Hampus Jakobsson

Background

Hampus Jakobsson is a Swedish entrepreneur turned investor, based in Malmö, Sweden ¹. He co-founded The Astonishing Tribe (TAT), a mobile user interface company, in 2002 with five university friends ². TAT built UI software licensed by Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, and others ². BlackBerry (then Research In Motion) acquired TAT in 2010 for approximately $150 million ³⁴. After the acquisition, Jakobsson spent two years at BlackBerry working in mergers and acquisitions for EMEA ²⁵.

Jakobsson left BlackBerry in August 2012 to return to the startup world ⁴. He co-founded Brisk.io, a data-driven sales productivity tool that analyzed CRM, calendar, and email data ². Despite signing clients including LinkedIn, Intercom, and Evernote, the company folded in 2016 due to complex onboarding challenges ².

Following Brisk, Jakobsson became one of Europe’s most prolific angel investors, making over 100 personal investments ¹⁶. He co-founded Nordic Makers, an angel investment collective of prominent Nordic tech founders including David Helgason (Unity) and Klaus Nyengaard (Just Eat) ⁷. He served as a Venture Partner at BlueYard Capital, a Berlin-based science and deep-tech fund ⁶⁸. He also co-founded Malmö Startups, a grassroots organization for the southern Swedish startup community, and served as a mentor at Fast Track Malmö accelerator ⁹¹⁰.

In 2020, Jakobsson co-founded Pale Blue Dot, a seed-stage climate tech venture fund, alongside Heidi Lindvall and Joel Larsson ¹¹¹². He was named Investor of the Year at the Nordic Startup Awards in 2018 ¹³.

Stated Thesis

Jakobsson has publicly described his investment approach as follows:

At Pale Blue Dot, Jakobsson says the fund is “a completely normal vanilla VC fund” that only invests in companies that “scalably can solve the climate crisis” ¹⁴. He frames climate not as a narrow sector but as “a problem reshaping every industry” and argues that electrification “makes processes cheaper, safer, and geopolitically less dependent” ¹⁵.

The fund evaluates investments against three criteria: (1) VC-fit — the company can double within 12 months with single-digit millions of capital; (2) climate impact — the company addresses a major problem with revenue directly tied to climate solutions; and (3) team enthusiasm — at least one founding partner on the Pale Blue Dot team feels genuine excitement about the company ¹⁴.

Jakobsson describes pre-seed investing as fundamentally “about people, not spreadsheets” and says his core evaluation question is: “Do I want to work with these people for 15 years?” ¹⁵. He has stated that he does technology investments and software investments that can scale, and that he prefers investing in marketplaces ¹.

For angel investments, Jakobsson has said: “I like investing in stuff that is close enough to me that I feel I can contribute and add value to them. But far away enough from me that I haven’t done exactly that” ⁵.

Inferred Thesis

Jakobsson’s investment activity spans two distinct phases: a prolific angel investing period (~2012-2020) and his institutional VC activity through Pale Blue Dot (2020-present). The analysis below is based on 26 verified investments.

Stage distribution: Based on 26 verified investments: 22 seed or pre-seed (85%), 3 Series A follow-ons (12%), 1 accelerator investment (4%). Jakobsson operates almost exclusively at the earliest stages.

Sector breakdown: Based on 26 verified investments: 9 climate tech/sustainability (35%), 6 enterprise software/SaaS (23%), 3 health tech (12%), 3 consumer internet (12%), 2 IoT/hardware (8%), 3 other (12%). Climate tech became dominant from 2020 onward through Pale Blue Dot; the earlier angel portfolio was more diversified across software, consumer, and health sectors.

Geographic patterns: Based on Nordic 9 data, 30 of 49 tracked investments (61%) are in Sweden, with the remainder spread across other Nordic countries, the UK, and the rest of Europe ⁹. Jakobsson has stated he prefers EU-based companies but is open to other geographies ⁶.

Check size: Angel investments typically range from $50,000 to $100,000 per startup ¹. Through Pale Blue Dot, the average ticket size is €500,000 to €2 million ¹⁶.

Founder profile patterns: Jakobsson has expressed a preference for founders who are honest and resilient over those who are merely intelligent, noting that “grit is exponentially more valuable” than intelligence ¹⁷. He has stated: “I really tell them, it doesn’t matter if you fail. It matters to me if you lie” ⁵. He has also noted an intentional bias toward investing in women entrepreneurs ⁵.

Co-investor patterns: Jakobsson frequently co-invests with other Nordic angel investors, particularly through Nordic Makers. Named co-investors include David Helgason, Klaus Nyengaard, Sophia Bendz, Tommy Andersen, and Mattias Miksche ⁷¹⁸¹⁹.

Notable gap: Despite his stated interest in marketplaces, the verified portfolio shows relatively few marketplace investments. The portfolio skews toward software tools and deeptech rather than consumer marketplaces.

Portfolio

This table represents Jakobsson’s verified personal angel investments and Pale Blue Dot fund investments where his involvement is confirmed. Jakobsson claims over 100 angel investments ⁶; this table captures 26 (~26%) of those.

Exits: Budbee (logistics tech) exited on September 19, 2022 ⁶. The Astonishing Tribe (as co-founder) was acquired by BlackBerry in 2010 for ~$150M ³.

In Their Own Words

“I believe in planning, but I don’t believe in executing the plan you planned.” — Hampus Jakobsson, Salesflare interview ²

“Don’t build someone else’s company. Build a company you really want to build.” — Hampus Jakobsson, Salesflare interview ²

“If you’re working 80 hours, you’re being super stupid, usually.” — Hampus Jakobsson, Salesflare interview ²

“I think that being an angel investor is kind of like being a parent of a teenager.” — Hampus Jakobsson, Venture Confidential podcast ⁵

“I really tell them, it doesn’t matter if you fail. It matters to me if you lie.” — Hampus Jakobsson, Venture Confidential podcast ⁵

“Investing is like voting with money. I want to invest in stuff that I want to be built.” — Hampus Jakobsson, Survival Tech Club interview ¹⁴

“Receiving interest from the industry matters, but amazing founders choosing us as partners is the biggest vote of confidence and why we get up in the morning.” — Hampus Jakobsson, Tech.eu, May 2023 ¹⁶

“10x your marketing and communication, be more proud, and show your will to change the world. And be more fearless.” — Hampus Jakobsson, Nordic Startup News ¹

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. Jakobsson’s LinkedIn profile includes the recommendation that “Hampus has tremendous product knowledge and offers insight like no other” ²⁸. Pale Blue Dot’s website features portfolio company endorsements, but no independently verifiable founder quotes were located through dedicated search.

Connections

• Co-founder, Nordic Makers — angel investment collective alongside David Helgason (Unity founder) and Klaus Nyengaard (Just Eat former CEO) ⁷
• Board Member, Minut ²²
• Board Member, Aula ²⁵
• Advisor, Nok Recommerce ²²
• Advisor, Futuristic.vc ²²
• Advisor, Mionix ²²
• Co-founder, Malmö Startups — grassroots startup community organization ¹⁰
• Mentor, Fast Track Malmö — startup accelerator ¹⁰
• Former Venture Partner, BlueYard Capital (Berlin) ⁶⁸
• Frequent co-investor with Sophia Bendz (Cherry Ventures) on Nordic deals ²⁵

Sources