Hannes Blum

Partner, Acton Capital

Hannes Blum is a partner at Acton Capital, a Munich-based VC fund focused on SaaS and consumer internet. He currently serves on the board of four companies (Aluula, Maple in Toronto as well as Codename Entertainment and Category 12 in Victoria). Hannes 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)

Hannes started his career with The Boston Consulting Group in Germany and founded his first company (JustBooks GmbH) with colleagues in his PhD 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 five companies, he sold AbeBooks to Amazon in 2008 and stayed on as a vice president for Amazon until May 2015. Hannes 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 master’s degree in business and engineering from the University of Karlsruhe and a PhD in business, controlling, and logistics from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.