Where is Founders' headquarters located?

Founders' headquarters is located in Copenhagen (Denmark).

How big is Founders' investment team?

Founders has a team of 11, including 6 partners.

How many companies has Founders invested in?

Founders has invested in 23 companies, including Klarna & Pleo.

Which companies has Founders invested in lately?

Sibill & All Gravy are the latest investments by Founders.

How many exits has Founders been involved in?

Founders' portfolio has seen 1 IPO and 2 acquisitions.

How many unicorns are there in Founders' portfolio?

There is 1 unicorn in Founders' portfolio.

Founders - 2026 Investor Profile, Portfolio, Team & Investment Trends

Founders, an accelerator and incubator program founded in 2012, is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. With a presence in 6 countries, it has supported around 23 startups in sectors like Enterprise Applications, Consumer. As of May 2026, Founders has 1 unicorn under its belt and has witnessed 3 portfolio exits. Most notable companies in its portfolio include Klarna, Pleo and Kontist. The program is backed by a team of 11 people who primarily support Seed startups based in Denmark. Its latest investment was a $6.73M Series A round in Sibill on Jun 03, 2024, which also saw participation from Keen Venture Partners and Exor.

Key Metrics

Founded Year

2012

Location

Copenhagen, Denmark

Portfolio Companies

Klarna, Pleo & 21 more

Sectors of Investment

Enterprise Applications, Consumer & 14 more

Stages of Investment

Seed & Series H

Locations of Investment

Denmark, Germany & 4 more

Unicorn in Portfolio

Pleo

View Founders's full profile

Founders has a portfolio of 23 companies, one of which is a Unicorn. Their most notable investments are in Maguru and LifeX.Their portfolio spans across Denmark, Germany, Sweden and 3 more locations. They have invested in Enterprise Applications, Consumer, FinTech and 13 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Series H stages. Here is the list of top investments by Founders:

1. Klarna

Developer of an online platform for point-of-sale financing. It enables users to purchase products within the partnered merchant network and split the cost of the purchase from the stores into interest-free payments and also works in-store. It also enables users to make instalment payments by credit or debit cards on retail purchases, receive price changes, and deal alerts. Its mobile application is available on Android and iOS platforms.

Key facts about Klarna

Founded Year: 2005
Location: Stockholm (Sweden)
Stage: Public
Total Funding till date: $4.19B
Employee Count: 4,591 as on Apr 30, 2026
Investors: Harvest Growth Capital, TCV and 134 Others
Latest Funding Round: Conventional Debt, Aug 21, 2025, $*****
Highlight: Public

2. Pleo

Provider of spend management platform with virtual and physical card options. The platform offers tools for business cards, expense management, accounts payable, and reimbursements. It provides features such as spend limitations and vendor cards for managing recurring payments. The platform also integrates with other business tools to streamline workflows.

Key facts about Pleo

Founded Year: 2015
Location: Copenhagen (Denmark)
Valuation: $*****
Stage: Series C
Total Funding till date: $434M
Employee Count: 951 as on Apr 30, 2026
Investors: Kinnevik, Founders Fund and 15 Others
Latest Funding Round: Conventional Debt, May 02, 2024, $*****
Highlight: Editors' Pick

3. Kontist

Digital bank for freelancers and self-employed. Its offering includes paperless account opening, mobile banking, push notifications for account activity, automatic income and sales tax reserves, and an early warning system for payment bottlenecks. It has partnered with Solaris Bank for a German banking license and modular banking platform technology. The user deposits are secured by the European deposit fund.

Key facts about Kontist

Founded Year: 2016
Location: Berlin (Germany)
Last Known Valuation: $*****
Stage: Acquired
Total Funding till date: $46.7M
Employee Count: 28 as on Apr 30, 2026
Investors: Mars Growth Capital, Founders and 2 Others
Latest Funding Round: Conventional Debt, Nov 16, 2021, $*****
Highlight: Acquired

4. Sibill

Payment reconciliation and link-based payment solutions. Offers solutions such as real-time banking for aggregating accounts and expense management, automatic forecasts for retrieving invoice and cash management, agile payments for payment links, and more. Features tools for analyzing and sharing balances and transactions.

Key facts about Sibill

Founded Year: 2021
Location: Agropoli (Italy)
Stage: Series A
Total Funding till date: $21.3M
Employee Count: 122 as on Apr 30, 2026
Investors: Keen Venture Partners, Exor and 6 Others
Latest Funding Round: Series A, Jun 26, 2025, $*****
Highlight: Editors' Pick

5. LifeX

Provider of managed co-living spaces. It offers shared/single co-living options along with amenities such as a kitchen, beds & linens, cleaning services, internet, networking community, and others. It also offers relocation services.

