Nicole Junkermann

Nicole Junkermann, also known as Countess Nicole Brachetti Peretti,[1] (born 27 April 1975) is a German entrepreneur and investor with international activities in the sports, healthcare, and technology sectors. She lives in west London.[2]

Junkermann is the founder of NJF Holdings, an international investment company with interests in venture capital, private equity, and real estate.[3]

Early life and education

Nicole Junkermann,[4] born in Düsseldorf, is the only daughter of businessman Heinz Junkermann and his wife Ingrid. 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

Career

Early ventures

Junkermann started her career as a model and she later co-founded the online gambling business Winamax in 1998.[8][10]

In 2002 Junkermann as a minority shareholder and the former Adidas CEO Robert Louis-Dreyfus bought Infront Sports & Media out of the decaying media empire of Leo Kirch.[11] 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 acquired the rights to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and, in 2011, obtained permission to market the television rights for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups in Asian markets.[12][13] The company was subsequently sold to private equity group Bridgepoint Capital in a transaction valued at approximately $600 million.[14][15]

NJF Holdings and NJF Capital

Shortly after the sale of Infront in 2012, Junkermann founded NJF Holdings. Its venture capital arm, NJF Capital ("Nicole Junkermann Finance Capital"), is registered in the British Virgin Islands and headquartered in London. The fund manages a diversified portfolio with investments across healthcare, biotech, sports, fintech, and deep tech.[16][17]

Three of NJF’s early investments include Songza, Dollar Shave Club, and RelateIQ, which were acquired by Google, Unilever, and Salesforce respectively.[18] Junkermann’s approach in NJF Capital has been to bridge traditional and emerging technologies[19]

Other

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.[29] Junkermann previously served on the HealthTech Advisory Board of the UK government's Department of Health and Social Care, 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.[8][30] In sports, Nicole has also served as an advisor to the Italian Olympic Committee.

Junkermann was appointed a trustee of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity as well as the Royal Academy Trust.[10] She was a visiting professor at Lancaster University.[31]

birth date	April 27, 1975
birth place	Düsseldorf, Germany
alma mater	International University of Monaco (1998), Harvard Business School (2002)
spouse	Ferdinando Brachetti Peretti (m. 2017)
occupation	Entrepreneur · investor
years active	1990s–present
children	1