Daniel Simon Aegerter (born July 20, 1969) is a Swiss businessman and venture capitalist. Formerly founder and CEO of

Tradex Technologies Tradex Technologies Inc. was a developer of Java (programming language), Java-based B2B e-commerce software. It primarily operated in the industries of financial services, telecommunications, plastics, and foodservice. It offered a platform for ve ...

, he later founded Armada Investment AG to manage his wealth. He was an early investor in

Nutmeg (company) Nutmeg is an online discretionary investment management company or robo-adviser based in London. The company was founded in April 2011 and is registered in the United Kingdom as Nutmeg Saving and Investment Limited. Nutmeg is an online discret ...

, N26,

Lilium GmbH Lilium Aerospace GmbH is a German aerospace company which is the developer of the Lilium Jet, an electrically powered personal air vehicle capable of VTOL flight. History Lilium was founded in 2015 by four engineers and PhD students at the ...

, and

Commonwealth Fusion Systems Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is an American fusion power company founded in 2018 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after a spin-out from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Its stated goal is to build a small fusion power plant ba ...

Early life

Daniel Aegerter was born in

Bern, Switzerland Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

. His father, Simon, is a physicist and the founder of the Swiss Science Center Technorama. His mother, Irene, is also a physicist and a former member of the Swiss Commission for Nuclear Safety.

Career

At the age of 18, Aegerter founded his first company, Megabyte. In 1988, at the age of 19, Aegerter founded Dynabit, an importer and distributor of

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

peripherals, particularly for those used in

electronic publishing Electronic publishing (also referred to as e-publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. It also includes the ed ...

. At that time, he was working as an intern for

Swiss Bank Corporation Swiss Bank Corporation (French language, French: ''Société de banque suisse''; German language, German: ''Schweizerischer Bankverein'') was a Swiss Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company located in Switzerland. Prio ...

. He received a loan of 250,000

Swiss franc The Swiss franc, or simply the franc, is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) iss ...

s from Zug Cantonal Bank. In 1990, he moved to

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

(Florida) with his wife to start a computer trading business. In 1996, he founded

as an Internet-based system for automating the purchase of computer equipment distributed by Dynabit. In December 1999, SAP Ariba agreed to acquire the company for $1.9 billion in stock. By the time the deal closed in March 2000, the stock was worth $5.6 billion and Aegarter was a

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

on paper. After the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

burst, Aegarter's fortune dwindled to 500 million Swiss francs. He formed Armada Investment Group, a

family office A family office is a privately held company that handles investment management and wealth management for a wealthy family, generally one with at least $50–100 million in investable assets, with the goal being to effectively grow and transfer ...

to manage his wealth. He capitalized the company with $120 million. Aegerter was a member of the Board of Directors of euNetworks from 2010 to 2018 and of

from 2012 to 2019. He funde
Emergency Reactor
co-founded by activist Zion Lights and Robert Stone. Aegerter is a member of World Minds.

Personal life

Aegerter is married and has 2 sons. He owns a $12 million mansion in Zumikon.

Sponsorships

In July 2019, the "Medium Goal" tournament, both founded and sponsored by Daniel Aegerter, took place for the 14th time.

Nuclear power

In February 2017, Aegerter and other investors invested a total of USD 4.5 million in the startup Transatomic Power. He is also an investor in Oklo, designer of the

Aurora nuclear reactor The Aurora powerhouse is an advanced fission plant concept design that received a site use permit for testing in 2020 from the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The site use permit, issued in December 2019 is not a Nuclear Regulatory Commi ...

Armada VC investments

Aegerter's investment firm "Armada VC" invested a total of $3 million in Flytrex in January 2017, along with several angel investors, to enable drone deliveries. Armada Investment participated in a collection campaign of the German pension platform Xpension in April 2020. A total of 25 million EUR was raised. In October 2020, Armada Investment supported the Swiss regulator, which was close to approval.

Movies

In 2020, the film " Chasing the Moon", of which Aegerter was one of the producers, was awarded a Creative Arts Emmy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aegerter, Daniel 1969 births Living people Swiss businesspeople Swiss-German people People from Bern Swiss billionaires