Martín Varsavsky Waisman-Diamond (born April 26, 1960) is an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

entrepreneur, philanthropist, and right-wing activist based in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

who funded several companies worldwide, as well as serving as an early-stage investor in others. Currently, Varsavsky is Executive Chairman and Founder of Prelude Fertility and Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Overture Life.

Early life and education

Born to Carlos Varsavsky and Silvia Waisman-Diamond, Varsavsky attended primary school at the New Model School and the Colegio Nicolás Avellaneda high school. He was raised in the

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

faith. At the age of 17, he moved with his family to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

as a

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

supported and assisted by

B'nai B'rith B'nai B'rith International ( ; from ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit Jewish service organization and was formerly a cultural association for German Jewish immigrants to the United States. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the se ...

, following the

forced disappearance An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a State (polity), state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the i ...

of his cousin
David Horacio Varsavsky
In 1981 he obtained a BA at the

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, in 1983 he earned an MA in International Affairs from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and in 1985 an MBA at

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and one of ...

Career

In 1984, at the age of 24 and still in college, Varsavsky created ''Urban Capital Corporation'', a real estate company in New York that was one of the early developers of

loft A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to large ...

apartments. Urban Capital Corporation purchased industrial buildings and recycled them into residential apartments and offices, developing up to 50 thousand square meters in the

SoHo SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

and

Tribeca Tribeca ( ), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Str ...

neighborhoods of New York City. In 1986, together with Argentine scientist Claudio Cuello and

César Milstein César Milstein, CH, FRS (8 October 1927 – 24 March 2002) was an Argentine biochemist in the field of antibody research. Milstein shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Niels Kaj Jerne and Georges J. F. Köhler for ...

(Medical Science Nobel Prize), Varsavsky founded Medicorp Sciences, a

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

company in which he is still a shareholder. Based in Montreal, Medicorp Sciences were among the first to make AIDS and Cancer products of different kinds (

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

and

PSA PSA, PsA, Psa, or psa may refer to: Biology and medicine * Posterior spinal artery * Primary systemic amyloidosis, a disease caused by the accumulation of abnormal proteins * Prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme used as a blood tracer for pro ...

tests). In 1991, Varsavsky founded the telecommunications company

Viatel Viatel Inc., founded in the United States in 1991, was a Nasdaq-quoted technology company which operated fiber optic networks in several countries, including in the United Kingdom during the mid-1990s. Viatel Technology Group, a Dublin-based te ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, which operated a call-back service, as an alternative traditional long-distance operators, similar to Econophone. Viatel later became an alternative

telecommunications service provider Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. In 1997 Varsavsky resigned his official positions and sold his Viatel shares. In July 1995, Varsavsky moved to

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. From 1999 to 2011 he taught courses on

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

IE Business School IE Business School is a graduate and undergraduate business school, located in Madrid, Spain. It was founded in 1973 under the name Instituto de Empresa (lit. Institute of Business) and is part of IE University since 2007. IE Business School is ...

(formerly Instituto de Empresa) in Spain. In 1997, Varsavsky founded

Jazztel Jazztel is a Spanish telecommunications company which offers triple play services (telephone, Internet and television). In 2018, Jazztel was made to pay fines for their telemarketing tactics. History Founded in 1998 by Martin Varsavsky, Jazztel i ...

, an alternative telecommunications access provider in the Iberian Peninsula. Headquartered in Madrid and with its own infrastructure, the company became a telecommunications operator offering bandwidth for residential and commercial customers, competing with

Telefónica , S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the ...

. Jazztel PLC went public (IPO) in December 1999. In 1999, he created ''Ya.com Internet Factory'', a Spanish internet services/DSL provider that also included the Spanish language online travel agency Viajar.com (later sold to Bravofly Rumbo Group. Ya.com was owned by Jazztel (70%), Varsavsky (10%) and the company's' staff (20%). It was sold in 2000 to T-Online International,

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

's Internet subsidiary for 550 million euros. In 2000, Varsavsky created ''EINSTEINet AG'', an

application service provider An application service provider (ASP) is a business providing application software generally through the. ASPs that specialize in a particular application (such as a medical billing program) may be referred to as providing software as a service. ...

