Gigi Levy-Weiss

Gigi Levy-Weiss (born Gigi Levy, Israel, Hebrew: גיגי לוי-וייס) is a business executive and angel investor who works primarily with internet, software and gaming companies.[1] He is currently involved with various startup companies including SimilarWeb, Plarium, myThings, Hola, MyHeritage, and Kenshoo.[2] He is the former CEO for online gambling company 888 Holdings, and is on the board of the Israeli-Palestinian nonprofit organization MEET, being formerly involved with Latet.[3] In 2014 he co-founded the investment firm and business accelerator NFX Guild.[4] He joined the supervisory board at Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA in Germany in May 2015.[2]

Gigi Levy-Weiss
Born
Gigi Levy

Israel
EducationTel Aviv University
Known forFormer CEO of 888 Holdings
Founding partner at NFX Guild
Spouse(s)Daphi Levy-Weiss
Children3

Biography

Gigi Levy (later Levy-Weiss) was born and raised in Israel. Before attending college[5] Levy-Weiss was a pilot[6] in the Israeli Air Force.[7] In October 2002 he started attending the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL,[8] where he earned his MBA[5] in May 2004.[2] Levy-Weiss and his wife, Daphi Levy-Weiss, live in Ramat HaSharon with their three children.[7]

Business career

Early in his career Levy-Weiss worked with his own startup company,[7] also holding a number of management[6] and consulting positions[8] with technology companies[5] in Israel and the UK.[6] Among those roles he was CEO of Giltek Telecommunication, a publicly traded telecom systems integrator.[6]

From 2003 to 2005[2] he was Vice President of Western Europe for Amdocs Limited (NASDAQ: DOX), an international telecommunications software company.[8] The following year he became Division President for the company[2] for Western Europe, and Central and Latin America.[2][8]

On June 18, 2006, Levy-Weiss joined the company 888 Holdings as their Chief Operating Officer (COO). Founded in 1997, 888 Holdings operates several high-profile gambling websites. He was COO until January 2007,[8] when he became the company's CEO.[9] During his tenure, the company weathered the 2006 enactment of UIGEA and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. Levy-Weiss pushed the company to focus on online poker rooms and casinos, leading to a number of buyout options.[9][10][11] His position as a CEO officially ended on May 31, 2011,[8] though he remained on the board for an additional twelve months, assisting in the transition to a new CEO.[11]

After leaving 888 Holdings, Levy-Weiss has served as an investor, board member, and in some cases a co-founder for a number of technology companies in Israel, San Francisco and London.[5] Many of the startups he invests in have involved online commerce, advertising technologies, mobile applications, gaming, and SaaS spaces.[6][12]

Since 2007 he has been a board member at MassiveImpact,[2] also serving as a director.[8] He was an investor and board member for SweetIM from 2009 to 2013,[2] which was acquired by Perion.[7] Perion purchased SweetPacks, maker of SweetIM, in November 2012 for approximately $41 million.[13]

He first invested in Playtika in 2010.[2] In 2011, over half of Playtika's shares were acquired by casino operator Harrah's Entertainment's at a company value of $80–90 million, in what was the largest acquisition on record of an Israeli online gaming company.[14] The total sum of the two stages of the buyout for Playtika was rumored to be around $140 million USD.[15]

Israeli company Promodity, an advertising platform, announced in August 2012 that Levy-Weiss had invested in the company.[12] He has been a board member at Global-e since 2013,[2] and late that year he invested in Space Ape Games, an English social games company.[16]

He also has invested in startups such as the technology company Kenshoo.[7] Other investments include companies Crossrider (later acquired for $37million),[17] Plarium, R2Net,[7] Eyeview, RealMatch, Lovelive.tv, NonoRep, Gooodjob, Selina,[18] Superfly, SpeakingPal, Ekoloko, TradeO, Zoomd, Moovu, and Moolta,[6] (which was acquired by SimilarWeb).[19]

