Fabrice Grinda

Fabrice Grinda
Born (1974-08-03) 3 August 1974
Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Residence New York, New York, U.S. and Cabarete, Dominican Republic
Nationality French
Education Princeton University
Occupation Angel investor and entrepreneur
Website fabricegrinda.com

Fabrice Grinda (born 3 August 1974) is a French entrepreneur, blogger for Business Insider[1] and super angel, with more than 200 investments around the world,[2] including Alibaba Group, Airbnb, Beepi, FanDuel, Palantir and Windeln.[3][4][5] Grinda has had $300 million in investment exits.[6] He is the co-founder and former CEO of Aucland, Zingy, and OLX[3][4][7] and is a frequent conference speaker on trends in technology, emerging markets, and investing.[8][9][10][11]

Studies

Grinda was born in Boulogne Billancourt in France and grew up in Nice, where he graduated high school C Massena in 1992.[3] He left France to attend Princeton University and graduated summa cum laude in 1996; he was awarded the Halbert White '72 prize for most distinguished economics student and the Wolf Balleisen memorial prize for best economics thesis.[1][3][12]

Entrepreneurial activities

While at Princeton, Grinda created Princeton International Computers, exporting high-end computer equipment from the U.S. to Europe.[3] He then worked as a consultant for McKinsey from 1996 to 1998 before returning to France where he co-founded the company Aucland.[4]

Aucland

Aucland was one of the three largest auction websites in Europe.[13] In July 1999, in exchange for 51% of the company, Grinda raised $18 million for Aucland from the venture fund of luxury-goods magnate Bernard Arnault.[14] In 2000, he sold the rest of the company to Arnault’s fund.[15]

Zingy

In 2000, he returned to the United States where he founded Zingy, a mobile media start-up which he grew to $200 million in revenue.[16] In, 2004, Grinda sold Zingy for $80 million Japanese media conglomerate For-Side. He remained CEO until 2005.[7][17]

OLX

In 2006, Grinda and Alec Oxenford co-founded OLX with the goal of becoming the largest free classified advertising website in the world.[18] In 2010, the site was acquired by the South African group Naspers,[19] with Grinda remaining CEO until 2013.[20] OLX became the largest classified ad website in India, Pakistan, Brazil, Portugal, Poland and Ukraine.[6] While he was still CEO, OLX presence in more than 90 countries, in 50 languages, with over 150 million unique visitors per month.[18]

Serial angel investor

As a serial angel investor, Grinda and his team analyze more than 100 companies a week and make a new investment about every 15 days.[20] As of June 2015, he has made more than 200 start-up investments.[2] His most recent investments are focused on marketplaces connecting buyers to sellers, such as Beepi, a used car marketplace, and Lofty, a marketplace for works of art.[20] His portfolio is about 70% in the United States and 30% in the rest of the world, including Brazil, France, Germany, UK, Russia, China, and Turkey.[6][20][21]

Among Grinda's investments are:[22]

In 2016, Ticketbis sold for $165 million to eBay.[23] Grinda founded FJ Labs, an investment fund, which also employs 30 programmers in the Dominican Republic.[24]

Business blogger and speaker

Grinda’s blog, "Musings of an Entrepreneur",[5] is also carried by Business Insider.[1] Grinda has written about raising money from VCs, the future of technology in shaping the world, and working as a serial angel investor.[1] Grinda has been a featured speaker at many conferences, including Le Web,[9] IDCEE,[10] La Red Innova,[11] TechCrunch Italy[25] and SIME.[26]

Awards

On 5 December 2014 Grinda received the Golden Pillar, awarded annually from the French Institute Alliance Francaise for outstanding contributions to Franco- American relations.[27]

Philanthropy

Grinda funds the education of 600 children in the Dominican Republic through the Dream Project.[28]

Personal life

Grinda is not married. A 2015 New York Times profile reported that in 2012, in a move he called "the very big downgrade", intended to allow him more time to spend with friends and family, Grinda sold his 20-acre New York estate, his Manhattan apartment and his car, and donated his other possessions to charity, except for a carry-on suitcase with 50 items. For the next three years, he lived without a permanent residence or other possessions, at first staying with friends and family, and eventually, after friends complained, in hotels and Airbnb rentals.[2] In 2015, he re-established a permanent residence in New York City but continued to keep his personal possession under 50 items.[29]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Fabrice Grinda". Business Insider. Business Insider. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Holson, Laura (13 June 2015). "A Curious Midlife Crisis for a Tech Entrepreneur". New York Times. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Jeffries, Adrianne (12 April 2012). "The Clone Collector: Meet New York Superangel Fabrice Grinda, Master of Digital Knockoffs". New York Observer. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 Becker, Sam (6 December 2013). "An Angel in New York". Alley Watch. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Musings of an Entrepreneur". FabriceGrinda.com.
  6. 1 2 3 "Fabrice Grinda". Crunchbase. Techcrunch. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  7. 1 2 Wellons, Mary Catherine (14 June 2012). "5 Minutes With a Visionary: Fabrice Grinda". CNBC. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  8. ↑ "Fabrice Grinda". YouTube. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  9. 1 2 "Fabrice Grinda – LeWeb'13 Paris – The Next 10 Years". YouTube.com. Le Web. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  10. 1 2 "IDCEE 2014: Opening Keynote by Fabrice Grinda (OLX, Angel Investor)". YouTube.com. IDCEE. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  11. 1 2 "Fabrice Grinda's Keynote at La Red Innova 2011: Angel Investing Secrets". YouTube.com. La Red Innova. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  12. ↑ Johnson, Emily (3 May 2000). "Parlez-Vous eBay?". Daily Princetonian. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  13. ↑ Pitts, Beth (7 June 2013). "Fabrice Grinda, Investor/Entrepreneur: Finding a VC is Like Getting Married". The Next Woman. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  14. ↑ Galant, Greg (16 April 2008). "Fabrice Grinda's First Time (Raising Money)". Venture Voice. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  15. ↑ Matlack, Carol (30 July 2000). "Bernard Arnault's Shaky E Empire". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  16. ↑ "Fabrice Grinda". TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  17. ↑ Kafka, Peter (1 December 2005). "Zingy Founder Steps Down". Forbes. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  18. 1 2 "Fabrice Grinda". Sime.nu. Sime.
  19. ↑ "OLX". Naspers.com. Naspers. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Fredouelle, Aude (11 July 2014). "Pourquoi je n'ai pas investi dans Uber". JDN. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  21. ↑ "2014 Investment Year in Review". fabricegrinda.com.
  22. ↑ "Portfolio". FabriceGrinda.com. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  23. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (24 May 2016). "eBay buys Spain's Ticketbis for $165M to expand StubHub into Europe, Latin America, Asia". TechCrunch. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  24. ↑ "Investment fund at Cabarete paves way for technology tourism". DominicanToday. 29 April 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  25. ↑ "Fabrice Grinda at TechCrunch Italy 2013". YouTube.com. TechCrunch Italy. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  26. ↑ "2013 11 12 SIME Day1 11 Fabrice Grinda". YouTube.com. SIME. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  27. ↑ Leon, Masha (11 December 2014). "French Acclaim for Entrepreneurs". The Jewsih Daily Forward. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  28. ↑ Rodriguez, Maria Gabriella (December 2015). "Lo Boca. La Silicon Valley Dominicana". Revista Mercado.
  29. ↑ Surana, Kavitha (2 May 2016). "Meet Fabrice Grinda, the Minimalist in the $6 Million LES Penthouse". Bed and Bowery. Retrieved 24 May 2016.

External links

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