”The ambition is to build Swedish fintech unicorns”

Growing up in segregated Malmö, in the south of Sweden, it created a natural driving force for Nicolai Chamizo, who still feels he has something to prove.
– I’m certainly not a victim, but growing up I was bothered by the fact that I think my last name was a handicap. It may seem like a detail, but it is very difficult to pronounce and it always made me feel “foreign”. It created a desire to succeed and to prove to myself and others that I could deliver, he says.

In the early years, however, the focus was not on entrepreneurship and investment but on ice hockey. The idea was that Nicolai Chamizo would make a living as a hockey player.
– Sport is a good school for the future. Everything from teamwork, to social skills and group dynamics. That’s actually what working life is all about.

When Nicolai’s hockey career did not develop as he dreamed after a year in the US, he returned to Sweden to study economics. He had become interested in the financial sector and worked at a bank in parallel with his studies.
– It wasn’t really my thing, a bit too square, he says today with some perspective.

Instead, he tried to succeed as an entrepreneur. A quick way to get ahead was to use your contacts and “broker” entrepreneurs with well-funded business angels and get shares in exciting startups in return. This was Nicolai Chamizo’s path to becoming a tech investor.
– I got interested in tech and how to combine it with finance. The first investment in unlisted gaming companies was ten years ago and it was small-scale in the beginning.

Some professional Ice hockey players was the first people Nicolai got involved with and then they joined their friends Henrik Persson Ekdahl and André Lavold behind Optimizer Invest in some of their investments, such as Hero gaming, ZooZoo and Betit Group.

The next step was to start their own investment company, A Group of Friends Investments (Agof), which focused on iGaming.
– It was difficult for investors to get in there, but we had good contacts in that segment. When we raised money, we already had a couple of deals lined up, says Nicolai, who is currently in the process of closing Agof and distributing the money to investors.

The new investment company is called Incore Invest and has been founded together with Magnus Mivér (former partner at ABG Sundal Collier), Martin Larsson (former partner at Stella Capital Advisors), Jonas Mårtensson (CEO of Mojang) and Lena Hackelöer (founder of Brite and former Klarna). One of Incore’s first investments was Brite, where they invested early on. The investment company focuses on fintech and the investors include Johan Andersson, Mellby Gård, and Carl Manneh, former CEO of Minecraft.
– We have engaged more than ten exclusively selected investors. Last time I learned that there is a lot of administration with 90 investors, so I wanted to do things differently this time.

Incore Invest still has capital to allocate to two to three new investments that will complement the three holdings currently in the portfolio, in addition to Brite, it is Mynt and Savr.
– We want to invest in strong growth companies with strong entrepreneurs. It’s about the combination of the right people and execution. The leaders that we have invested in the three companies are very strong characters and smart people that we like. We do not make passive investments, but the entrepreneurs must see a clear value in our involvement. It’s about helping with strategy going forward and opening doors to exciting people in our network, as well as supporting expansion abroad. The ambition is to build new Swedish fintech unicorns.

Surrounding yourself with talented people who complement you is something Nicolai brings from sport.
– You can’t just have goal scorers in your line-up. I see myself as a problem-solving midfielder, says Nicolai, who has been living with his family in Marbella since 2011. However, the focus in the investments is in Scandinavia.

– Sweden is unique in that way, we are good at starting companies and we are good at new technology. We probably have the weather to thank for that; we sit in front of our computers half the year because it’s simply too cold to be outside.