Key facts about LifeX

Founded Year: 2017
Location: Copenhagen (Denmark)
Valuation: $*****
Stage: Seed
Total Funding till date: $19.5M
Employee Count: 37 as on Apr 30, 2026
Investors: TriplePoint Capital, Cherry Ventures and 5 Others
Latest Funding Round: Seed, May 22, 2020, $*****
Highlight: Editors' Pick

View the full list of portfolio companies

Founders has invested in 23 companies over the last 11 years, with an average of 1 new investment annually in the last 10 years. Its most recent first time investment was in All Gravy and most recent follow-on round was in Sibill.

Here are Founders' Year-on-Year Investment Trends:

Year	No. of Investments
Year	1^st Round	Follow-on	Total
2026 (YTD)	0	0	0
2025	0	0	0
2024	0	1	1
2023	0	0	0
2022	2	0	2
2021	2	2	4
2020	0	1	1
2019	1	1	2
2018	1	1	2
2017	1	1	2

View all investments by Founders

Founders has made 11 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $2.44M and 1 investment in Series H stage with an average round size of $800M.

Here are Founders' investments by stage:

Stage of entry	No. of Investments
Seed	11
Series H	1

Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments

View all investments by Founders

Founders has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Enterprise Applications, FinTech, Consumer, Retail and Vertical SaaS. Notably, it has invested in 22 Tech companies, 15 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 14 Software companies and at least 10 companies focusing on Consumer (B2C).

Here are Founders' investments by sector:

Sector	No. of Investments
Enterprise Applications	7
FinTech	5
Consumer	3
Retail	3
Vertical SaaS	2
Others	6

Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments

View all investments by Founders

Founders has made most investments in Denmark (7), followed by Germany where it has made 2 investments.

Here are Founders' investments by geography:

Country	No. of Investments
Denmark	7
Germany	2
Italy	1
Sweden	1
United Kingdom	1

Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments

View all investments by Founders

Founders has not made any investment in 2026 so far.

Here are the most recent investments by Founders:

Filter this list

Date	Company	Location	Round Details	Round Amount	Co-Investors
Jun 03, 2024	Sibill	Italy	Series A	2495	Keen Venture Partners [+1]
Jul 15, 2022	All Gravy	United Kingdom	Seed	7362	Moonfire [+6]
Jul 11, 2022	Klarna	Sweden	Series H	6018	Silver Lake [+7]
Nov 27, 2021	Pleo	Denmark	Series C	1407	Coatue [+7]
Nov 05, 2021	Sibill	Italy	Seed	2560	Federico Sargenti [+3]

See more recent investments made by Founders

Founders has 1 unicorn in its portfolio - Pleo. The most recent unicorn in their portfolio is Pleo which became a unicorn in 2021, 4 years after Founders first invested in it.

Here is a list of unicorns in Founders' portfolio:

Filter this list

Tracxn Score	Company	Short Description	Founded year	Sector	Location	Company Stage	First Investment/ Acquisition Details
80	Pleo	Provider of spend management platform with virtual and physical card options	2015	Enterprise Applications [+3]	Copenhagen	Series C	oniy{ru

View more details about unicorns in Founders' portfolio

1 of Founders' portfolio company became public - Klarna. It got listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), in Sep 2025 at marketcap of $15.1B

Here are Founders' portfolio companies that went public:

Filter this list

Company	IPO Date	First Invested on	First Round of Investment	Round Size
Klarna	Sep 10, 2025	Jul 11, 2022	Series H	8835

View more details about public companies in Founders' portfolio

2 companies from Founders' portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Kontist in Jul 2022 by Ageras for $*****.

Here are Founders' portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:

Filter this list

Company	Acquisition Date	First Invested on	First Round of Investment	Round Size
Kontist	Jul 28, 2022	Oct 12, 2016	Seed	2061
MinBil	Apr 30, 2015	-	-	5100

View all acquired companies in Founders' portfolio

Founders has a team of 11 members including 6 Partners and 1 Principal located in Denmark, India and 2 more locations. Founders' team sits on the board of 2 companies.

Here is a list of top team members in Founders:

Name	Designation	Location	Board Memberships	Contact Details
Sebastian Oliver Nielsen Stockmarr	Partner	Copenhagen	Pipetop	1 Email
Stefano Zorzi	Partner	Copenhagen	-	1 Email
Ulrik Trolle	Partner	Copenhagen	-	1 Email
Peter Heering	Partner	Copenhagen	Son Of A Tailor	1 Email
Vikas Anand	Partner	Noida	-	-
Joseph Cranks	Partner	New York City	-	-
Aleksandra Zabek	Principal	Poland	-	-

View team details of Founders

Over the past 11 years, 84 investors have co-invested in Founders's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.

Invested before Founders: Creandum, Permira and 31 others have invested in rounds before Founders. There is 1 company where Creandum has invested before Founders and 1 company where Permira has invested before Founders.
Top Co-investors of Founders: 29 investors entered a company along with Founders. These include investors like Mubadala (1 company).
Invested after Founders: A total of 22 investors have invested in Founders's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include Creandum (2 companies) and Santander Bank (1 company).