Xavier Niel

Xavier Niel General Information

Description

Mr. Xavier Niel is a Co-Founder of Kima Ventures. Mr. Niel serves as Board Member at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Mr. Niel serves as Board Member at Eir Telecom. Mr. Niel is an Angle Investor. He is a Co-Founder of New Wave VC. He is the Founder and Owner and serves as Vice President at Free (Internet Service Providers). He is a Co-Founder of New Wave. He serves as Vice President and Chairman at iliad. He serves as an Investor at Breakthrough Energy. He is the Owner of Atlas Investissement. He is the owner of the NJJ Capital. He is a self-taught entrepreneur and has been active in the data communications, Internet, and telecommunications industry since the late 1980s. Before devoting himself to the iliad group development in 1993, he co-founded France's first Internet service provider (ISP), Worldnet. Subsequently, after founding 3617 ANNU, the leading reverse lookup directory service on Minitel, in 1999 he went on to create Free - France's first free-access ISP. He was the architect behind the 2002 launch of the Freebox - the first multi-service box providing households with access to a triple-play offering (Internet, telephone, and television). He has also been the inspiration behind the group's major strategic developments, including its current rollout of the 4G mobile network in France and its mobile offerings which were launched on January 10, 2012. The strategy of the Iliad group proved successful as (i) its total number of subscribers increased from 10.6 million in December 2012 to 17.8 million in December 2015, thus representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% over the period and (ii) in the long-time oligopoly environment of French mobile operators, Free Mobile's market share grew from 0% in 2011 to 17% in December 2015. In parallel, for many years he has invested considerably in web start-ups. In March 2010 he set up his investment fund, Kima Ventures, one of the world's most active early-stage investors, which invests in 50 to 100 start-ups a year worldwide. In addition, since 2010 he has held an ownership interest in the Le Monde newspaper, alongside Mr. Pierre Bergà and Mr. Matthieu Pigasse. Since the summer of 2014, he, Mr. Pierre BergÃ, and Mr. Matthieu Pigasse have also been the joint owners of the French weekly magazine L'Obs. He has also invested in the telecommunications sector in a personal capacity through NJJ Holding for many years. He acquired a 55% stake in Monaco Telecom in 2014 and Orange Switzerland (now renamed Salt) in February 2015. He serves as an Independent Director at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.