Overview

Gender

male

Investor Type

Investment Partner,Angel

Investor Stage

Seed

Mr. Fries founded Ecosystem Ventures in December of 2005 to address the pending need for investment and support in European technologies and pre-seed-stage companies. Mr. Fries began his career as a telecommunications analyst for Credit Suisse, and went on to build and prepare MCI WorldCom in Switzerland for the European telecommunications liberalization.

Mr. Fries then moved on to work as Executive Vice President of sales and marketing for Advance Visual Communications, a Boston-based venture-backed content company sold to USWeb, and as a senior market manager for Europe and Latin America at the Lucent Technologies Wireless Broadband Division.

Mr. Fries brings over 20 years of progressive experience in founding, funding, and managing global businesses that provide technology, products, and services to telecommunication operators, enterprises, and consumers. His most recent entrepreneurial experiences include the co-founding of Playspan Inc (e-commerce & mirco-payment platform for online gaming) and sold to VISA International in 2011 , SDK Biotechnologies Inc. (Diagnostics) and PURE SWISS AG (Beverage brand). In 2001 Mr. Fries also co-founded the ETH spin-off SVOX AG, a venture-backed company in Switzerland, where he led the marketing, business development, and strategic partnerships teams and sold to Nuance Communications Inc in 2011.

Mr. Fries is founder of the European-American Angels Club, a Silicon Valley-based organization that actively invests in European Start-ups. He also heads the Club Entrepreneur, a sub-chapter of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce in Northern California, where he is also a member of the Board of Directors. In 2010, Mr. Fries was also appointed to the Board of the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, the first of its kind in Switzerland.

Mr. Fries received a BA in finance and an M.B.A. in telecommunications and international marketing from the University of San Francisco. Prior to moving to the United States, Mr. Fries accomplished a Swiss Banking Diploma at UBS. He has lived in Hong-Kong, Switzerland, Chile, and the USA, and speaks fluent German, Spanish, French, and English. This background allows Mr. Fries to interact professionally in a multilingual, multicultural business environment.