Thor Bjorgolfsson
Angel Investor @ Novator
London, United Kingdom
Thor Bjorgolfsson is a seed investor at Novator in London focused on Big Data and TV. Thor Bjorgolfsson - Entrepreneur, Businessman and Adventure Capitalist Thor Bjorgolfsson, Iceland’s first and only current billionaire, is an investor and business innovator who is not afraid of risk. He has been an entrepreneur since childhood, making his first deal at the age of 10, when he purchased a stack of vintage Marvel comics withborrowed money.In 2004, he founded Novator Partners, an alternative investment firm. He has strategically developed the company to allow it to maintain maximum flexibility as well as to facilitate investments in both strategic (buy and hold) and financial (buy and exit) opportunities.With Novator, Thor leverages private equity as well as macro investments and manages assets across a variety of sectors and geographic locations. He is an active investor in emerging economies including Central and Eastern Europe as well as Latin America.Novator Partners has been a major player in telecom businesses. Thor is a stakeholder in a Polish telecom company called Play, which went public in 2017. In addition, he holds shares in WOM, a Chilean telecommunications firm.Bjorgolfsson’s first fortune was made in post-soviet Russia. At a time when others perceived Russia to be tumultuous, he saw an underserved market that presented an exciting opportunity to invest in great ideas and businesses. He co-founded and developed Bravo Brewery, which produced beer and alcopops. Bravo became one of Russia’s premier brewing companies, particularly through its popular Botchkarov beer brand. Thor sold the business in 2002 to Heineken for $100 million.With the sale of Bravo, he was able to diversify his holdings by reinvesting in new ventures, focusing on telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and banks. In a few years, he was able to turn that $100 million into a net worth of over $2.1 billion.A year after being featured on the 2007 cover of Forbes Magazine, Iceland went nearly bankrupt overnight and Thor found himself at the epicenter of the financial crisis. As a major shareholder in Landsbanki with personal guarantees of 350m euro, he refused to declare bankruptcy and eventually succeeded in paying off all of it. He then went on to invest in new businesses, re-establishing himself and being featured on the Forbes list of billionaires once again.During this time of rejuvenation, he wrote Billions to Bust and Back: How I Made, Lost and Rebuilt a Fortune, And What I Learned on the Way (2014). In the book, he shares his perspective of what it was like to be at the center of the storm and how he made it back to financial success. He proposes that the greatest strength an entrepreneur can possess is a positive attitude.The 52-year-old Thor was educated in the United States where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from New York University. In 2005, he was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In spite of his intense schedule, Thor enjoys sharing his experience and business insight, making him a sought-after speaker. A multilingual Icelandic citizen, Thor spends most of his time in London, living with his wife and three children. Thor's personal passion is his collection of six motorcycles, which he rides whenever time permits.
- Total investments:
- 6
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 67%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Thor Bjorgolfsson invests in
Stages Thor Bjorgolfsson invests in
Countries Thor Bjorgolfsson invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Round size
- Series A
- $26M–$26M
Investment Focus
Stage
- Seed 1 (17%)
- Series A 1 (17%)
- Series C 1 (17%)
- Private Equity 1 (17%)
- Convertible Note 1 (17%)
Country
- United Kingdom 3 (50%)
- Germany 1 (17%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| DNEG provides visual effects, animation, and stereo conversion services for the feature film and television industry. DNEG operates primarily in the film, television, and advertising industries, specializing in visual effects (VFX), animation, and stereo conversion. The company provides a wide range of services including VFX for feature films,episodic television, and commercials. They are known for their expertise in creating realistic and stunning visual effects that enhance storytelling in movies and television shows. | $250M / Private Equity / Aug 18, 2021 | ||
| ATAI is a global biotech company builder that leverages a decentralized, technology- and data-driven platform model to serve millions of people suffering from mental health disorders. The company is committed to acquiring and efficiently developing innovative treatments that address significant unmet medical needs and lead to paradigm shifts in themental health space.ATAI Life Sciences was founded in 2018 and is based in Munich, Bayern, Germany. | $25M / Convertible Note / Apr 27, 2020 | ||
| Olvin helps reactive real-world businesses get ahead of the curve and become proactive through the use of its AI powered, predictive analytics platform. Harnessing billions of real world data points, from events and precise location, through to weather and points of interest, Olvin's advanced neural network identifies patterns. Through theuse of both probabilistic and deterministic scoring, Olvin's AI provides actionable insights to brands, retailers and businesses to give them an unparalleled opportunity to delight their customers, identify opportunities and get ahead of potential threats. | $1M / Seed / Dec 22, 2018 | ||
| Patented data and video compression software initially sold and deployed into the $450bn TV, media and entertainment industry. Using V-Nova’s PERSEUS technology broadcasters can now monetise unmet consumer demand for higher definition video everywhere, on existing devices and infrastructure. | Series C / Oct 18, 2018 | ||
| ATAI is a global biotech company builder that leverages a decentralized, technology- and data-driven platform model to serve millions of people suffering from mental health disorders. The company is committed to acquiring and efficiently developing innovative treatments that address significant unmet medical needs and lead to paradigm shifts in themental health space.ATAI Life Sciences was founded in 2018 and is based in Munich, Bayern, Germany. | $25.5M / Series A / Oct 03, 2018 | ||
| See all 6 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Novator
Novator is an alternative investment firm founded and led by the international investor and entrepreneur Thor Bjorgolfsson. Novator's investment portfolio is focused around following sectors: Telecommunications, Pharmaceuticals, IT and Renewable Energy. In addition, Novator operates a Private Equity Fund and a Credit Opportunities Fund. Novator focuses on developing strong management teams in each of its portfolio companies. While granting them the autonomy to create value, Novator maintains a supervisory role, principally through representation on the Boards of its investee companies. Novator differentiates itself from many other private equity companies in concentrating on complex situations, either by virtue of their structure or their cross-border nature. To create value, Novator undertakes the restructuring or "de-risking" of investment opportunities through re-financing, combining acquired assets with existing businesses, through sale to strategic or financial buyers, or through flotation. Novator's investment portfolio is focused around four main sectors:Telecommunications, Pharmaceuticals, IT and Renewable Energy.
Novator Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Andri Sveinsson
Partner & CFO
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Anna-Kreeta Rantamaa-Hiltunen
Director
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Birgir Ragnarsson
Managing Partner
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Chiehmi Chan
Partner
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Hasan Qureshi
Founder
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FAQ
What does Thor Bjorgolfsson invest in?
Thor Bjorgolfsson invests primarily in Big Data, TV and B2B startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 6 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United Kingdom. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What round sizes does Thor Bjorgolfsson invest in?
Thor Bjorgolfsson typically joins rounds of $26M–$26M at Series A. These are whole funding-round sizes, not Thor Bjorgolfsson's own check, which is rarely disclosed: the 10th–90th percentile of the confirmed public funding rounds Thor Bjorgolfsson took part in.
How do I contact Thor Bjorgolfsson?
Public channels for Thor Bjorgolfsson include X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Thor Bjorgolfsson last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Thor Bjorgolfsson closed in Aug 2021. Shizune tracks 6 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Nov 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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