Carsten Maschmeyer

Carsten Jens Maschmeyer (born May 8, 1959 in Bremen, Germany) is a German businessman, investor, speaker, author and panel-member of the German version of the TV-show "Shark Tank" ("Die Höhle der Löwen"). He is the founder and owner of the Maschmeyer Group which combines all of his current commercial activities. With ALSTIN (Alternative Strategic Investments), he invests growth capital in emerging industries and future markets with outstanding innovations in sectors like the Internet, technology, and life-science. Through Paladin Asset Management his team undertakes value-investments in publicly listed companies. With Seed & Speed, Maschmeyer provides seed investments to very early-stage companies.

Maschmeyer grew up in Hildesheim (Lower Saxony, Germany) and lived under poor conditions. He never saw his father and lived in an orphanage. He has one half-brother, whom he first met at the age of 40. As a teenager, he was a successful athlete (middle-distance-runner). In 1978, he completed his Abitur (higher-education entrance qualification) and joined the German Armed Forces for two years. In order to be able to finance his subsequent education in medicine in Hannover, he worked concurrent with his studies in the sales department of a financial advisory firm (OVB Vermögensberatung) before committing to financial consultancy on a full-time basis in 1982. He became Country Director of Lower Saxony at a very young age, responsible for approximately 3,000 salespeople. He worked at OVB until 1987.

In 1988, Carsten Maschmeyer established an independent financial advisory for private households founding the financial group AWD (Allgemeiner Wirtschaftsdienst). His company grew rapidly and became Europe's largest independent financial advisor. It successfully entered the stock market in 2000, rising in the M-DAX (member of the 100 listed companies) as well as expanding into eleven countries employing approximately 11,000 people and managing 15 billion EUR (USD 22 billion) for 2 million customers in 2007. In 2007 Swiss Life, the largest Swiss Life Insurance provider, bought the entire company for CHF 1,9 billion (approx. USD 2.1 billion)

Maschmeyer presently maintains significant holdings in a variety of companies. In a recent study about the fastest growing startups in Germany, his private equity fund is the only one invested in two companies that were ranked in the top 10. Maschmeyer is number 112 in the list of the 500 richest Germans. His assets are estimated at EUR 1.2 billion (approx. USD 1.3 billion).

HMNC Brain Health

HMNC Brain Health (HMNC) specializes in the development of innovative diagnosis of and therapies for depression and anxiety disorders. Together with partners from academia, the company uses prominent research results to generate groundbreaking and marketable concepts. The company was founded by Professor Florian Holsboer and Maschmeyer in December 2010 and is located in Munich, Bavaria. Both founders are dedicated to the aim of optimizing the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders.

Syntellix AG

Syntellix AG is an internationally active medical technology company based in Hannover experiencing dynamic growth worldwide. The company specializes in the research, development and marketing of highly innovative bio-absorbable metal implants, i.e. a second surgery to remove implants would no longer be required. The devices have all the properties and stability of a metal however, they are fully absorbed by the body and replaced by body's own bone tissue. The company is currently active in 16 countries worldwide and has approval for the whole European Union and Singapore. Patients have already been fitted with Syntellix devices in more than 3,500 operations, and it was awarded with the German Award for innovation (Deutscher Innovationspreis).

papagei.com

Maschmeyer also founded papagei.com, the world's biggest video language learning platform with more than 10,000 original-language videos and over 120,000 interactive exercises from the most diverse subject areas available. The Hannover-based, international company has been awarded several prizes for its unique language learning solutions (Comenius Award, International E-Learning Award, the Worlddidac Award, the German educational media prize "digita", the "INNOVATION PRIZE IT" by Initiative Mittelstand and the "Top 100" award for highly innovative companies). In 2015, together with CNN, the number one international TV news channel, papagei globally launched a joint innovative English language learning product.

Orderbird

Orderbird is the provider of a cash register system used by restaurants. The system is based on iPad technology and is used by more than 5,000 eateries in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In the 4th quarter of 2014 Concardis (MasterCard) joined as new strategic investor. Orderbird received accolades from the Financial Times in 2012.

