Niklas Zennström is a Swedish entrepreneur. He first gained fame as the co-founder of the KaZaA peer-to-peer file sharing network. After selling KaZaA he and his KaZaA-founding partner Janus Friis created Skype peer-to-peer internet telephony network. He is currently working on Joost, an interactive software for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web.

He has dual degrees in Business Administration (BSc) and Engineering Physics (MSc) from Uppsala University in Sweden. He spent his final year at University of Michigan, USA.

Zennström started his professional career at the European telecom operatorTele2. He went on to serve in various business development roles including launching and being responsible for European Internet Service Provider business get2net and as CEO of the everyday.com portal. Later, he co-founded and served as CEO of KaZaA. After KaZaA was sold to Sharman Networks, Zennström founded and served as CEO at Joltid, a software company developing and marketing peer-to-peer solutions and peer-to-peer traffic optimization technologies to companies.

Zennström also co-founded Altnet, the world’s first secure peer-to-peer network promoting commercial content to consumers which integrates promotion, distribution, and payment of digital content. Another of Zennström’s ventures together with Friis was Skype, an Internet telephony company based on peer-to-peer principles. It was sold to eBay for €2.1 billion ($2.6 billion USD) plus potential performance-based consideration up to €1.2bn on October 14, 2005.

He and Friis were the co-recipients of the 2006 Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award, an award given to business and individuals who have used information technology in a way that changed an industry or society as a whole.

He is also one of the Young Global Leaders, World Economic Forum.