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Nicole Junkermann | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1975 Düsseldorf, Germany |
| Education | International University of Monaco Harvard Business School |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
Nicole Junkermann (born 27 April 1975) is a German entrepreneur and investor. She lives in West London. [1]
Junkermann is the founder of NJF Holdings, an international investment company with interests in venture capital, private equity, and real estate. [2]
Nicole Junkermann [3] , born in Düsseldorf, is the daughter of businessman Heinz Junkermann. Her father Heinz Junkermann, born in 1928 in Frankfurt am Main, owned several companies. He founded a jewellery store (Schmuck-Kassette GmbH), a real estate company (IFG Gesellschaft für Immobilienbesitz) and a private bank for wealthy clients.[ citation needed ]
He took his daughter with him to business meetings when she was 12 in order to prepare her for her future career. [4] Junkermann grew up in Marbella, Spain [5] [6] and studied business administration and management at the International University of Monaco (1998) and Harvard Business School.
Junkermann co-founded online sports gaming platform Winamax.[ citation needed ]
In 2002 Junkermann as a minority shareholder and the former Adidas CEO Robert Louis-Dreyfus bought Infront Sports and Media out of the decaying media empire of Leo Kirch. [7] By 2011, the company was owned by a group of private investors, including majority shareholder Jacobs Holding, the Junkermann Group, and Dr. Martin Steinmeyer, with Philippe Blatter, nephew of then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter, serving as chairman and president. The company was subsequently sold to private equity group Bridgepoint Capital in a transaction valued at approximately $600 million. [8] [9]
Shortly after the sale of Infront in 2012, Junkermann founded NJF Holdings. Its venture capital arm, NJF Capital, manages a diversified portfolio with investments across healthcare, sports, fintech, and deep tech. [10] [11] [12] Three of NJF’s early investments include Songza, Dollar Shave Club, and RelateIQ, which were acquired by Google, Unilever, and Salesforce respectively. [13] She is currently an investor in companies such as SpaceX, Rippling, Lendable. [14]
Junkermann’s approach in NJF Capital has been to bridge tradition business models and emerging technologies [15] which has created a portfolio of unicorn companies.
Junkermann previously served on the Department of Health and Social Care’s Healthtech Advisory Board, having been appointed by Matt Hancock, MP in November 2018. The board guides the Secretary of State and government on its mission to transform technology in the National Health Service. [16] She is part of the board of the cybersecurity investment fund created by Pablo Casado in 2024. [17] In sports, Nicole has also served as an advisor to the Italian Olympic Committee.[ citation needed ]
One of NJF Capital’s portfolio companies is OWKIN, a Paris-based start-up, using AI for medical research. Junkermann serves as a director on OWKIN’s board. [18]
She invested in the Israel intelligence-linked start-up Carbyne911 [19] and sat on the company's board of directors with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and the former director of Israel’s Unit 8200 Pinhas Buchris. [20] [21]
In 2025, she has been a visiting professor at Lancaster University. [22]
Documents released as part of the Epstein Files show that German investor Nicole Junkermann was in repeated email correspondence with financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein over several years from the early 2010s. [23] [24] [25] [26] [27]
In the late 1990s, Junkermann began a relationship with the French businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus, who was three decades older than her, while he was still married to Margarita Bogdanova. [28]
In March 2017, Junkermann married Ferdinando Brachetti Peretti. They have a daughter born in December 2017. [29]
In 2020 Junkermann and her husband became the new owners of Los Alburejos [30]
Junkermann speaks six languages. [31] As of 2018, she lived in South Kensington, London and often travels. [32] She is a fan of the football club Real Madrid. [6]
Junkermann has been a committee member of the Tate Americas Foundation, an independent charity that supports the work of the Tate Gallery in the United Kingdom, since 2005. [33]