Dídac Lee i Hsing (李西洵) (born 15 January 1974) is a Spanish entrepreneur and Business Angel, co-founder and Managing Partner at Galdana Ventures.[1]

Dídac Lee
李西洵
image of Dídac Lee at a conference, was a Spanish entrepreneur.
Born
Dídac Lee i Hsing

(1974-01-15) 15 January 1974 (age 50)
Nationality Spain
Known forCo-Founder and Managing Partner at Galdana Ventures, Business Angel, Entrepreneur, former FC Barcelona Board Member (Digital Area)

Biography edit

Dídac Lee was born in Figueres,[2] Spain to Taiwanese parents.[3] At 21 years old and against the opinion of his family, Lee left his studies in Computer Engineering to start his first company. The beginnings were rough, he had limited resources and started his company with a bank loan of 18,000 Euros.

In 1998, he founded Scubastore.com, origin of the current group TradeInn,[4] the first network of online stores specializing in sports equipment ecommerce and European leader in its sector, an online store specialized in sports equipment for diving, cycling, hiking, tennis and paddle tennis, swimming, bike, fishing and skiing. Today TradeInn is one of the top European outdoor e-commerce, with 17 individual stores, each one of them specialized in a different sport, counting 14 verticals and 300M in turnover in the last year alone.[5]

Lee founded and co-founded several tech companies (among others: Inspirit, Fhios, OBS Threepoints, JV with Planeta, Safe365) of which he currently serves as board member and reference shareholder; jointly they currently account for 800 employees worldwide.

In 2015, Lee co-founded Galdana Ventures,[6] a 1B USD fund invested in some of the Top Tier firms in Silicon Valley (50%), China (30%) and Europe (20%).

Galdana Ventures is considered one of the best performing Venture Capital Funds of Funds globally,[7] its funds invest in some of the best Venture Capital firms who are backing the game-changing companies of the future. Galdana's management team has more than 100 years of accumulated experience as successful entrepreneurs and investors.

Lee is well known in the start-up world as Business Angel, he invested in some of the most successful start-ups in the Spanish ecosystem (Badi, Housfy, Exoticca, Paack, Glovo, LingoKids).

Entrepreneurship edit

  • Scubastore.com (TradeINN.com)
  • The Etailers [8]
  • Fhios [9]
  • Hotelerum (Travel Compositor)
  • Safe365 [10]
  • OBS Threepoints [11]
  • Galdana Ventures [12]

Dídac Lee and FC Barcelona edit

Lee is a former board member of FC Barcelona, he served on the board for 10 years from 2010 to 2020. Since 2018, he was head of Digital, an internationally recognized reference in its field, with 370 million followers in social media and more than 100M Euros in turnover. Among Lee's achievements at FCB, one of the biggest is the leading of the digitalization of the club; his legacy is applauded by many.

Over the years, Didac has been nationally and internationally recognized by the press as one of the most knowledgeable expert in the Digital Sports sector. During his time at FCB, he was the official spokesman of the FC Barcelona Digital Area and he was regularly interviewed by the main sports media worldwide:

Dídac is often invited as Guest Speaker at Sport Conferences and Events globally, some of the recent ones are:

Honors and personal life edit

  • 2005: Best Technology Entrepreneur of the University of Cambridge.
  • 2006: Best Entrepreneur of the Year. Award granted by the AIJEC.
  • 2006: Award "Gironí de l’Any".
  • 2007: Ferrer Salat Award Entrepreneur of the Future, by Fomento del Trabajo.
  • 2007: Best Entrepreneur Award Overseas, by the Taiwanese government.
  • 2007: Award for Best Creative Young Entrepreneur Catalunya 2007, awarded by the Junior Chamber International Catalunya.
  • 2008: Award Empordà County Council l'Alt Empordà.
  • 2008: Internationalization Accesit in the National Young Entrepreneur Award, awarded by CEAJE.
  • 2010: Chosen by IESE as one of 20 entrepreneurs from 40 years of the country's most influential.
  • 2011: Finalist in the Entrepreneur Award for Entrepreneur Magazine.
  • 2012: Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Ideateca.
  • 2013: Best European Mentor, awarded by Founder Institute.[13]
  • 2018: Doctor Honoris Causa from the 21st Century Business University [14]
  • 2019: Entrepreneur of the Year by PIMEC [15]
  • 2019: Best Business Angel by AEBAN [16][17]

Lee is a proud Figuerenc (Figueres is a small town located 140 km North East of Barcelona). When he is not traveling between China and the Silicon Valley, he lives in Barcelona and Figueres; he loves practicing adventure sports like quad and buggy racing, scuba diving and skateboarding. Since Dídac is currently on the scientific committee of FEDAS (Spanish Federation of sub-aquatic activities).

His parents emigrated from Taiwan to Spain more than 50 years ago, he is fluent in 5 languages including Mandarin Chinese.

References edit

  1. ^ "Dídac Lee". Galdana Ventures (in European Spanish). Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  2. ^ "Figueres", Wikipedia, 28 December 2023, retrieved 24 January 2024
  3. ^ Dídac Lee https://www.linkedin.com/in/didaclee/?originalSubdomain=es
  4. ^ Tradeinn. "Tradeinn | Online store: sports, fashion, technology and DIY". www.tradeinn.com. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  5. ^ "Tradeinn crece durante el confinamiento y prevé superar los 250 millones este año". www.modaes.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  6. ^ "Nosotros". Galdana Ventures (in European Spanish). Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  7. ^ "Altamar se convierte en el mayor gestor de fondos de fondos de 'venture capital' fuera de EEUU". EXPANSION (in Spanish). 2 March 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
  8. ^ "Magento Development Company". The etailers. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  9. ^ "Technology Consulting | Fhios Smart Knowledge". FHIOS Consultoría Tecnológica. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  10. ^ Safe365:https://safe365.com/en/how-it-works
  11. ^ "Sobre OBS". OBS Business School (in Spanish). Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  12. ^ "Nosotros". Galdana Ventures (in European Spanish). Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  13. ^ Amity Sims (1 July 2013). "Dídac Lee Selected as a Top Startup Mentor of 2012". Founder Institute. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  14. ^ Doctor Honoris Causa: https://obsbusiness.school/es/noticias/masters-en-direccion-general/didac-lee-galardonado-con-el-titulo-honoris-causa-en-buenos-aires#:~:text=D%C3%ADdac%20Lee%20galardonado%20con%20el%20t%C3%ADtulo%20%22Honoris%20Causa%22%20en%20Buenos%20Aires,-La%20trayector%C3%ADa%20internacional&text=El%20director%20del%20M%C3%A1ster%20en,de%20Buenos%20Aires%20(Argentina).
  15. ^ Periódico, El (21 October 2019). "Didac Lee gana el premio al autónomo del año de Pimec". elperiodico (in Spanish). Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  16. ^ Premio AEBAN:https://www.aeban.es/awards/
  17. ^ Empordà.info (21 November 2019). "El figuerenc Dídac Lee ha rebut el premi al millor Business Angel del 2019". Diari de Girona (in Catalan). Retrieved 14 June 2023.

External links edit