Jean-Paul Schmetz

Brave Browser, Ghostery, Coc Coc, Burda ...

📍 Munich (County), Bavaria, Germany🔄 Updated September 2026💼 11 investments📅 26 years investing🗓 Last invested Feb 2022
Operator-angel🌍 Germany
11
Total investments
1
Early stage
0
Mid stage
3
Late stage
26y
Years active

Portfolio

6 investments · sorted by recency
All investments
Early stage
Mid stage
Late stage
Board Observer
Feb 2022
Brave is building a user-first Web. The Brave browser is used by over 112 million people worldwide. It blocks third-party ads and trackers by default for fast, private browsing. It also offers a wealth of helpful features including a VPN and an AI browsing assistant. Brave is one of just three Web search indexes at scale in the West, and it’s the only one commercially available in a reliable, independent Search API. It provides users with accurate, AI-enhanced answers without profiling them. Brave Search is available as the default search engine in Brave, or via any other browser at search.brave.com. The Brave Search API helps organizations supply their AI LLMs with real-time data, power agentic search, train foundation models, and create search-enabled software. The Brave Search API helps anyone—from hobbyists to large enterprises—build applications that benefit from having access to the Web, going beyond the static knowledge of AI models. Our API uses our own search index so we can guarantee the highest privacy and security standards. Brave is also reinventing digital advertising. Users can opt into our privacy-first digital ads platform to earn crypto rewards for their attention. Advertisers get access to engaged, otherwise unreachable audiences. Creators can unlock new revenue streams. Brave Software is an independent company founded in 2015 by Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla (Firefox), and Brian Bondy, formerly of Khan Academy and Mozilla.
Board Member
Mar 2019
Ghostery is a digital privacy company that builds products to protect, educate, and empower users to take back control of their online experiences. We demystify online privacy by exposing the forces that lurk behind your screen and enabling you to block them.
Board Member / CEO since 2018 / COO since 2017
Jan 2015
Cốc Cốc was started in 2010, with three core technology products are Browser, Search Engine and Cốc Cốc Ad Platform. All products of Cốc Cốc are developed to be used on both platforms: mobile and desktop. In 2023, Cốc Cốc continued to launch Cốc Cốc AI Chat, Cốc Cốc AI Search and Cốc Cốc Android TV. With the core value “User First” and the mission of “Helping Vietnamese people happier by making the most out of the digital world”, Cốc Cốc has continuously been developing and delivering many features, and products that are based on the needs of Vietnamese Internet users. Some of users’ favorite features are: Ad Blocking, Fast Downloading, Safe Browsing, Safe Search, ... That’s why in many consecutive years, Cốc Cốc has ranked second in term of Vietnamese browser and search engine market share. By now, Cốc Cốc has 30 million users. Moreover, only the Cốc Cốc Search Engine has attracted more than 600 million query searches/per month. In recent years, Cốc Cốc technology products also get the chance to receive many respected awards, such as: - Citizen-serving Digital Platform of 2022 - 2023, an award that’s acknowledged by the Ministry of Information and Communication. - The Top 10 Trustworthy Products – Services of Vietnam in 2022. - Vietnam Digital Transformation awards for the Outstanding Digital Product and Solution: Cốc Cốc Browser and Search Engine in 2022. - Sao Khuê awards: Top 10 technology products, and 4 awards in other categories. - The Golden award at the “Make in Vietnam 2021” for Cốc Cốc Search Engine. For more information on Cốc Cốc, please access: https://coccoc.com
Member of the Board
Jun 2011
New Work SE strives for a better working world. With two strong brands, jobs network XING and employer review platform kununu, it aims to be the most important recruiting partner in German-speaking countries. By bringing candidates and companies together, professionals can lead a more fulfilling working life while companies can achieve greater success by winning the right talent. MATCHING TALENT WITH OPPORTUNITIES We don’t see “New Work” as a buzzword. To us, it’s a promise. We strive to make happiness at work a reality. Because it’s not only about the money, it’s also about the working environment and appreciation. It’s about creating the best team setup you can imagine, and about getting involved in things you’re passionate about. And you can be part of it! We want our employees to innovate and we enable them to do what they really, really want. Based on this conviction, New Work SE aligns its brands, products and services around its vision – for a better working life. You can find the New Work SE as an employer at its headquarter in Hamburg and other locations like Vienna, Barcelona, Valencia and Porto. Currently, around 1400 employees from over 40 different nations are actively shaping the future of work.
Member of the Board
2004
AbeBooks, an Amazon company, is a remarkable place to work. Millions of new, used, rare and out-of-print books are offered for sale through the AbeBooks websites from thousands of sellers around the world. We helped to revolutionize the used book business. AbeBooks (a.k.a ABE) became a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc. after being acquired in December 2008. Our mission is to help people find and buy any book from any bookseller and our business stretches around the world with six international sites - AbeBooks.com, AbeBooks.co.uk, AbeBooks.de, AbeBooks.fr, AbeBooks.it, and IberLibro.com, as well as ZVAB.com, which offers German books. To booklovers around the world, AbeBooks is a great place to buy books. However, we have always been a technology company that helps booksellers and book-buyers. Since 1996, our technology has been helping to revolutionize the book business and that quest goes on. Our technology workers are versatile, quick-thinking and thrive on deadlines. They plan and build systems that will yield long-term tangible benefits but also drop everything when required to solve critical issues where every minute counts. Anyone looking for a technology job at AbeBooks has to prove they are a flexible team player because there is no room for prima donnas. We do a lot with a relatively small number of people. We are devoted to Agile practices and methodologies in software engineering, and e-commerce is a business that never sleeps when it comes to site operations. Our QA engineers are analytical on a global scale. Scalability is the magic word for the database administrators while the product managers have vision and a get-it-done attitude. Our web developers insist on the highest standards when building dynamic pages and user interfaces. Do you have what it takes to join our team?
