Origin Story
The Girl Who
Crossed Borders
Before It Was a Career
Lea Bajc was born in Croatia. At ten years old, she moved to Sweden — the first of many moves that would define her. Not just moves of geography, but of ambition, reinvention, and stubborn refusal to stay in one lane.
She studied at Stockholm School of Economics and HEC Paris — because one elite school simply wasn't enough. Then came Harvard Business School, where she found what she'd been circling all along: the world of early-stage ventures and mission-driven founders.
But Lea didn't just study — she did. She spent five years at Morgan Stanley, working directly with the firm's president. She consulted at McKinsey. She worked at L'Oréal and Ericsson. By the time she arrived at Northzone Ventures, she had already seen more of the world's machinery than most people do in a career.
At Northzone, she co-led the investment in iZettle — which PayPal later acquired for $2.2 billion. And Trustpilot, which went public on the London Stock Exchange. Two landmark outcomes. Not beginner's luck. Pattern recognition.
Then she did something unusual for a successful investor: she became a founder. Moved to Silicon Valley. Co-founded Averon — a digital identity company — and raised $20 million from, among others, Marc Benioff. Because she believed you can't truly back founders unless you've stood where they stand.
