El Referente - Interview with Nicole Junkermann
This article is an English translation of the original Spanish version published in El Referente
Copyright - El Referente and Indra Kishinchand
1. How did you set out on the path to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
I believe that an entrepreneur is born and not made. From my experience, entrepreneurs have a different way of thinking, of approaching problems, and identifying new opportunities.
I was fortunate to witness these traits first-hand growing up in a house where, from a very young age, my parents involved me in their businesses. And I am fortunate to have had an international upbringing; I was born in Germany, grew up in Spain, and studied in the US. In fact, my very first job was as a translator for my father; as he did not speak Spanish, he took me everywhere as his personal interpreter and I have extremely fond memories of accompanying him at meetings full of old men in jacket and ties, with me just 12-year-old girl. My father has always been a real inspiration to me in pursuing my entrepreneurial ambitions.
I feel I have always had the spirit of an entrepreneur, and it is perhaps no surprise that soon after graduating, I built and sold my first company, an online gaming business in France, before joined Infront Sports and Media, helping build the company into one of the world’s leading sports media rights businesses. I also moved to work and live in China in a fascinating time of commercial opportunity. Now I am based in London where I run NJF Holdings, an international finance and investment company.
However, from founding a start-up in my final year of university, it has been a long road to where I am today, and perseverance and hard work have been key to any success. Now I am fortunate to use my experience and international network to work closely with early-stage companies and help great entrepreneurs develop their ideas to solve a range of challenges facing modern society.
2. What attracted you to then move into the investment world generally?
What I am really passionate about in the investment world is the opportunity to learn from people and their ideas. When I invest, I am really investing in people and this is hugely rewarding.
I have lived and worked across the world, and from each of those experiences and interacting with different cultures I have learned valuable lessons. I am passionate about taking advantage of this knowledge to support ideas which are capable of shaping and defining their industries and disrupting existing business models.
Throughout my career, I have been on both sides of the negotiating table, as an entrepreneur, as an investor. I have also acted as adviser to both start-ups and government, in industries as diverse as sports, media, healthcare, and technology. And it precisely that – of not doing the same thing for two consecutive days and always facing different challenges – which is what I enjoy the most about the investment world and which keeps me energised!
3. How have you found being a woman in the investment world?
In truth, I have always felt very lucky to be a female investor in the modern world, especially if we compare the position today with what our mothers or grandmothers faced. Those generations – to whom we owe so much gratitude for fighting for our rights – simply did not have as many opportunities as women enjoy today.
It is clear though that there is still much to do in the area. A recent JP Morgan study showed that in the UK, only 9% of funding to new businesses is to female-led UK start-ups, and from venture capital funding, this figure is only 1%. I certainly hope that my daughter and the next generation of entrepreneurial women do not encounter any kind of barriers, and that is why we must continue working in this area.
However, I do think we are seeing real progress here. As an example, the rise of “Femtech” – technology geared to improving women’s lives and which is a market expected to be worth $50bn by 2025 – is crucially one where female-founded businesses are flourishing and at the front of this disruption. In my portfolio, we are very proud of our three female-founded businesses. One of these is Elvie, co-founded by Tania Boler in 2014, which has made great progress in developing products including the world’s first silent, wearable breast pump and the kegel pelvic trainer, which are making a real difference to the lives of women across the world. Another is Swarm, a satellite company committed to providing accessible, low-cost global connectivity, founded in 2016 by Dr. Sara Spangelo,
That said, the last thing I look at when evaluating an investment is whether the entrepreneur in front of me is a man or a woman, or where they come from, or their religion. What I look at is their abilities as an entrepreneur and their ideas. It is obviously very important to fight for diversity and ensure the entry of less represented groups into the investment world, but it is essential that all decisions are made entirely on individual merit.
4. In 2018 you were appointed a member of the UK Department for Health and Social Care’s Healthcare Advisory Board, how are you personally and professionally facing the COVID-19 crisis that is being experienced today?
I was delighted to be invited by the UK's Health Secretary, the Rt. Hon Matt Hancock MP, to join the Department of Health and Social Care’s Healthtech Advisory Board to help guide the UK government on its mission to transform technology in the National Health Service. Although this board is not involved in advising on the UK government’s COVID-19 strategy, it is looking at how the NHS can harness the potential of technology and create a culture of innovation, with the aim of improving patient outcomes and reducing the workload on NHS staff.
