Hannes Blum

Partner, Acton Capital

Dr. Hannes Blum is a Partner for Acton Capital, a Munich based VC fund focused on SaaS and consumer internet. He currently serves on the Board of four companies (Aluula which is listed at the TSX.V under the symbol AUUA.V, Maple in Toronto, as well as Codename Entertainment and Category 12 in Victoria) and is an active Angel Investor. Previous exits under his guidance at Acton Capital include Toronto-based Knix (sold to Essity) and Chef’s Plate (sold to Hello Fresh), Vancouver-based Mobify (sold to Salesforce) and NYC-based Eloquii (sold to WalMart).

He started his career with The Boston Consulting Group in Germany and founded his first company (JustBooks GmbH) with colleagues of his Ph.D. program in 1999. After selling his business to AbeBooks.com, he was asked to take over as CEO of AbeBooks which brought him and his family to Victoria, Canada, in 2003. After acquiring 5 companies, he sold AbeBooks to Amazon in 2008 and stayed on as a VP for Amazon until May 2015. He won several industry awards during his tenure at AbeBooks and Amazon, including Entrepreneur of the Year in the Consumer Category Pacific Region from Ernst & Young.

He holds a Masters degree in Business and Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe and a Ph.D. in Business, Controlling, and Logistics from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.