Saul Klein
Encyclopedia
Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a venture capital investment firm based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices in London, Jersey, and starting in 2011, Silcon Valley. The firm was founded in 1996 by Neil Rimer and Giuseppe Zocco. Since its inception, the firm has raised four main venture funds and a growth...
. Since joining in 2007, Saul has invested in early-stage internet companies including AlertMe
AlertMe
AlertMe is a UK company that provides energy and home monitoring hardware and services. AlertMe produces hardware and software to enable users to monitor and control their home energy use....
, Chartbeat, GlassesDirect
Glassesdirect
Glasses Direct is an online retailer based in the United Kingdom that supplies discount-priced spectacles.It was founded by James Murray Wells in 2004 joining the small existing sector of online retailers...
, MyHeritage
MyHeritage
MyHeritage is a family-oriented social network service and genealogy website. It allows members to create their own family websites, share pictures and videos, organize family events, create family trees, and search for ancestors...
, and Songkick
Songkick
Songkick is a website and service that provides personalized news about live music events. It allows users to track their favorite bands and receive email alerts when a tracked band plays a gig nearby. Songkick is one of the original high tech startups in London's Silicon Roundabout area.- Service...
.
In 2007, Klein founded the Seedcamp organization to help European entrepreneurs successfully build technology businesses. Seedcamp is currently investing from its second fund and has created a network of more than 2,000 mentors around the world. Each year, Seedcamp hosts an annual event in London called Seedcamp Week.
Klein is also a Founding Partner of The Accelerator Group (TAG), which he started with Robin Klein in 1999 as a vehicle for investing in early-stage internet services, e-commerce and digital media businesses. The TAG portfolio includes bit.ly
Bit.ly
bitly is a URL shortening service owned by bitly, Inc., a betaworks company. It is especially popular on microblogging website Twitter because it is the default URL shortening service on the website since May 6, 2009, replacing TinyURL...
, Erply, Lovefilm
LoveFilm
LoveFilm is a UK-based provider of home video and video game rental through DVD-by-mail and streaming video on demand in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia...
, MOO
MOO
A MOO is a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users are connected at the same time.The term MOO is used in two distinct, but related, senses...
, Songkick
Songkick
Songkick is a website and service that provides personalized news about live music events. It allows users to track their favorite bands and receive email alerts when a tracked band plays a gig nearby. Songkick is one of the original high tech startups in London's Silicon Roundabout area.- Service...
, Spot Runner
Spot Runner
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Spot Runner develops technology platforms and delivers services for video advertising, namely broadcast, cable and online video...
, Tweedeck, and Twitterverse.
Before becoming a venture capitalist, Klein was part of the original executive team at Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
and was the founder and CEO of what is now Lovefilm
LoveFilm
LoveFilm is a UK-based provider of home video and video game rental through DVD-by-mail and streaming video on demand in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia...
International.
He has a Master of Arts degree from Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...
.