Mika Salmi

Director

Mika is a serial entrepreneur and active early stage venture investor.

He is currently based in Zurich and is Venture Partner of Lakestar Advisors, one of Europe’s largest venture capital firms. From 2020 to 2024, he was the Managing Partner of Lakestar and ran the overall business and oversaw its three offices in Zurich, Berlin and London.

From 2014 to 2019, Mika served as a Senior Advisor to The Raine Group LLC, a global merchant bank focused on technology, media and telecommunications. From 2012 to 2014 Mika served as the founding CEO of CreativeLive, a San Francisco, California-based online education company backed by Greylock Partners, SocialCapital and Virgin. In 2009, Mika founded Mad Races, a mobile location-based sports tracking company that was sold to Betaworks in 2010.

In 1998, Mika founded Atom Entertainment Inc., a pioneer in online entertainment encompassing three brands – AtomFilms, Shockwave and AddictingGames. These were some of the most popular web sites at the time and were the first to embrace short form content. He led the sale of the company in 2006 to Viacom (now Paramount Global). Following the sale, he continued with Viacom, serving as the President, Global Digital Media from 2006 to 2009, where he managed global operations, strategy and led all digital relationships and transactions. He served on the executive committee at Viacom and ran a multi-billion dollar business with over 1,500 employees, 30 brands, 400 websites and 80 mobile channels.

Mika has served on a number of corporate boards of directors and currently serves as Chairman of the Advisory Counsel of INSEAD, the global business school with locations in France, Singapore, UAE and San Francisco. Mika earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1987 and a Master of Business Administration degree from INSEAD in 1992.