endeavors as an equal partnership. A dedicated team of six professionals, based in Estonia, including an investment analyst, will provide support.

However, Hinrikus clarifies that this is not a venture capital fund. He stated, “I’m still not setting up a fund, but am partnering to help do more of the same on the investing side.”

Speculation has circulated regarding Hinrikus potentially launching his own fund or joining a leading VC firm, particularly following his transition from CEO to chairperson at Wise. He previously served as a venture partner at Mosaic Ventures for approximately one year, a period that remained unreported.

An "Evergreen" Investment Approach

Hinrikus explains that a traditional fund implies managing external capital with specific investment criteria and return expectations. This new firm will differ significantly.

“This structure is both liberating and differentiating,” Tamkivi noted, “because without strict external mandates we can go after the missions we feel passionate about and be really patient about how long we stay involved in our companies.”

The firm will not seek outside Limited Partners (LPs) and will operate on an “evergreen” model, allowing for considerably longer investment horizons than typical VC funds. Hinrikus and Tamkivi are prepared to maintain investments for 10 to 20 years.

“We will not be the one pushing a founder to sell,” Hinrikus emphasized. “Will always stay on the founder’s side as we’ve been in that position ourselves.”

A Broad Investment Portfolio

Their combined investment portfolios are primarily focused on European companies, but also extend to the U.S., Japan, and Singapore.

Notable joint investments include Wise, Bolt, Veriff, LHV, Xolo, Oyster HR, Pactum, Starship, Curve, Sunrise, and Acapela.

Beyond financial investments, Hinrikus and Tamkivi have actively supported mission-driven non-profit organizations like Jõhvi School of Technology, Good Deed Education Fund, and Vabamu Museum of Freedom and Occupations, a commitment they intend to continue.

Recently, Hinrikus co-founded Certific, a company focused on developing infrastructure for at-home health testing.

Seed Investments and Long-Term Support

The new investment firm will provide seed funding ranging from €250,000 to €1 million to promising tech companies. They also retain the flexibility to participate in subsequent funding rounds, potentially even up to an IPO.

While they generally do not anticipate leading investment rounds, they aim to be seen as collaborative partners rather than competitors.

“In short, we will be doing more of the same: give founder-backing to more upcoming founders,” Hinrikus stated. “What excites us most is the future ahead and finding positive missions that improve our future. So far it’s been lots of future of work, future of finance, but in the future we’d love to think more about future of health and climate as well.”

Exploring New Investment Theses

Tamkivi added, “It will take a bit more conscious effort to figure out what our theses and strategy will be for completely new areas.”

“As humans, we both care about longevity, health, education, democracy — if we find ways how to move these huge problem spaces along with capital, we are very eager to learn.”

The firm is also open to investing in crypto tokens, real assets, and other alternative financial instruments.

Tamkivi explained, “On a high level you can think of DeFi as just a natural extension of our broader ‘future of money’ financial freedom thesis.”

“When it comes to technical execution, we’ve benefited a lot from the freedom to invest not just in equity of established companies, but to also take token positions, use on-chain yield strategies or work with specialized venture funds. Whatever helps our founders.”

A Low-Key Launch

The new investment venture is launching with minimal publicity, and it currently lacks a formal name. Hinrikus jokingly suggested, “’Have you talked to Taavet and Sten yet?’ should work fine for now.”

Tamkivi clarified, “More seriously, we are just getting started together. [We’re] still figuring out what kind of structure, processes, new talent and other things, such as additional branding, we’ll need as we scale up the activities from our lives as individual angels to date.”

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