(ASP) in Germany. Einsteinet was a company built on the premise that most applications were going to migrate from people's PCs to the internet. EINSTEINet did not materialize, the company was sold and represented losses for Varsavsky for 35 million euros. He launched the company Fon in

at the end of 2005, which provides international

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

services using user-generated infrastructure. Fon is backed by equity investors

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Index Ventures Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with headquarters in both San Francisco and London. It invests primarily in tech companies. History Index Ventures has its origins in a Switzerland, Swiss bond (finance), bond-trading firm cal ...

Qualcomm Ventures Qualcomm Ventures is the investment arm of Qualcomm Incorporated. Founded in 2000, Qualcomm Ventures is a corporate venture capital fund with 140+ active portfolio companies. Investing in startups targeting the wireless ecosystem, the group focus ...

, and

. In 2012, the network reached over 7 million

hotspots in several countries. In 2015, backed by Lee Equity, Martin founded Prelude Fertilit
Inception
now the largest chain of fertility clinics in the USA. In 2017, Martin founde
Overture Life
focused on automating the embryology lab. Overture is backed by

Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is a private American venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. It was founded by entrepreneur Vinod Khosla in 2004. The firm works with early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile technology, artifici ...

Marc Benioff Marc Russell Benioff (born September 25, 1964) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist. Benioff is best known as the co-founder, chairman and CEO of the software company Salesforce, as well as being the owner of ''Time (magazine ...

and

Allen & Company Allen & Company LLC is an American privately held boutique investment bank based at 711 Fifth Avenue, New York. The firm specializes in real estate, technology, media and entertainment. History Founded in 1922 by Charles Robert Allen, Jr., he ...

. In 2018 Martin founde
Goggo Network
an

Axel Springer Axel Cäsar Springer (2 May 1912 – 22 September 1985) was a German publisher and founder of what is now Axel Springer SE, the largest media publishing firm in Europe. By the early 1960s his print titles dominated the West German daily press m ...

Softbank is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...

backed startup that is helping develop the legal and engineering framework for fleets of autonomous vehicles and plans to deploy these fleets. In 2021, Martin founde
Levere Holdings
a publicly-traded (NASDAQ: LVRA) Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) seeking to invest and merge with a business that will play a key role in the future of mobility in EMEA, focusing on the development of mobility services, connected vehicles, electric vehicles and autonomous driving. Varsavsky has written articles on business and international relations for

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

El Mundo (Spain) (; ), before , is the second largest printed daily newspaper in Spain. The paper is considered one of the country's newspapers of record along with '' El País'' and '' ABC''. History and profile was first published on 23 October 1989. Perhap ...

, and

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

, and is a frequent speaker at conferences like Next Conference. Varsavsky is also a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

ger and contributor to the

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

Influencers Program, where he writes and gives talks on entrepreneurship and technology. In 2012 Varsavsky began teaching entrepreneurship at

in New York City. He has been an investment partner in early-stage companies including iTravel, Aura Biosciences, Menéame,

Netvibes Netvibes is a French subsidiary of Dassault Group that previously ran a World Wide Web, web service offering a Dashboard (computing), dashboard and feed reader. History 2005–2012 Founded in 2005 by Tariq Krim, the company provided software f ...

Plazes Plazes AG was a Berlin, Germany-based geosocial networking site. Plazes allowed users to post their location and current activities and share this information with other Plazes users via computers or mobile telephones. On 23 June 2008, Nokia Co ...

Technorati Technorati is a search engine and a publisher advertising platform. Technorati launched its ad network in 2008. In 2016, Synacor acquired Technorati for $3 million. The company's core product was previously an Internet search engine for search ...

, Eloquii,

Dopplr Dopplr was a free social networking service, launched in 2007, that allowed users to create itineraries of their travel plans and spot correlations with their contacts' travel plans in order to arrange meetings at any point on their journey. Addi ...

