YS

Yonatan Sela

Entrepreneur turned VC

Tel Aviv District

Invests in

Stages:

Sectors:

Locations:

  • Min Investment:

    $1,000,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $10,000,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $5,000,000.00

Education

Work Experience

  • Partner

    2020

    Square Peg is a founder-centric VC, with investments in Canva, Stripe, Fiverr, Airwallex and other category defining companies. We manage ~$3 billion, and invest across stages, with entry point usually around seed to A. I look for outstanding Israeli entrepreneurs to partner with.

2017 - 2021

  • Co-founder & Board member

    2017 - 2021

    We started Props to bring user ownership to today’s popular apps using app tokens. Props' open source protocol empowers 12 million token users across multiple apps to generate wealth by giving them a financial stake in the network they help grow. Popular apps reward contributing users with tokens that serve as programmable "User Capital": unlocking both useful in-app benefits and financial upside. Props received $25 million in funding from Union Square Ventures and others.

2015 - 2018

  • Chief Business Officer

    2016 - 2018

    YouNow was the first mobile live video app to gain traction in the US (>50M users). We also built the first two-sided marketplace run on a virtual currency in the US, grossing $80M to date. The company raised $31M in equity from Venrock, USV, Comcast, Oren Zeev and others, and was acquired by a PE group)

  • SVP Product Strategy & Business Development

    2015 - 2016

2014 - 2015

  • Investor

    2014 - 2015

    Venrock is a venture capital firm with early stage investments in Apple, Intel, Nest, AppNexus and many others. I worked primarily on opportunities in media, blockchain and fintech. Having been involved in the investment in YouNow and working closely with the fantastic team, I decided to join the company's management full time.

  • Consultant

    2013 - 2013

    Worked on the development of a new pricing strategy for a large media and fintech company that provides data and analytics software to financial institutions.

2008 - 2013

  • Founding Team Member, VP Marketing & Product Strategy

    2008 - 2013

    I was part of the core executive team that built an OTT / online video business from the ground up to a team of 65, enabling pay TV operators, broadcasters and other media companies to distribute video across devices. My work was in the intersection of marketing, strategy and product - roadmap debates in the morning and user stories writing at night. In this capacity, I led the company's marketing and managed some off its sales representatives, leading to 8 figures in revenue from customers worldwide (e.g. MTV, Liberty Global, Mediacorp, Orange).

2007 - 2008

  • SAT Instructor

    2007 - 2008

    Lectured to classes of 20-35 students preparing for Israeli SAT-equivalent at Kaplan Israel (Kidum-Lachman)

2002 - 2006

  • Captain

    2002 - 2006