What inspired the founders to start Semper, and what is their background?

Balthazar: I’ve worked in the tech industry for the past 10 years. I was on the team that launched HelloFresh in the U.S. and then I worked in an accelerator program, investing in companies across Europe, some of which have become very successful.

In all these years, we’ve seen the trends that pushed us to create Semper. These are the same across the U.S. and Europe: the tech ecosystem is doing well, companies are staying private for longer, employees are owning more of the businesses they work for, and that’s creating different liquidity needs for stakeholders. That’s what led us to create Semper. 

Mathias: I was working at the same early-stage accelerator as Balthazar and before that, I had a brief stint at a hedge fund. Prior to that, I tried my hand at building another company called Teech that looked at peer-to-peer tutoring. 

With Semper, I'm rediscovering some of the joys of building a marketplace and more importantly, a team. At Teech, we were 12 at our peak. I aim to quickly eclipse that record and build an awesome team at Semper.