Quick Facts
Biography
William Klippgen (born 1969 in Trondheim, Norway) is a Singapore-based Norwegian entrepreneur and technology investor who was a co-founder of the price comparison portal Zoomit.com (later merged with Kelkoo, which was sold to Yahoo! in 2004). He served as one of the judges on the television series Angel's Gate, which was broadcast on Channel NewsAsia in 2012.
Television work
Klippgen served as one of the judges on the reality TV series Angel's Gate, which began broadcasting on Channel NewsAsia in February 2012. The show gives budding entrepreneurs in Asia an opportunity to pitch business ideas to investors. Klippgen was one of four judges on the show alongside Patrick Grove (co-founder of the Catcha Group), Ken Mandel (Managing Director of Buddy Media Asia Pacific) and Karan Singh Thakral (Executive Director of the Thakral Group of Companies).
Business career
Klippgen founded Zoomit.com in 1997 with Per Siljubergsåsen. In 2000, Zoomit.com merged with Kelkoo to become a leading shopping comparison search engine and Europe's third-largest e-commerce site. Kelkoo was acquired by Yahoo! Inc in 2004.
In 2003, Klippgen founded the early-stage investment company Tigris Capital. He also co-founded Singapore seed investment fund BAF Spectrum in 2006, which primarily invests in tech startups across Asia in a co-funding partnership with SPRING Singapore (a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Singapore).
In 2016, he teamed up with British investor Michael R. Blakey to start the super-angel syndicate Cocoon Capital that does seed investments in Southeast Asian online startups within the B2B ecommerce, SaaS & fintech verticals.
Klippgen serves or has served on the boards of Greyloft Pte Ltd, Tickled Media Pte Ltd (theAsianparent.com), Anafore Pte Ltd, Mozat Pte Ltd, Progeniq Pte Ltd and Luxe Nomad Pte Ltd.
Education
Klippgen holds an MSc degree in Engineering Cybernetics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, an MSc in Computer Engineering from Boston University (which he attended on a Fulbright Scholarship), and an MBA from INSEAD Business School.