In January 2015, he cofounded NFX Guild with James Currier and Stan Chudnovsky, both entrepreneurs and investors based in California.[4] Levy-Weiss is a partner at NFX, which is an accelerator and venture funding firm based in the Silicon Valley in the United States,[20] named for "Network Effects."[21]

Public service

Levy-Weiss has been involved with a number of non-profit organizations in Israel,[5] notably serving on the management board for Israeli humanitarian fund Latet[3] from 2008 to 2013.[2] He became a board member at the non-profit MEET - Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow in November 2013.[2]

In 2014, Levy-Weiss was appointed to Facebook's EMEA Client Council, a marketing forum including representatives from brands and agencies of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, together with Facebook leaders.[22]

At Tel Aviv University, his alma mater, Levy-Weiss is on the advisory board of the Technology Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship MBA program.[6] He joined the supervisory board at Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA in Germany in May 2015.[2]

He has been a speaker at conferences such as Com.vention,[6] Casual Connect, and others.[23]

gollark: None of them do.
gollark: They don't cost nether stars?
gollark: I don't really want to grind nether fortresses for hours.
gollark: I have literally none of those.
gollark: What's an ender star anyway?

References
  1. "Gigi Levy: Executive Profile & Biography". BusinessWeek. McGraw-Hill. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
  2. "Gigi Levy". LinkedIn. Archived from the original on 2014-03-31. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  3. Cook, Holly (July 15, 2009). "10 rounds with the CEO - Interview: Q&A session with 888 Holding's Gigi Levy". MorningStar. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  4. Abramowitz, Zach (October 25, 2015). "Israel Vs. Silicon Valley: A Conversation with Gigi Levy Weiss". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  5. Levy, Gigi. "I am Gigi and IMA Ventures is my investment vehicle". IMA Ventures (IApple). Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  6. "Speakers - Gigi Levy Weiss: About Me". Com.vention. 2012. Archived from the original on 2014-03-31. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  7. "Profile". Gigi Levy at About.me. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  8. "888 holdings plc (888:London): Executive Profile Gigi Levy". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  9. Arnott, Sarah (April 11, 2011). "888 denies link to Ladbrokes talks as chief executive Gigi Levy steps down". The Independent. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  10. Burton, Earl (April 12, 2011). "Gigi Levy Out as 888 CEO". Poker News Daily. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  11. Osbourne, Alistair (April 11, 2011). "Gigi Levy stays at 888 to avoid Wink Bingo charge". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  12. Tiku, Nitasha (August 3, 2012). "Gigi Levy-Weiss and Israeli Angels Back Ad Platform Promodity". BetaBeat. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  13. "Perion Announces Accretive Acquisition of SweetPacks". businesswire.com. Retrieved 2013-09-23.
  14. Tsipori, Tali (May 18, 2011). "Playtika's young founders win big on casino acquisition". Globes. Archived from the original on 2014-03-12. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  15. "Entrepreneurs Fliitika two years after Israel's fastest exit "hiring"". The Marker. December 11, 2013. Retrieved 2014-03-12. (Hebrew)
  16. Takahashi, Dean (October 13, 2013). "After Playfish, social-game veterans return with Samurai Siege, earning $50K a day". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  17. "Start-up CrossRider is sold for $37m". Haaretz. December 17, 2012. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  18. Levy, Dotan (2019-02-04). "Hospitality Company Selina to Open Multiple Israeli Locations". CTECH - www.calcalistech.com. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  19. "Exit Blue - white two week: SimilarWeb Acquires Israeli Tapdog". Geektime. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  20. "Team". NFX.com. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  21. Goldenberg, Roy (August 18, 2015). "NFX Guild accelerator unveils summer 2015 class". Globes. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  22. McLeod, Ishbel. "Facebook introduces EMEA client council with Nestlé, Unilever, Red Bull, BMW and Mondelez on board". The Drum. The DrumThe Drum. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  23. "CASUAL CONNECT TEL AVIV 2015 Speakers". CasualConnect. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
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