International investor and entrepreneur Nicole Junkermann is a fantastic ROLE MODEL of what women can achieve through hard work, self-belief and resilience! From her early entrepreneurial days to becoming the Founder of international finance and investment company, NJF Holdings, Nicole’s knowledge, determination and sheer will has led her to extraordinary success. Through NJF Capital, the venture arm of her company, she continues to grow her dynamic portfolio with exciting investments in deep technology and healthcare. In 2018, Nicole was appointed by the Secretary of State to the Department of Health and Social Care’s Healthtech Advisory Board, which advises the UK Government on its mission to transform technology in the National Health Service. Nicole is a prime example of believing in yourself and moving forward into your destiny.
FWM: Nicole, it is my great pleasure to interview you! Please introduce yourself to our readers.
NJ: It’s a pleasure to meet you too! I am an entrepreneur, investor, and the founder of NJF Holdings, an international finance and investment company. I am based in London, but throughout my career I have lived and worked across Europe (I was born in Germany and grew up in Spain), the US (where I studied), and Asia.
From starting out my career as an entrepreneur, to my transition to being an investor, I have developed an understanding of the investment world from sitting across both sides of the table. Having founded and built my own businesses, I learnt first-hand the challenges of running and growing a profitable company. Now as an investor, I draw on this experience to identify visionary like-minded companies and entrepreneurs which I can support and help guide along their journeys.
Further, I have learnt valuable lessons from working internationally with a range of businesses across different sectors and countries. In particular, interacting with different business cultures has been a real competitive advantage throughout my career. These factors coupled with my wholistic approach to analyzing businesses and investment opportunities has allowed me to anticipate market trends and take decisions to stay ahead of the curve.
For example, through NJF Capital, the venture capital arm of NJF Holdings, I was very early in investing in both the healthcare and biotech sectors. I have particularly focused on early-stage companies looking to utilize the latest advancements in technology – such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning – to make much-needed breakthroughs in their fields. Although these are risky sectors to invest in, it is great to invest in companies which are tackling some of the most pressing challenges facing society today. As the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, we can clearly see the power and possibilities of investing in these areas.
FWM: How did you become involved in the investment / venture capital industry?
NJ: Although I am today focused on my investment portfolio, I will always see myself as an entrepreneur. And, having had success growing and running my own businesses, it was a natural step for me to move into investing.
I think by having been on the same journey as the companies I invest in, I am able to offer them a different perspective to other investors. For example, I know how hard it is for entrepreneurs in early-stage companies to be responsible for strategy, operations, fundraising, recruitment, product development etc. when you don’t have a team around you and are working 18 hours a day, seven days a week to launch your business with a limited budget.
I have been there myself and really try to help entrepreneurs focus on what is really important – building a great team and a great product around an inspiring vision and robust business model. Furthermore, I moved into the investment world because it provides a great opportunity to learn from inspiring people and their ideas. When I invest, I am really investing in people and their vision, and I learn a huge amount from this.
In term of my path to becoming an entrepreneur, I do feel 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 think I have always had the spirit of an entrepreneur and was fortunate to see these traits first-hand growing up in a house where, from a very young age, my parents involved me in their businesses. In fact, my very first job was as a German to Spanish translator for my father and I have extremely fond memories of accompanying him to business meetings as a 12-year-old girl. My upbringing gave me early exposure and insight into the kind of work he did, watching what it takes to set up and run a business successfully. In doing so, this inspired me to forge my own path in the business world.
FWM: What was your first investment?
NJ: One of my first investments was in a company called Infront Sports and Media. The investment was in the sports media rights sector which I enjoy – and which was on the cusp of being disrupted and transformed by technology – and so this was a natural step for me. This is because my very first business, which I started while still writing my university thesis, was an online sports gaming platform. I learnt a huge amount by growing this business from the group up to a successful sale. This was also a business which combined my passions for sports, business, and technology.
As an investor, and later Vice Chairman, of Infront, I played an active role in growing the company into one of the world’s leading sports media rights businesses, before helping manage the successful sale of the company to the private equity group Bridgepoint. The company is still at the forefront of the sports broadcasting market and is today owned by the Dalian Wanda Group. I have continued to closely study this market and it has been fascinating to see how it has grown into the huge mainstream global industry it is today.
FWM: What keeps you motivated?
NJ: Curiosity is one of the key driving forces in my life. I see each day as an opportunity to learn; the more you learn, the more knowledge you have and the more independent and accomplished you become. I have a constant thirst for knowledge and I still love to study. In fact, curious is the first word I would use to describe myself, and I thank my mother and my grandmother for this trait! By having a wide investment portfolio containing some of the brightest minds in their fields, I am lucky to be continuously learning from a range of world-class experts.
I am also motivated in my work by the mission of NJF Holdings to invest in companies trying to solve both fundamental problems facing society today, in areas such as healthcare, artificial intelligence, and climate change, as well as the products and services focused on making people’s lives easier.