Blacklane

Maschmeyer first invested in Blacklane, a worldwide booking platform for chauffeur-driven limousines with taxi-like low pricing, in January 2013. Blacklane was recognized as Germany’s fastest growing tech startup in March 2015. Maschmeyer’s investment company, ALSTIN, invested in Blacklane again in August 2016, in Blacklane’s biggest funding round to date, along with previous investors Daimler, RI Digital Ventures and b-to-v.

nu3

nu3 is Europe's leading e-commerce platform for nutritional supplements. The company offers more than 6,500 products in the fields of natural food, losing weight, sports, health and beauty. The Berlin-based company has a presence in 10 countries including Brazil and Scandinavia. nu3 has won several national and international awards, and was recently ranked as one of the top 10 of fastest growing startups in Germany.

Today, Carsten Maschmeyer also advises decision-makers on strategies in numerous businesses, e.g. large European banks and insurance companies. Due to his success, he is a very popular speaker in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, mostly on topics like entrepreneurship, investments, sales, communication, networking, marketing, success and mental power. Maschmeyer became a bestselling author with his book titled "Selfmade - erfolg reich leben" which is about the fundamental rules of success. The book is presently in its 7th edition. Additionally, his second book "Die Millionärsformel – Der Weg zur finanziellen Unabhängigkeit" became also a bestseller within in the first days.

Maschmeyer is an honorary senator of the Leibniz University in Hannover and a freelance lecturer at the International School of Management in Munich. At both institutions, Maschmeyer finances scholarships. Motivated by his personal interest in psychology and neurology, he promotes the "Neurological Learning" project at the University of Hildesheim and he co-founded the international "Neurobionic" foundation. He also finances a professorship at the Music College in Hannover. Moreover, Maschmeyer supports several charity projects and initiatives aimed at helping children. For example, he founded the "AWD Kinderhilfe", having paid all costs in order to ensure that every Euro spent will be given to the projects, "Herz für Kinder". In recent years, he gave the largest single donation, 1 million EUR (approx. USD 1.1 million), that has ever been received. He also donated a helicopter to the Johanniter-Orden, a voluntary humanitarian organization, and supports the ALS-Gala, Sean Penn’s "J/P Haitian Relief Organization", Surgeon-Congress and HOPE Cape Town against AIDS, the Elton John AIDS Foundation. In 2015, Maschmeyer shared his private house in Hannover with two Syrian refugee-families for several months in order to help them build new lives in Germany. He provides online-language learning programs to refugees for free.

Maschmeyer announced his participation on the German version of the TV-show "Shark Tank" ("Die Höhle der Löwen") at channel VOX and produced by Sony Pictures Television. The show is the German derivative of the US-show "Shark Tank". Entrepreneurs present their business ideas to five "lions". If the presenters convince the "lions", they invest their own money and in return get shares of the company.

Bank Safra Sarasin

Maschmeyer was a litigant in a legal dispute against Bank Safra Sarasin, along with several prominent investors. Together with other investors, he invested 40 million Euros in a fund (Sheridan fund) that was offered by Bank Safra Sarasin. Unbeknownst to the investors, the fund was based on illegal tax refunds. After several claims, the bank refunded Maschmeyer.

MLP

As CEO of AWD, Maschmeyer's vision was a merger between AWD and MLP, a German financial advisor. In 2008, he held 26.74% of MLP-shares, however, the takeover failed. Afterwards, MLP accused Maschmeyer of having violated obligations to report, but did not succeed.

Maschmeyer maintains residences in Munich and Hannover, Germany; Côte d´Azur, France and Beverly Hills, United States. He has been married to the German actress Veronica Ferres since 2014 and is the father of two sons from a previous marriage, and a stepdaughter. Maschmeyer has an art collection which includes works by Damian Hirst, Andreas Gursky, David Reed, Daniel Richter, Thomas Ruff, Steve McQueen, David LaChapelle, Anselm Kiefer and Igor Mitoraj.