Jérémie Berrebi
Co-Founder (2010–2015) at Kima Ventures
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Co-founder of Kima Ventures (2010-2015), a prolific seed fund that deployed $150K checks across 300+ startups. Portfolio concentrated in fintech (29%), productivity/SaaS (21%), and consumer/gaming (21%). Notable exits: Wise ($1B valuation), Carta, Front, and Seene (to Snapchat). Currently inactive as investor.
Background
Jérémie Berrebi (born June 4, 1978 in Paris, France) is a French-Israeli serial entrepreneur and angel investor 1. He has been a serial entrepreneur since 1996, when he became a French editor at ZDNet 1. In 1997 he co-founded Net2one, one of the first French internet news providers, which he sold to TNS Group in 2004 2. He also served as CEO and Chairman of Zlio.com, a social shopping platform 2.
Berrebi co-founded several startups including Producteev (task management, sold to Jive Software in 2012), Leetchi (online group payments, sold to Crédit Mutuel Arkéa in 2015), FreshPlanet (mobile gaming, creator of SongPop), iAdvize (conversational marketing), and EverContact/Kwaga 1 2.
In March 2010, Berrebi co-founded Kima Ventures with French telecom billionaire Xavier Niel 3. The firm’s name combines the first two letters of each co-founder’s first name 4. Berrebi led Kima Ventures for five years, during which the fund invested in over 300 startups across 26+ countries 2 5. In May 2015, Berrebi departed Kima Ventures 5. He subsequently founded Magical Capital, a family office and investment fund that advises family offices and corporates on investments, acquisitions, and digital transformation 2.
Berrebi was named Best Angel/Seed Investor in Europe at The Europas 2014 2. He was also recognized as one of the top 10 most influential technology investors in Europe by The Telegraph 2. In 2011, Business Insider named Xavier Niel and Berrebi the world’s most active business angels 6. He currently lives in Bnei Brak, Israel 2.
Stated Thesis
During his time at Kima Ventures, Berrebi’s publicly stated approach was sector-agnostic, stage-agnostic, and geography-agnostic. The firm’s website describes itself as backing “2 startups per week” with standardized $150,000 checks, investing in “any stage, deal size & sector” 7.
Berrebi has publicly stated that he believes in backing founders with clear vision and strong execution ability. On his personal blog, he writes that “an idea is worth nothing; execution is everything,” emphasizing that recruitment, iteration, and persistence matter far more than concepts 2.
He has advised founders to bootstrap initially, build a minimum viable product by removing as many features as possible, use freelancers for difficult tasks, and only seek funding after achieving proven market fit 8. He recommends founders measure three key performance indicators including retention daily rather than raising money too early 8.
Kima Ventures operated with a preference for “simple projects that answer simple needs” and required startups to have at least two co-founders 3.
Inferred Thesis
Note: Berrebi’s personal investment activity is difficult to separate from Kima Ventures’ portfolio during his tenure (2010–2015). He has been publicly inactive as an investor since departing Kima, stating on his website that he is “not currently investing” due to involvement in too many portfolio companies creating unavoidable overlap risks 2. The analysis below is based on 14 verified investments made during his Kima Ventures tenure and co-founded companies.
Stage distribution: All 14 verified investments were at the seed stage, consistent with Kima Ventures’ stated model of $150K seed checks 7.
Sector breakdown (based on 14 verified investments): - Fintech/payments: 4 of 14 (29%) — Wise, Carta, Leetchi, ZooZ - Productivity/SaaS: 3 of 14 (21%) — Rapportive, Front, Producteev - Consumer/gaming: 3 of 14 (21%) — FreshPlanet/SongPop, The Sandbox, Seene - Developer tools/AI: 2 of 14 (14%) — Algolia, PredictionIO - Hardware: 1 of 14 (7%) — Formlabs - Email/communication: 1 of 14 (7%) — Sparrow
Geographic patterns: Investments span multiple countries including France, UK, US, and Israel, consistent with Kima’s stated global approach.
Check size: Standardized at approximately $150,000 per investment via Kima Ventures 7.
Exit track record: Notable exits include Sparrow to Google (2012), Rapportive to LinkedIn (2012), Producteev to Jive Software (2012), Leetchi to Crédit Mutuel Arkéa (2015), Seene to Snapchat (2016), PredictionIO to Salesforce (2016), and Chartio to Atlassian (2021) 2 9.
Notable gap: Despite Kima Ventures’ claim of being sector-agnostic, Berrebi’s verified portfolio shows a concentration in fintech and productivity/SaaS, with limited representation in healthcare, biotech, or cleantech.
Current status: Berrebi appears to be inactive as an investor. His personal website states he is not currently investing 2, and Signal NFX shows zero recorded investments under Magical Capital 10.
