Since co-founding Scale Capital in 2012, Lars Jensen has been managing the investment activities and worked in/with portfolio companies to accelerate growth; leveraging his experience and network in the United States.
Prior to becoming an investor, Lars had a corporate career in Telecoms and Management Consulting, before becoming an entrepreneur in 2008, where he founded, grew and sold two companies. In 2012, Lars co-founded Scale Capital with the idea to support Nordic based founders in their efforts to establish and grow ventures in the US market.
Lars lived in Silicon Valley from 2013-2017, where he help establish Scale Capital’s US operation and worked to help accelerate portfolio companies. Lars is an entrepreneur at heart, who loves to innovate and see companies and people develop and grow. He invests in and advise technology startups on how to build globally scalable companies.
Since co-founding Scale Capital in 2012, Kenneth Grunow has been working on investment activities next to assisting portfolio companies and administrating fund operations.
Prior to Scale Capital, Kenneth worked in commercial real-estate development for 25 years. He has also been running his own M&A broker business where he made more than 80 transactions.
Kenneth has founded four companies in total and made four exits. He is a passionate businessman with a great experience in directing business operations and helping companies internationalize.
Kenneth holds two educations in Board Governance from Strategic Boardroom and Chair Person and has completed a leadership course at FranklinCovey. In addition, Kenneth is a certified M&A adviser at Business House Sealand.
Joachim Schelde is a Senior Investment Associate at Scale Capital, where he is responsible for the origination and execution of investment opportunities and for building partnerships between Scale Capital and relevant investors, advisors, and industry experts.
Prior to joining Scale Capital in September 2020, Joachim worked in management consulting on digitization and transformation projects for two years. Later, he spent time in growth equity investing working on unicorn deals before transitioning to the early-stage game.
Joachim founded his first business at age 17 and has been passionate about entrepreneurship ever since. He is excited about backing bold entrepreneurs who create a positive impact through technology.
Joachim holds a MSc. in Finance and Strategic Management from Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and is a Visiting Student at Harvard University and Singapore Management University.
Terkel Douglas is an Investment Associate at Scale Capital and is an integral part of the fund’s deal-sourcing activities and execution of investments. Terkel is also responsbile for the funds ESG-framework.
Prior to joining Scale Capital, Terkel worked at Danish mutual fund BankInvest. As part of the business development team, he has been involved in the transformation of BankInvests widely recognized sustainable investment efforts, as well as handling their Robo-Investment product, DarwinApp. Before BankInvest, Terkel interned at UK based Private Equity firm Bregal Milestone where he was a part of the deal-sourcing team for Scandinavian mid-cap companies.
Terkel is a strong believer in start-ups ability and potential to make a positive impact on the world. He is a co-founder of The Weavers Nest, an NGO specializing in sustainable tourism and rescuing wild animals near Kaziranga National Park, India.
Terkel is currently pursuing a dual degree Master in Social Science and Economics at the University of Copenhagen (KU), focusing on Private Capital, Sustainable Investment and the role of politics in global finance.
Judith Schrader is an Investment Analyst at Scale Capital and is part of the deal-sourcing team. Judith is also responsible for performing industry research on the funds’ investment verticals and helps grow the funds presence in Germany.
In early 2023, Judith spent 6 months at Scale Capital’s portfolio company Mazepay, working as a Sales Consultant to help open up the DACH region. Prior to joining Scale Capital, she worked at KPMG, helping with the audit of multi-national corporations. Judith also worked at a Danish e-commerce startup, assisting with their seed fundraising round and as a research assistant at Humboldt University of Berlin during her studies.
Judith likes to dive deep into new technologies and ideas that disrupt industries. She loves working with motivated and skilled founder teams that know how to get things done.
Judith holds a BSc. In Business Administration from Humboldt University of Berlin and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Digital Business at Copenhagen Business School.
Sofia Svanqvist is a Junior Investment Analyst at Scale Capital and is a part of the deal-sourcing team. As a Swedish native, Sofia is also responsible for fostering the growth of the fund’s presence in Sweden’s ecosystem.
Prior to joining Scale Capital, Sofia spent three years supporting executive leadership at the largest retail bank in the Nordics with digital transformation, sourcing and strategy. Before this, she interned at one of the leading SaaS Prop-Tech start-ups in the Nordics with a focus on elevating customer experiences and enhancing value creation for different stakeholders.
Sofia is an explorer at heart and initiated her venture at 15, selling strawberries to fund her travels. With a flair for Data & Analytics, Automation and AI, she is a firm believer that entrepreneurship in combination with technical innovations, is the path to bringing a positive and sustainable change to the world.
Sofia holds a bachelor’s degree in International Business and an MSc. in Business Administration and Digital Businesses from Copenhagen Business School (CBS).
Vika Marszalek joined Scale Capital in order to help find Scale’s unique and authentic voice and expand its communication to unfold Scale’s story and vision.
Prior to joining Scale Capital, Vika worked on various projects with different companies to gather experience in solving design & communication challenges. She got a taste of entrepreneurship herself when she joined her friend on a journey of building a company back in 2020.
