Mark Bivens is an entrepreneur and angel investor who has founded three tech startups, one of which he successfully exited from. Bivens also makes private investments and works as a venture partner with an investment firm named Truffle Venture Capital. He has a large investment presence in Europe and a smaller one in Asia. 

Previously Bivens was a contributing columnist for an English-written, France-based blog focused on newsworthy items related to technology, entrepreneurs, and business analysis. The entrepreneur is also a leader in the field of cryptocurrency education and authored a book on the Japanese Bitcoin leadership “Japan: Bitcoin #1”.

Brief History

Mark Bivens laid the foundation of his career in business by obtaining a Master of Business Administration degree with a focus on Marketing, Finance, and Strategy in 2000 from The Kellogg School Of Management in Illinois, United States. He previously obtained Bachelor’s and Masters’ Degrees in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University. From 1995 to 1998 Bivens was the founder and president of BirdView Technologies, a tech startup which was eventually acquired by Constellation Group. He has been a member of numerous boards such as IT Masters, Domain Appraisal Tech, PeopleCube, Momac, NetMediaEurope, and Makazi. 

Location 

Bivens is primarily based in Paris, France, and Tokyo, Japan. He works with Truffle Venture Capital which is based in France. He has significant investments across Europe and minor vested interests in Asia.

Significant Investments

For Mark Bivens investments have to be high-tech, innovative and disruptive. He predominantly invests in disruptors in progressive technology fields like Artificial Intelligence (AI), business intelligence technologies, engineering, software and telecommunications. He has an investment portfolio of over 15 personal investments and eight significant partner investments. Bivens invested in telecommunications company Peerdigital in April of 1999. In June of 1999, he invested in optical equipment manufacturers Cerent. He invested in the aquatic software imaging company Poseidon Technologies in April 2001. In keeping with his background in engineering technologies, Bivens invested in Cybernetix in their seed investment round in May 2005. Cybernetix is an environmental engineering leader in robotics, specializing in teleoperated systems in hostile environments such as oil rigs, nuclear plants, and defense manufacturing facilities. In October 2014 Bivens invested in La Belle Assiette, a French catering platform that allows users to connect to their ideal catering services. Chefs and caterers benefit from using the platform, as it provides them with integrated tools to manage their business online. 

Mark Bivens in the News

In 2014 Mark wrote a piece on why Europe is an enchanting area to focus investments on and why it has thus far been a relatively untapped source. Bivens, writing for Techinasia.com, put forward the theory that because Europeans spend a proportionally larger amount of time in public transport in comparison to commuters in America, they also spend more time on their mobiles. Theoretically, they are also culturally more accepting of foreign innovations. Based on this information, Bivens theorizes that the European market is potentially a lucrative spot for tech startups and investors alike.