Jostein Svendsen

Jostein is a highly regarded serial entrepreneur in Europe and North America, having founded and grown several successful companies in digital media, digital financial services and digital commerce. In 1994 and 1995 he founded two of Norway’s leading multimedia and Internet companies, both of which went on to become successful publicly traded issuers in Sweden. One of them grew to become one of the worlds largest internet development agencies, with 2000 employees worldwide. After two years in Silicon Valley, Jostein moved to London in 1998 to establish Sharepeople, one of the world’s first multi-market online stockbrokers. With investment from Goldman Sachs, Soros, GE Capital and others, Sharepeople grew to become the second best-known financial service brand in the UK after Barclays Bank. The company was acquired by American Express in 2000 and renamed American Express Financial Services Europe. In 2002, Jostein helped launch a new credit card and savings bank in Norway, which quickly became the first branchless/online-only bank in the Norwegian market. The bank was acquired by Banco Santander in 2005. In 2011 he co-founded WeVideo in Silicon Valley, and raised 20 million dollars in venture funding. WeVideo is now one of the worlds leading cloud based video creation platforms with tens of millions of users worldwide, and an important position in US schools. In 2015 he co-founded Jaja Finance in London, UK which is now one UKs leading digital lenders. While he was there the company was named the worlds most innovative credit card company, raised tens of millions of pounds in equity from leading global investors, including 500 million pounds to acquire the Bank of Ireland credit card portfolio in the UK.