BW

Benoit Wirz

Founding Partner @ Brighteye VC | Early Stage EdTech

London, England

Work Experience

  • Founding Partner

    2017

    Invest in early stage education technology companies with a market in Europe that help people learn and grow. Investments include: Epic!, Ornikar, TeachFX, IronHack, ZenEducate & YouSchool

  • Director / Venture Investments

    2010 - 2017

    -Managed $20M Knight Enterprise Fund making 40+ venture investments in early stage media, edtech, and govtech companies. Investments included: Newsela, Nearpod and Gimlet Media -Analyzed, structured and managed Knight's portfolio of program related investments, focused on early stage social enterprises. -Helped solve business issues facing both the foundation and grantees, primarily around sustainability and growth.

  • Partner

    2006 - 2009

    • Venture capital and private equity investments in energy, manufacturing, real estate and technology companies

  • Vice President Strategic Planning

    2003 - 2006

    • Structured $6 M capitalization of manufacturing company producing hurricane resistant glass in Florida. • Managed sales, customer service, IT and finance with 4 direct and 20 indirect reports. • Developed and implemented turn around strategy, increasing sales from $1 M to $15 M ($1.2 M EBITDA) in three years • Negotiated $10.7 M sale of company to Oldcastle Glass, a division of CRH, Plc.

1998 - 2003

  • Vice President, Business Development

    1998 - 2003

    • Created market demand for over $1.7 B of synfuel tax credits by marketing credits to Fortune 1000 companies. • Marketed 4 synthetic fuel projects sold to Progress Energy for $400 M+ • Developed financial analysis and modeling for $17 Million of passive investments in publicly traded companies in the synfuel industry yielding IRRs of 20-50% • Analyzed and structured $2 M in energy oriented venture capital investments involving large-scale energy storage, power plant optimization software and coal beneficiation.

1998 - 1998

  • Analyst

    1998 - 1998

    Financial analysis for the project finance team at Jefferies focused on infrastructure and transportation projects in emerging markets

  • News Fellow

    1997 - 1998

    Reported on US Congress, White House and the MRTA Hostage Crisis in partnership with correspondents from Japan's leading daily newspaper.