Christian Birk, co-founder of Endomondo, joins us as an Entrepreneur In Residence to support NGP’s digital health activities
I am excited to announce that Christian Birk has joined NGP to work closely with our digital health team, supporting both new digital health investments and our digital health portfolio companies. We have made great strides into health investing during the past two years with many new investments, adding chronic care management company Vida Health, nutrition and health platform Lifesum, and female health company Clue to our portfolio, just to name a few.
Christian has been active in the health and fitness technology space for more than ten years. In 2007, he co-founded Endomondo, which became an industry-leading mobile application with a global user base of nearly 25 million registered users. It was also one of the world’s largest online social sports and fitness communities when it was acquired by Under Amour in 2015. I guess that was when I heard of Christian the first time. We have since met in a variety of different settings, and I have always been very impressed by Christian’s creative thinking and leadership skills. In January, during health-related events surrounding the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, we decided to work together.
Recently, Christian shared his thoughts with me on the digital health space and the opportunities he sees at NGP.
“I’m excited about the adventure at NGP. As an entrepreneur in residence at a VC, it’s very interesting to now be sitting on the other side of the table. I’ve been passionate about fitness and health my entire life and was an elite runner in my home country early in my career. Over the years this passion has become increasingly digital. We have only seen the first few layers of how lifestyle changes enabled by technology and preventive measures can play a big role in the overall health care space. I hope to bring a user-centric perspective to NGP.
Joining the digital health team at NGP gives me the opportunity to work with a group of knowledgeable and passionate investors, as well as meeting smart and motivated entrepreneurs who are on a path to improving the world for patients, care givers, recreational users and healthcare systems. Over the next months, I’ll take some deep dives into a few of the many areas of the broader digital health landscape.”
I believe Christian can add tremendous value as part of our digital health team. And did I mention that Christian is a former elite runner who once held the Danish national record in the 400-meter dash? I am looking forward to working more closely with you, @endobirk !