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

, Hipertextual,

Busuu Busuu is a second-language acquisition, language learning platform on web, iOS and Android that allows users to interact with native speakers. In 2021, Chegg acquired Busuu for $436 million. History Busuu was founded in May 2008 by Bernhard N ...

23andMe 23andMe Holding Co. is an American personal genomics and biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California. It is best known for providing a direct-to-consumer genetic testing service in which customers provide a saliva testing, sali ...

MUBI Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available ...

and

Result A result (also called upshot) is the outcome or consequence of a sequence of actions or events. Possible results include gain, injury, value, and victory. Some types of results include the outcome of an action, the final value of a calculation ...

. Outside of telecommunications, he was the majority shareholder of the wind park ''El Moralejo'' (a renewable energy generator) and Proesa, owner of the fashion labels

Sybilla Sibylla or Sybilla may refer to: People with the name Pre-modern era * Sibylla of Acerra (1153–1205), queen consort of Sicily * Sibylla of Anhalt (1514–1614), Duchess of Württemberg * Sibylla of Anjou (died 1165), Countess of Flanders * Sibyll ...

and Jocomomola. Currently, Varsavsky is Executive Chairman and Founder of Prelude Fertility and Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Overture Life. In March 2025, he resigned from the board of

after accusing

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...

of leftwing bias.

Philanthropic work

Varsavsky is founder and president of th
Varsavsky Foundation
which works to improve educational conditions in several countries. The foundation promotes the education portal
Educ.ar
in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

an
Educarchile.cl
in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, aiming to democratize and modernize the educational systems in both countries. He is also founder and president of th
Safe Democracy Foundation
devoted to contributing to debates in international affairs. The foundation's goal is to promote fair, transparent and safe democracy. The Safe Democracy Foundation and the

Club of Madrid Club de Madrid is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization created to promote democracy and change in the international community. It is composed of 127 regular members from 74 countries, including 5 Nobel Peace Prize laureates and 2 ...

organized th
Atocha Workshop
in March 2005 and the international Summit on Terrorism, Democracy and Security.

Personal life

Varsavsky

married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

Nina Wiegand on July 22, 2009, in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. He has seven children. In September 2020 he temporarily left Spain for Berlin with his family as a self-proclaimed "

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

-refugee", in protest for the measures implemented by the Spanish government to manage the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Varsavsky has been over the years a staunch critic of the Spanish government led by Prime Minister

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has served as Prime Minister of Spain since 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since July 2017, having p ...

, showing his support for conservative figures like Madrid's regional president

Isabel Díaz Ayuso Isabel Natividad Díaz Ayuso (; born 17 October 1978) is a Spanish politician and journalist serving as the president of the Community of Madrid since 2019. She is also the president of the People's Party of the Community of Madrid since 2022 ...

. Varsavsky is a supporter of controversial ultra-libertarian Argentinian president

Javier Milei Javier Gerardo Milei (born 22 October 1970) is an Argentine politician and economist who has served as President of Argentina since 2023. Milei also served as a national deputy representing the City of Buenos Aires for the party La Libertad ...

. In January 2025 Varsavsky explained in a Twitter post that he promoted, in his role as member of

's supervisory board,

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

's opinion piece for

Die Welt (, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...

in which he supported the far right

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...

in the upcoming German federal election.

Awards and recognition

Varsavsky is the recipient of various honors and rewards, among them:
World Technology, Fon: The most innovative organization in technology world (2006)
* Pickering Prize, Columbia University (2003)

Global Leader for Tomorrow, World Economic Forum (2000)
* European Entrepreneur of the Year, ECTA (1999) * European Telecommunications Entrepreneur of the Year (1998) * Finalist in the Entrepreneur of the Year contest, New York City (1995) * Described in Forbes Magazine a

(1999)

References

External links

*
Varsavsky Foundation

Video interview with Martín Varsavsky (English, German intro and subtitles)

Interview with Martin Varsavsky, 2012

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varsavsky, Martin 1960 births Columbia Business School alumni Living people Spanish businesspeople Argentine Jews Argentine emigrants to Spain Argentine philanthropists Spanish male bloggers School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni New York University alumni