Altendorf (SZ), Switzerland – November 2, 2020: VI Partners welcomes Joe Neale as new Partner, Technology Investment. Joe joins Alain Nicod (Managing Partner), Cyrill Osterwalder (Principal) and Daniel Gutenberg (Venture Partner) to select, invest in, and support promising start-ups in Software / SaaS, FinTech, Blockchain, AI, machine learning and IoT.

Joe was educated and spent his youth in Switzerland. He has over 16 years experience as a venture capitalist, entrepreneur and operator within the technology and mobile industries. He was a co-founder and Principal of m8 Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund and was instrumental in building their successful investment portfolio across Europe, the US and Japan. More recently, Joe was a Senior Venture Manager on Partner tenure track at Blackfinch Ventures. Joe served as a non-executive director for Applauze (acquired by NYSE: LYV), Schad (acquired by NYSE: FTV), Portalarium (acquired by Catnip Games), Fuller KK, Seldon.io and Masabi. In addition, he was an advisor or board observer to Snapette (acquired by LSE: EXPN), Noom, Evernote and CandidateID. He also served as VP of Corporate Development for the mobile analytics SaaS company Fuller KK / App Ape, one of m8 Capital’s investment. Prior to his time at Blackfinch Ventures, Joe was founder and CEO of a startup in the travel software sector, which he sold to a competitor. Joe started his career in startup business development at Symbian and was previously the first technical hire of the European team of MySpace.

Alain Nicod, Managing Partner Technology for VI Partners, commented: “Inviting Joe as a new partner to our firm, we have made a significant step towards rejuvenating and strengthening our team. Joe’s energy and broad experience makes him a perfect addition to expand our footprint in the tech innovation scene in Switzerland and abroad”.

VI Partner’s team also includes Arnd Kaltofen and Diego Braguglia (Managing Partners, Healthcare) and Benedikt Luhmann (Principal), as well as more recently recruit Christoph Bieri (COO & CFO). The Managing Partners of VI Partners have worked together since 18 years and thus constitute the longest-standing and most experienced VC team in Switzerland. In April 2020, VI Partners announced the first closing of a new fund.