One company we have invested in, for example, is Gordian Biotech which has developed a pioneering platform capable of reducing the clinical testing times for the development of new drugs. This example, and there are many more, shows the powerful impact that meaningful investor support can have, and this remains a real motivating factor for me.
In addition, in both my career as an entrepreneur and investor, I love the variety of never doing the same thing for two consecutive days and always having different challenges to solve. There is simply never a dull moment!
FWM: What advice would you give a young woman just starting out in the venture industry?
NJ: There are two key pieces of advice I would give to anyone, whether a young man or woman, when starting out in the venture industry: to persevere and to never stop learning.
Perseverance is essential; failure at some point in your journey is inevitable. From the outset, you need to accept that there are times when you are going to fail, and the key to success is the ability to learn from these failures, adapt quickly, and move forward. It is the same perseverance you would need to succeed for example in the sports world; to be an elite athlete you need real dedication competitiveness, and a determination to always strive to do better.
Second, and equally important, is the hunger to keep learning. I try to learn something new every day across a wide range of interests. In this sense, I am very much a generalist, it is impossible to be an expert in every sector I invest in – nor is this necessary – but I have always tried to learn from the many people I have come across in different cultures and across different sectors. It is this generalist approach that has served me well in being able analyze trends and identify investment opportunities at the right time.
Investors can always learn from the inspirational entrepreneurs they invest in. Entrepreneurs come up with creative, innovative and inspiring solutions to solve today’s problems. They might not always get it right, but you can always learn something from their approach, their mindset, their knowledge, and how they apply it in what they are trying to achieve.
The last piece of advice which is obvious, but perhaps the most important, is to work hard! I very much believe that the entrepreneur’s saying of “the harder you work, the luckier you get” is true. This applies to whatever field you are looking to make your mark in, whether in the venture capital world or otherwise.
FWM: Here in the 21st Century, do you feel that more women are gravitating towards the venture capital industry?
NJ: It is disappointing that in 2020, there is still an unequal representation of women in the venture capital world. For example, in the UK where I’m based, 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 this figure drops to 1% from venture capital funding specifically. Therefore, it is essential that women, on both the entrepreneurial and investment side, need to be supported and encouraged to move into this industry, and the wider investment community must continue working in this area.
However, I do feel that this is changing. One sector that the venture capital industry has been particularly quick to support, and embrace is “Femtech”. Femtech refers to companies using the latest technology to build products designed to improve the lives of women and is a sector in which female-founded businesses are flourishing With the Femtech market forecast to be worth $50bn by 2020, this will be a sector to closely follow and if these predictions materialize, I hope that we will see many more women enter the venture capital industry. At NJF Capital, we have actually invested a company called Elvie, co-founded by Tania Boler in 2014, which is at the forefront of the Femtech revolution. In the last few years, Elvie developed and launched two innovative, award-winning products for women – the world’s first silent, wearable breast pump and the Kegel pelvic trainer, and I look forward to supporting their continued growth.
However, from a personal perspective I have always felt lucky to be a female investor in the venture capital industry. Further, there are plenty of great female role model investors out there who should be an inspiration to future generations.
Admittedly, while there is still much room for improvement, I certainly hope that my daughter and future generations of women do not encounter any kind of barriers when entering any part of the venture capital industry. That is why we must continue to work towards the representation of women, not only in venture capital, but in all industries.
FWM: How do you feel your business is empowering women and your community?
NJ: Firstly, from within my investment portfolio, we have three female-founded businesses which is significantly higher the average percentage mentioned above. One of these is Elvie as I mentioned. The second is Swarm, a satellite company committed to providing accessible, low-cost global connectivity, founded in 2016 by Dr. Sara Spangelo. And the third is a company currently in stealth mode, which seeks to fight climate change by studying and optimizing the energy needs of large industries.
More generally, I believe that the key to empowering women, and any minority group, is to ensure that equal opportunities are always provided to allow people to succeed based on merit alone. As an investor, the last thing I look at when evaluating a potential 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 skills and experience as an entrepreneur and whether I believe they can execute their ideas.
It is obviously important to fight for diversity and ensure the entry of less represented groups into the investment world, but it is essential that decisions are always made entirely on individual merit and this is what I do.
FWM: How can our readers connect with you outside of this interview?
NJ: The team regularly shares updates on NJF Holdings on our website at: www.njfholdings.com and www.njfcapital.com
Nicole Junkermann-Nicole is an international entrepreneur and investor, and founder of the investment company NJF Holdings which has interests in venture capital, private equity, and real estate. Through the company’s venture capital arm (NJF Capital), Nicole oversees a portfolio similar in size to a small venture fund across Europe and the US, including in healthcare, fintech, and deep tech.
Nicole serves on the boards of Shanghai Really Sports, Trilantic Capital Europe, and OWKIN. In November 2018, she was appointed by the Secretary of State to the Department of Health and Social Care’s Healthtech Advisory Board which advises the UK Government on its mission to transform technology in the National Health Service.
Photos courtesy of NJF Holdings
