Martin Tschopp has been appointed chief operating officer of Naspers Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of South Africa-based e-commerce and media group Naspers.
Naspers launched the Silicon Valley-based Naspers Ventures in May 2016 in a bid to diversify its venture capital activities, which had so far been concentrated on traditional internet-focused areas such as e-commerce, classified listings and payment services.
Companies to have received funding from the unit since then include online education marketplace Udemy, mobile commerce platform Movile and agricultural data provider FarmLogs.
Tschopp comes from Kiva, the US-based operator of an online platform that allows users to lend money to students and low-income entrepreneurs from some 80 countries. He joined the company as CEO in April 2015 before leaving in February this year.
Prior to Kiva, Tschopp spent almost 12 years at e-commerce marketplace eBay in various roles, ultimately rising through the ranks to the position of general manager of eBay Advertising.
– Photo of Martin Tschopp courtesy of LinkedIn