Portfolio
Based on 14 verified investments, primarily made through Kima Ventures (2010–2015). This represents a fraction of the 300+ investments Berrebi claims to have made directly or indirectly 2; only independently verifiable entries are included.
| Company | Year | Stage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sparrow | ~2011 | Seed | 11 |
| Rapportive | ~2011 | Seed | 12 |
| FreshPlanet (SongPop) | ~2012 | Seed | 3 |
| Producteev | ~2010 | Co-founded | 13 |
| Leetchi | ~2010 | Co-founded | 14 |
| Formlabs | ~2011 | Seed | 15 |
| Wise (TransferWise) | ~2012 | Seed | 16 |
| Carta (eShares) | 2013 | Seed | 17 |
| Front | ~2014 | Seed | 18 |
| ZooZ | ~2012 | Seed | 3 |
| Algolia | ~2013 | Seed | 4 |
| Seene | ~2013 | Seed | 19 |
| PredictionIO | ~2013 | Seed | 20 |
| The Sandbox | ~2012 | Seed | 21 |
| Chartio | ~2012 | Seed | 9 |
In Their Own Words
Berrebi has stated on his personal blog: “An idea is worth nothing; execution is everything.” He emphasizes that what matters is the ability to recruit, execute, iterate, and persist over time 2.
On NDAs, Berrebi has stated that he systematically refuses to sign non-disclosure agreements when approached about projects, explaining that his involvement in numerous portfolio companies creates unavoidable overlap risks 2.
Regarding the Sparrow acquisition by Google in 2012, Berrebi commented publicly that “not ONE article says the truth” about the deal, and stated that “it’s impossible to build and sell a great company when you’re looking to sell too fast” 22.
When departing Kima Ventures in 2015, Berrebi stated: “To participate in the journey of more than 300 startups has been a real pleasure and an enormous positive experience!” 5.
What Founders Say
Mathilde Collin, co-founder of Front, described her experience raising seed capital from European investors including Kima Ventures. She noted that Kima Ventures was one of only two European VCs who responded to her outreach, stating: “Only two of them found the time to get back to me, and incidentally, both agreed to invest.” She contrasted European fundraising timelines of 3–6 months with the 21 days it took to close her $3.1 million round in the US 18.
No other independently sourced founder testimonials specifically about Berrebi’s personal involvement were found. His personal website and firm testimonials exist but could not be independently verified.
Sources
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Alchetron, “Jeremie Berrebi,” accessed March 2026. https://alchetron.com/Jeremie-Berrebi↩↩↩
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Berrebi.org, “About me,” accessed March 2026. https://www.berrebi.org/index.php/about-jeremie-berrebi/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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TechCrunch, “Sparrow, The Beautiful Mac Email Client Flies Into The Mac App Store — And Into Funding,” February 2011, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/09/sparrow-mac-mail-app/↩
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Rude Baguette, “Rapportive acquired by LinkedIn - Score one for Kima Ventures!,” February 2012, accessed March 2026. https://www.rudebaguette.com/en/2012/02/grenade-fishing/↩
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TechCrunch, “Jive Software Acquires Meetings.io and Producteev,” November 2012, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2012/11/05/jive-software-acquires-meetings-io-and-producteev-to-enhance-social-platform-with-real-time-messaging-and-task-management/↩
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TechCrunch, “Group gift service Leetchi scores funding from Kima Ventures and 360 Capital Partners,” February 2010, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2010/02/22/group-gift-service-leetchi-scores-funding-from-kima-ventures-and-360-capital-partners/↩
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Wise blog, “Wise raises 1.3M USD from smart investors,” accessed March 2026. https://wise.com/gb/blog/meet-our-new-smart-investors↩
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Tracxn, “Carta Funding Rounds & List of Investors,” accessed March 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/carta/__V1hV7ojDYw3mZRmuhDRwzqzQuRYFIGKhx-hVWrglBhs/funding-and-investors↩
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Tech.eu, “The difference between raising early-stage capital in the US vs. Europe: A founder’s perspective,” November 2014, accessed March 2026. https://tech.eu/2014/11/06/difference-raising-seed-capital-us-europe/↩↩
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TechCrunch, “Snapchat secretly acquires Seene,” June 2016, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/03/snapchat-secretly-acquires-seene-a-computer-vision-startup-that-lets-mobile-users-make-3d-selfies/↩
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TechCrunch, “Salesforce Acquires PredictionIO To Build Up Its Machine Learning Muscle,” February 2016, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2016/02/19/salesforce-acquires-predictionio-to-build-up-its-machine-learning-muscle/↩
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Gilion VC Mapping, “Kima Ventures,” accessed March 2026. https://vc-mapping.gilion.com/vc-firms/kima-ventures↩
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TechBaguette, “Kima Ventures’ Jeremie Berrebi says no journalists wrote true Sparrow story,” July 2012, accessed March 2026. https://techbaguette.com/2012/07/22/sparrow-truth/↩