Vika is a designer at heart, who loves storytelling, communicating authentically, and facilitating a connection between companies and the audience.
Vika holds a bachelor’s degree in Design & Communication from Copenhagen School of Design & Technology (KEA).
Lene Schulze has spent 15+ years in Silicon Valley working for and advising founders, corporate executives, and investors and connecting them and their organizations to attractive business development opportunities, capital, and the latest technology and innovation trends.
Today Lene is leading US-based activities for a global Internet and content service provider, working to provide affordable access to the 3.6B people remaining unconnected. Her responsibilities include building partnerships with some of the world’s largest tech companies and driving new, global revenue opportunities.
Previously Lene worked with corporate innovation and consulting, creating a Silicon Valley innovation outpost for Monitor Deloitte Nordic and running a US subsidiary of a strategy consulting startup. She started her career in Silicon Valley with the Danish government, cofounding their first Innovation Center abroad and building programs for startups, including SCALEit, and joined Nordic colleagues to cofound the first Nordic Innovation House in Palo Alto.
Lene is also an external lecturer at OMNES Groupe’s San Francisco campus, where she teaches on Innovation ecosystems and entrepreneurship. She is a speaker at International Conferences & Summits, including SOCAP, Women’s Forum Global Summit, and Microsoft Airband Summit, and she previously served on the Board of Directors at the Scandinavian School & Cultural Center of San Francisco.
Lene holds an M.Sc. in Engineering, International Technology Management from Aalborg University.
Christian Dalum is co-founder of DANE CAPITAL and have spent more than 20 years in private investments and corporate finance, primarily in the Nordics. He has a proven track record from several buyouts, restructurings and growth capital deals, GP fundraising and secondary processes.
Prior to DANE CAPITAL, Christian was a director in a Danish mid-cap buyout firm and before that he worked for a global listed private equity company.
Christian serves on the board of several companies and is typically involved in driving the ownership agenda across his portfolio companies.
Christian holds an MBA from Fordham Business School in New York, and a bachelor’s degree in Finance from NYU, Stern School of Business in New York.
Fredrik Bentlinger is an experienced investor, partner and chief financial officer from venture capital firms, growth companies as well as larger listed companies. Fredrik has helped startups scale since the dotcom era.
With over 20 years as a C-level executive and board member within tech and managed services companies, Fredrik brings great experience to the companies he advises. Always looking at opportunities though a strategic but pragmatic lens, Fredrik is capable of driving forth people and empowering change.
Fredrik recently served as General Partner at the Bridge140 fund that invested in early-stage tech companies across northern Europe. Over the years Fredrik has built up an extended network of founders, business angels and investors.
Fredrik holds a Bsc. in Finance & Business Administration from Linnaeus University.
Lars Rinnan is a visionary CEO, angel investor, board member, public speaker and futurist from Oslo, Norway. Lars has more than 25 years management experience, and over the course of 7 years has started 6 companies within business intelligence and artificial intelligence, all joined together in Amesto NextBridge.
He is the CEO of Amesto NextBridge and the VP of AI & Robotics for Amesto Group. His entrepreneurial and business experience makes him a valued investor, advisor and board member for startups within AI and exponential technology. Lars is a sought after key note speaker on AI and the future, and an avid writer and blogger, frequently appearing in media and television. He has contributed to 7 books on AI and the future. Lars works best when he can utilize his holistic business view and vast network to spot opportunities and create value.
Lars holds an MBA from Lancaster University (UK) and a BSc. in Business Administration from the Norwegian Institute of Management.
Andy Toth has over 15 years of experience in tech startups, which began with founding his first e-commerce venture in Slovakia in 2008. Moving to Silicon Valley in 2013, he joined Plug and Play’s team and invested in 12 startups, with 5 acquired by giants like Google. By 2016, he established Plug and Play’s Berlin office, backing European and Israeli startups. After 2019, Andy pursued angel investing and currently holds a personal 12-startup portfolio, including Notion and SandboxVR.
While Andy focuses on investing in B2B tech, he also has a soft spot for building and scaling B2C products. Andy is an avid supporter of the European tech scene by being a mentor at Cambridge University and multiple accelerator programs.
Besides investing, Andy has experience in hiring, people management, sales and international expansion. He was an early team member and cofounded several enterprise businesses that, within 6 years, scaled to over 700 employees and surpassed $100M in annual revenue.
Andy holds a Master of Laws degree from Comenius University and studied Software Engineering at CODE University of Applied Sciences.
Lars Barkler is the fund’s ESG Ambassador on climate technologies. Lars helps validate investment opportunities within his core field of expertise and takes part in discussions on how to improve the sustainability factors in Scale Capital’s portfolio companies.
Lars is the former CEO of Lithium Balance, a manufacturer of battery management systems for lithium-ion batteries used in automotive, industrial, and power storage applications.
Prior to joining Lithium Balance in 2007 he was the VP of technology and marketing in Brüel & Kjær. He has also previously served as marketing director in Radiometer Medical.