Gigi Levy-Weiss
Gigi Levy-Weiss | |
---|---|
Born | Gigi Levy Israel |
Residence | Ramat HaSharon, Israel |
Education | Tel Aviv University |
Alma mater | Kellogg School of Management |
Occupation | Business executive, Investor |
Years active | 1996-present |
Organization | NFX Guild |
Known for | Former CEO of 888 Holdings Founding partner at NFX Guild |
Spouse(s) | Daphi Levy-Weiss |
Children | 3 |
Website | Gigi Levy at About.me Gigi Levy LinkedIn |
Gigi Levy-Weiss (born Gigi Levy, Israel) is a business executive and angel investor who works primarily with internet, software and gaming companies.[1] He is currently involved with various startup companies including SimilarWeb, Plarium, myThings, Hola, MyHeritage, and Kenshoo.[2] He is the former CEO for online gambling company 888 Holdings, and is on the board of the Israeli-Palestinian nonprofit organization MEET, being formerly involved with Latet.[3] In 2014 he co-founded the investment firm and business accelerator NFX Guild.[4] He joined the supervisory board at Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA in Germany in May 2015.[2]
Contents
Early life, education
Gigi Levy (later named Gigi Levy-Weiss) was born and raised in Israel. He speaks English, Spanish, French, and Hebrew.[2]
Before attending college[5] Levy-Weiss was a pilot[6] in the Israeli Air Force.[7] In October 2002 he started attending the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago,[8] where he earned his MBA[5] in May 2004.[2]
Career
Early positions
Early in his career Levy-Weiss worked with his own startup company,[7] also holding a number of management[6] and consulting positions[8] with technology companies[5] in Israel and the UK.[6] Among those roles he was CEO of Giltek Telecommunication, a publicly traded telecom systems integrator.[6]
From 2003 to 2005[2] he was Vice President of Western Europe for Amdocs Limited (NASDAQ: DOX), an international telecommunications software company.[8] The following year he became Division President for the company[2] for Western Europe, and Central and Latin America.[2][8]
888 Holdings
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On June 18, 2006, Levy-Weiss joined the company 888 Holdings as their Chief Operating Officer (COO). Founded in 1997, 888 Holdings operates several high-profile gambling websites. He was COO until January 2007,[8] when he became the company's CEO.[9] During his tenure, the company weathered the 2006 enactment of UIGEA and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. Levy-Weiss pushed the company to focus on online poker rooms and casinos, leading to a number of buyout options.[9][10][11] His position as a CEO officially ended on May 31, 2011,[8] though he remained on the board for an additional twelve months, assisting in the transition to a new CEO.[11]
Early investing
After leaving 888 Holdings, Levy-Weiss has served as an investor, board member, and in some cases a co-founder for a number of technology companies in Israel, San Francisco and London.[5] Many of the startups he invests in have involved online commerce, advertising technologies, mobile applications, gaming, and SaaS spaces.[6][12]
Since 2007 he has been a board member at MassiveImpact,[2] also serving as a director.[8] He was an investor and board member for SweetIM from 2009 to 2013,[2] which was acquired by Perion.[7] Perion purchased SweetPacks, maker of SweetIM, in November 2012 for approximately $41 million.[13]
He first invested in Playtika in 2010.[2] In 2011, over half of Playtika's shares were acquired by casino operator Harrah's Entertainment's at a company value of $80–90 million, in what was the largest acquisition on record of an Israeli online gaming company.[14] The total sum of the two stages of the buyout for Playtika was rumored to be around $140 million USD.[15]
Israeli company Promodity, an advertising platform, announced in August 2012 that Levy-Weiss had invested in the company.[12] That month Levy-Weiss also invested in the company Bizzabo.[16] He has been a board member at Global-e since 2013,[2] and late that year he invested in Space Ape Games, an English social games company.[17]
He also has invested in startups such as the technology company Kenshoo.[7] Other investments include companies Crossrider (later acquired for $37million),[18] Plarium, R2Net,[7] Eyeview, RealMatch, Lovelive.tv, NonoRep, Gooodjob, Superfly, SpeakingPal, Ekoloko, TradeO, Zoomd, Moovu, and Moolta,[6] (which was acquired by SimilarWeb).[19]
NFX Guild
In January 2015, he cofounded NFX Guild with his friends James Currier and Stan Chudnovsky, both entrepreneurs and investors based in California.[4] Levy-Weiss is a partner at NFX, which is an accelerator and venture funding firm based in the Silicon Valley in the United States,[20] named for "Network Effects."[21] In September 2015, TechCrunch reported that NFX had "plans to run a three-month-long program twice a year for between 10 and 15 companies," with the companies selected by scouts instead of applying in a public process. One third of the initial scouted companies were from Israel, such as Genome Compiler.[22] The firm invests in internet and software companies which have "network effects" embedded in their business, such as social networks and marketplaces.[23] Levy-Weiss has described the firm as focusing on value creation in digital technology leveraging the "network effect," where each new user adds "value to the system".[24]
Current companies
As of 2014 he is an investor in the following active companies, many of which are based in Israel:[2]
- Kenshoo (June 2006 – present)[2]
- Ekoloko (November 2007 – present)[2]
- MassiveImpact (2007–present)[2] - board member
- Exactfactor (April 2008 – present)[2]
- Eyeview (June 2008 – present)[2]
- Playtika (2010–present)[2][23]
- Plarium (2011–present)[2][23]
- Bizzabo (June 2012 – present)[2]
- myThings (June 2012 – present)[2]
- MyHeritage (September 2012 – present)[2]
- Global ePay (June 2013 – present)[2]
- Zoomd (October 2013 – present)
- SimilarWeb (April 2014 – present)
- NFX Group (January 2015 – present)[2]
Memberships
Levy-Weiss has been involved with a number of non-profit organizations in Israel,[5] notably serving on the management board for Israeli humaniatrian fund Latet[3] from 2008 to 2013.[2] He became a board member at the non-profit MEET - Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow in November 2013.[2]
In 2014, Levy-Weiss was appointed to Facebook's EMEA Client Council, a marketing forum including representatives from brands and agencies of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, together with Facebook leaders.[25][26] Nicola Mendelsohn is the Council's Vice-President.[26]
At Tel Aviv University, his alma mater, Levy-Weiss is on the advisory board of the Technology Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship MBA program.[6] He joined the supervisory board at Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA in Germany in May 2015.[2]
He has been a speaker at conferences such as Com.vention,[6] Casual Connect, and others.[27]
Personal life
Levy-Weiss and his wife, Daphi Levy-Weiss, live in the Israeli city of Ramat HaSharon with their three young children.[7]
References
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