Ragnar Kruse

Ragnar Kruse is the CEO of AI.FUND, AI.Invest, AI.Hamburg and was the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Smaato Inc. As a serial entrepreneur with 30+ years experience in IT, Ragnar Kruse understands the unique challenges in bringing new technologies to market. Ragnar has built up several companies from inception to market launch in both the US and Europe. At Intershop Communications, a leader in E-Commerce software solutions, Ragnar was Vice President of Sales and Marketing in San Francisco. During his tenure, Ragnar was instrumental in the company’s growth and ushering it through a successful IPO on NASDAQ and the “Neuer Markt” in 1998. More recently, Ragnar held key management positions at high-tech companies in the U.S. and Europe including eCharge and Xtramind. Through his many years in IT, Ragnar maintains strong relationships with companies in the telecommunications and mobile sectors, including Deutsche Telekom, Telekom New Zealand, Telstra, Telia, Cable & Wireless, Siemens, T-Online, T-Mobile, France Telecom, HP and SUN. Ragnar started his career as an entrepreneur. In 1980, Ragnar founded IPT GmbH, a computer retail business that imported products into Germany from the USA and Taiwan. In 1987 he expanded his business by starting DTP Partner GmbH, a distribution company in Hamburg. DTP Partner was the exclusive distributor of several desktop publishing solutions such as Corel and was instrumental in establishing international distribution agreements with American and Taiwanese companies. Ragnar studied law at the universities of Hamburg and Munich, Germany.