Member of the Board
Jan 2000
TOMORROW FOCUS AG is based in Munich, Germany, and is one of the leading exchange-listed Internet groups in Germany with focus on travel. The Group has a workforce of around 500, and its business operations are divided into two segments: Online-Travel and Subscription. The Online-Travel segment includes HOLIDAYCHECK AG, which operates a number of hotel rating and travel booking portals by the same name; WEBASSETS B.V., which operates the ZOOVER hotel rating portals; TOMORROW TRAVEL B.V., which operates the Dutch online travel agent TJINGO and the the METEOVISTA/WEERONLINE weather portals. The Subscription segment includes ORGANIZE.ME GmbH, which operates the app-based document organisation and reminder system organize.me and JAMEDA GmbH, which operates the physician ratings portal JAMEDA.de.
early stageInternet
Experience · 12 entries
All (12)
Investments (11)
Founder (1)
Board (11)
2022
Board Observer
Feb 2022
Brave is building a user-first Web. The Brave browser is used by over 112 million people worldwide. It blocks third-party ads and trackers by default for fast, private browsing. It also offers a wealth of helpful features including a VPN and an AI browsing assistant. Brave is one of just three Web search indexes at scale in the West, and it’s the only one commercially available in a reliable, independent Search API. It provides users with accurate, AI-enhanced answers without profiling them. Brave Search is available as the default search engine in Brave, or via any other browser at search.brave.com. The Brave Search API helps organizations supply their AI LLMs with real-time data, power agentic search, train foundation models, and create search-enabled software. The Brave Search API helps anyone—from hobbyists to large enterprises—build applications that benefit from having access to the Web, going beyond the static knowledge of AI models. Our API uses our own search index so we can guarantee the highest privacy and security standards. Brave is also reinventing digital advertising. Users can opt into our privacy-first digital ads platform to earn crypto rewards for their attention. Advertisers get access to engaged, otherwise unreachable audiences. Creators can unlock new revenue streams. Brave Software is an independent company founded in 2015 by Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla (Firefox), and Brian Bondy, formerly of Khan Academy and Mozilla.
2019
Board Member
Mar 2019
Ghostery is a digital privacy company that builds products to protect, educate, and empower users to take back control of their online experiences. We demystify online privacy by exposing the forces that lurk behind your screen and enabling you to block them.
2015
SHOWROOM Sp. z o.o.
Board Member
Sep 2015
Board Member / CEO since 2018 / COO since 2017
Jan 2015
Cốc Cốc was started in 2010, with three core technology products are Browser, Search Engine and Cốc Cốc Ad Platform. All products of Cốc Cốc are developed to be used on both platforms: mobile and desktop. In 2023, Cốc Cốc continued to launch Cốc Cốc AI Chat, Cốc Cốc AI Search and Cốc Cốc Android TV. With the core value “User First” and the mission of “Helping Vietnamese people happier by making the most out of the digital world”, Cốc Cốc has continuously been developing and delivering many features, and products that are based on the needs of Vietnamese Internet users. Some of users’ favorite features are: Ad Blocking, Fast Downloading, Safe Browsing, Safe Search, ... That’s why in many consecutive years, Cốc Cốc has ranked second in term of Vietnamese browser and search engine market share. By now, Cốc Cốc has 30 million users. Moreover, only the Cốc Cốc Search Engine has attracted more than 600 million query searches/per month. In recent years, Cốc Cốc technology products also get the chance to receive many respected awards, such as: - Citizen-serving Digital Platform of 2022 - 2023, an award that’s acknowledged by the Ministry of Information and Communication. - The Top 10 Trustworthy Products – Services of Vietnam in 2022. - Vietnam Digital Transformation awards for the Outstanding Digital Product and Solution: Cốc Cốc Browser and Search Engine in 2022. - Sao Khuê awards: Top 10 technology products, and 4 awards in other categories. - The Golden award at the “Make in Vietnam 2021” for Cốc Cốc Search Engine. For more information on Cốc Cốc, please access: https://coccoc.com
2011
Member of the Board
Jun 2011
New Work SE strives for a better working world. With two strong brands, jobs network XING and employer review platform kununu, it aims to be the most important recruiting partner in German-speaking countries. By bringing candidates and companies together, professionals can lead a more fulfilling working life while companies can achieve greater success by winning the right talent. MATCHING TALENT WITH OPPORTUNITIES We don’t see “New Work” as a buzzword. To us, it’s a promise. We strive to make happiness at work a reality. Because it’s not only about the money, it’s also about the working environment and appreciation. It’s about creating the best team setup you can imagine, and about getting involved in things you’re passionate about. And you can be part of it! We want our employees to innovate and we enable them to do what they really, really want. Based on this conviction, New Work SE aligns its brands, products and services around its vision – for a better working life. You can find the New Work SE as an employer at its headquarter in Hamburg and other locations like Vienna, Barcelona, Valencia and Porto. Currently, around 1400 employees from over 40 different nations are actively shaping the future of work.
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Investment activity
2000–2022 · 11 investments
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