On a personal note, my thoughts are very much with all those who have suffered and are suffering as a result of this unprecedented global pandemic and I will continue to personally support the right organisations at the front line of this crisis wherever I can.
Professionally, I will clearly not be the person who discovers the vaccine against COVID-19, and so I am focusing my efforts to fully support my portfolio companies which have moved so quickly to assist where they can. For example, I am a director of OWKIN, a pioneering French company seeking to us machine learning to develop faster, safer, and more effective medicines and treatments for patients, have supplied thousands of masks to French hospitals (in particular in Mulhouse and Colmar, a region significantly affected by the outbreak). The company has also developed a technology that uses artificial intelligence to help create diagnostic models.
In the UK, global AI food technology start-up Spoon Guru launched a new ‘Immunity Support TAG’ shortly after COVID-19 broke to help consumers find foods online and in stores to strengthen their immune system. And in Ireland, we have invested in Jobbio – a recruitment technology company – which moved quickly to launch ‘BouceBack’, an online platform support those who have lost their job as a result of this crisis.
5. And how can technology generally help the COVID-19 crisis?
The COVID-19 global pandemic is having a devastating impact on the world as we know it. In these extraordinary times, we are potentially facing the imminent and near-total shut down of the global economy. Now more than ever is the time for societies and communities, regardless of geography, background, or expertise, to work together and act quickly and decisively.
Without a doubt, technology and innovation will be absolutely vital not only in overcoming this pandemic, but more importantly, to help safeguard our globalised and interconnected world against a similar threat in the future.
By investing in innovation and technology, we can develop new drugs and vaccines, reduce development times and manufacturing costs, and ultimately improve access to these innovations for the entire population. If you think how medical technology has evolved, it was not long ago that it took almost 20 years of research to develop a vaccine and now this can be done in a matter of months.
6. What role do investors such as yourself play at the moment?
At all times, investors play a fundamental role in supporting entrepreneurs. In this current crisis, this is as important as ever, and the two main ways to do this are for investors to (i) keep looking for new investment opportunities, and (ii) to fully support their portfolio companies. The worse thing investors can do now is cut-off the investment supply of the start-up ecosystem.
On the first point, it will clearly be difficult for some early-stage companies seeking investment in the coming months and maybe years. There will be less money to invest, and investors are likely to be more discerning than before. Investors must, in conjunction with governments and investment organisations, work together to ensure that we do not lose a generation of exciting start-ups, these are the businesses that we need to help both the old and the new economy bounce back after the crisis.
Secondly, it is not just be a case of helping provide finance, investors must call on their experience, expertise, and network now more than ever to guide young companies through these extraordinary times. From my personal experience, by having a diverse portfolio in terms of geography, sector, and maturity, we are looking to draw upon this wide-range of experience to support our investments wherever we can and focus the management teams on the critical questions they need to be considering. We are well-placed to take a long-term view and support the businesses we are very proud to invest in.
7. You have stated on several occasions that your mission is to improve people's lives through technology. How does this objective materialize in your investments?
I think the best example of this is the portfolio of companies which I have invested in. I am a strong advocate of technology and innovation as the best way to improve people's lives. For me, the world of start-ups and venture capital is like a continuous learning process, and I have the privilege of being close to some of the most fascinating minds in the world that respond to great challenges in our society.
Two of my portfolio companies are great example of where the right investor support can affect a real positive change in the healthcare field. We have Deep Genomics has harnessed the power of artificial intelligence to discover – in just 18 months – possible medication to treat life-threatening conditions such as Wilson’s Disease. Another is Gordian Biotech which has developed a pioneering platform capable of reducing the clinical testing times for the development of new drugs. These examples, and there are many more, show the powerful impact that meaningful investor support can have on these extremely valuable companies.
I also invest in products and ideas that simply make people's lives easier, such as Elvie, which as mentioned above focuses on making women's lives easier all over the world, or Bolt that has created a payment platform for ecommerce with 100% anti-fraud coverage. We have also invested in a US company which is a pioneer in the field of cybersecurity which in today’s world is an area which affects so many of our lives and the founder was one the original team who built the Google security platform alongside Google founders Eric Schmidt, Sergei Brin, and Larry Page.
As you can see, we have a good mix of investments which range from the most transformative science to applying technology to simplifying life’s day-to-day activities.
