John Kristensen is a former London-based investment banker and impact investor turned impact entrepreneur. After building and managing one of the largest impact investment portfolios of its kind in the Nordics, John teamed up with senior professionals from Spotify, EF, King and Kry to co-found EdTech venture Astrid. Based on the team’s experience of building and leading some of the world’s largest education (EF), media (Spotify) and gaming (Candy Crush) platforms and franchises, the team is now launching the next generation of language learning platforms, designed to drive impact at scale.
Based on his experiences of investing across emerging markets in Asia and Africa and reflecting of how billions of English learners rarely make the leap from mastering the theory of the language (grammar, spelling, etc) to actually speaking fluently and with confidence, Astrid uses proprietary speech recognition and AI specifically developed for language learning to provide a private tutoring experiences in a new affordable, accessible way to learners everywhere.
Astrid is located in Stockholm, Sweden, and Oxford, UK, and is backed by a global group of renowned tech entrepreneurs, investors, and advisers.
