Investment Director

The organisation

It has been an important and eventful first year for Sanoma Digital. The newly formed business unit is part of a matrix organization, together with Sanoma Media Netherlands and Sanoma Media Finland. It oversees the pure-play digital businesses and their development, spearheading the digital transformation of Sanoma.

Sanoma takes the need for innovation very seriously and realizes that rapid changes in technology, business models and consumer expectations are driving a constant demand for investment in the latest ideas and business models, both internally and externally. Sanoma Ventures is investing in external start-up and growth companies. The focus has been on The Netherlands and Finland, but moving forward we will be looking on an international scale.

The Sanoma Ventures Portfolio 1 is now closed and they invested in 15 promising tech start-ups, which represent the beginnings of a sizable and attractive new revenue base. In return for capital, media coverage and expertise, Sanoma Ventures took an equity stake and supports the growth journey of the business. Sanoma Ventures has invested in a very broad range of start-ups, including Peerby (a social sharing platform that is now being launched in the US), Locals United (an e-commerce platform for local fashion stores), and Scoupy (offering discount coupons).

The Sanoma Ventures Portfolio 2 will involve later stage rapid growth companies. They will leverage their considerable reach and media base to accelerate the investments. Sanoma aims to internationalize these opportunities and will be looking for companies they can partner with to boost the core business or drive growth beyond the core.

The position

The Investment Director will set the framework for future investments, supervise deal origination, strategic and financial due diligence and the process of acquisition.

Tasks & responsibilities

The best investment is the one that, five years from now, turns out to be the perfect connection between media, marketing, e-commerce and education. Fully monetizable on mobile, social and video, of course. It’s your job to run into that.

To make sure that happens, you set a strategic framework that maximizes the chance of success. You coach your team of 5 professionals (spread out over Hoofddorp and Helsinki) in their work of trend watching, target identification, spiking the interest of the targets, negotiation, closing and continuous monitoring, leveraging and supporting the portfolio companies that you have connected into the Sanoma domain.

Candidate profile

We’d like to see a cross-over between first tier strategy consulting, hands-on entrepreneurial experience in the online space and, ideally, venture capital experience. If we have to miss out on the VC experience, at least we’re expecting a substantial portion of your consulting experience to be in commercial due diligence, leveraged with the financial aptitude to read a balance sheet with your eyes closed.

Interested?

You can apply to this position by using the form below.