8. More generally, how do you look to decide what investments to make?
As a general point, I believe it is a great advantage to be able to invest from my own resources; I am not a traditional venture capital fund run for the benefit of LPs. Instead, I have the flexibility to choose the right investments at the right time without any external pressure as to the number of investments I make or the timeline for returns.
When investing, I generally look for companies with a bold vision and which have the potential to shape and define their industries. This is where historically we have had real success, nurturing and guiding early-stage companies which are disrupting traditional business models by doing things differently and challenging the norm.
However, in my experience, what really makes a great investment is the founders themselves and their teams. When I invest, I am primarily investing in people.
I have seen many good ideas and business plans fail because of the inability of the people behind them to execute. Great entrepreneurs have a clear vision, are open to collaboration, accept challenge and different points of view and, crucially, can adapt and learn from mistakes or failures along the way.
It is also important to look carefully at the company’s business model, target market, and of course the product or services they are offering. Finally, as would any investor, I will look at what level of return is expected and what the exit potential and strategy could be, for example who could be interested in acquiring the company a few years down the line?
9. You started your career as an entrepreneur more than 20 years ago, what values have led you to where you are today?
Perseverance, very hard work, and – crucially – understanding people. At NJF Holdings, we a people first-business with a team that works hard and competitively, but with fairness, authenticity, a continual thirst for knowledge and a focus on the long term. I look to invest in like-minded entrepreneurs with the same values.
10. On a similar note, what were the tips that helped you to move forward and how would you advise entrepreneurs who are now starting out on their own journeys?
The answer is simple: trial and error, trial and error. What you have to be clear about when you start is that you are going to fail, and the key to success is the ability to learn from these failures, adapt quickly, and move forward.
In my experience, having invested in the sports industry and worked closely with many elite athletes and former sportsmen, the amount of values shared by business and sport is incredible: perseverance, competitiveness, and a determination to always strive to do better. These are essential attitudes to have when starting-out.
From the outside, many think that success is down to luck but for me, the saying that holds true is: ‘the harder I work, the luckier I am’.
11. As a great advocate of innovation and a global representative of private investment, what role do you think governments play in these changes?
Governments play a fundamental role in the innovation process; they must be facilitators and promoters of innovation. They must put in place the infrastructure, starting with education, to encourage investment in these areas. It may seem obvious, but any cuts governments make in these fields will seriously compromise the next generations.
The role of governments is not just to facilitate though, governments must put in place the appropriate regulatory frameworks and must always be advocates of citizens' rights in terms of ethics in the face of rapidly changing technology; we have seen this tension often appear in healthcare where the need for data must be balanced against an individual’s right to privacy and anonymity.
One of the main challenges facing government is simply that technology advances faster than they do; governments must adapt just as quickly to innovation as the pace it is developing.
12. What are NJF’s future investments plans? What are the medium / long term aims?
Since 2012, when we started, we had pretty clear vision and this hasn’t changed. We plan to continue investing where we can serve as a bridge between traditional business and industry-defining technologies. We will look to invest in companies tackling the challenges facing society in critical areas such as healthcare, safety, and climate change, while also not forgetting the products and services which simply make people’s everyday lives easier.
The current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic sadly all to clearly demonstrates the need to continue improving in the field of healthcare; many people take their health for granted, but it is in situations like this that we truly appreciate it.
The same is true of climate change which is an area we will look into much more closely in the future. We have only one planet and if we do not take care it, we will suffer the consequences. We have come a long way as a society, and progress has brought great strides that have improved people's lives. I think the solution for climate change is not to ask people to give up everything we have created and to live like our ancestors again, but to improve technology so that all those comforts that we enjoy are more sustainable and do not destroy the environment.
A recent investment we have made in this field is in stealth mode, but is another female-founded business and based in the US, which seeks to fight climate change by studying and optimizing the energy needs of large industries. The idea was created when the CEO of the company first identified the opportunity to use artificial intelligence to optimize Google's Data Centers, reducing its energy consumption by 40%.
13. On a more personal level, what other projects do you have in mind? After what you have already achieved, what would you like to undertake?
I have to confess that I have an obsession to understand the human body better. As a product of evolution, the human race is incredible. After years of developing artificial intelligence, the volume of work, research, and computing capacity in this field is all focused on replicated on a large scale the ability to process information and make the decisions of a human brain.
The human body is an area that I find really fascinating, and research and innovation are key to understanding this even better. There is so much to discover and a topic that I would love to continue exploring and understanding further, ideally alongside the entrepreneurs from whom I continue to learn, each and every day.