Jane Walerud
Swedish entrepreneur and investor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jane Christine Walerud Boreta (born 13 November 1961) is a Sweden-based entrepreneur and investor.[1] She has been involved in over 15 startups[2] since the early 2000s, including Klarna, Bluetail, Tobii Technology,[3] Teclo Networks, and GraphMaTech. She is member of The Swedish Government Innovation Council.
Early life
Career
Walerud worked as a Sales Manager at Erlang Systems in 1997. She left in 1998 to co-found Bluetail, a company which developed all of its products in Erlang. It was then sold for $152 million to Alteon Networks.[4]
In 2004, she met Sebastian Siemiatkowski, founder of Klarna and invested €60,000 for 10% of the company.[5] She also introduced the founders to a team of programmers who helped them build their platform in exchange for 37% shares.[6][7]
Walerud started Teclo Networks with a new team in 2010. They developed a technology to increase the speed of mobile broadband. After six years, she and her other co-founders sold Teclo Networks to Sandvine.[8]
In 2016, Walerud invested in a real time digital coach for runners and cross-country skiers called Racefox.[9] She invested 6 million SEK in the company and became one of the board members. In 2018, she invested in a functionalized graphene company named Graphmatech.[10]
She also formed her own venture company called Walerud Ventures together with her husband, Bengt, and their daughter, Caroline.[11] They join pre-seed and seed companies focusing on high technology such as artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and durability.
Awards
In 2015, Jane was elected into SUP46s Swedish Startup Hall of Fame.[12]
In 2017 she was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.[13]
Sweden's Business Week named her one of the most powerful women in Sweden in 2017,[14] 2018,[15] 2019,[16] and 2020.[17]
In 2019, she was awarded H.M. The King's Medal for her significant efforts in Swedish business.[18]