Frank Botman

Frank Botman is a Dutch investment manager and entrepreneur best known as the founder of Dasym and its predecessor investment vehicles Talpa Capital and Cyrte Investments. Public company filings for Terremark state that he began his career in 1989 at HSBC in investment management and research, then worked from 1992 to 1994 as a fund manager at IBM Pension Fund, where he managed the Dutch equity portfolio and European venture-capital portfolio.

After IBM Pension Fund, Botman founded HAL Capital Management in 1994 and served as managing director. He joined Cyrte Investments B.V., formerly Talpa Capital B.V., in 2000 as founder, managing director and head of the investment team. Cyrte was described in Terremark filings as a European investment boutique investing in media, entertainment, telecom and technology companies. Botman’s education is listed in SEC filings as a degree in commercial economics and business administration from HEAO Amsterdam.

Dasym traces its roots to 2000, when the business was originally known as Talpa Capital and served as the family office of Dutch media entrepreneur John de Mol. It later became Cyrte Investments; Delta Lloyd acquired a majority stake in Cyrte in 2007, and in 2013 Botman continued under the Dasym name after Cyrte was split from Delta Lloyd. Dasym is now a Naarden-based investment firm and member of Rasile Group.

Botman has also held board or director roles connected to portfolio and investment positions, including Terremark Worldwide, Endemol, Forthnet, RTL Nederland and HB Capital Belgium, according to SEC filings and executive-profile databases.

• Dasym’s stated worldview is macro and thematic: the firm says financial markets are shaped by “hegemony, culture, technology, and the economy,” and that this worldview underpins its investment strategy.
• Dasym describes itself as research-driven, using data-driven methods and investment themes to guide portfolio construction and investments.
• Historical Cyrte/Dasym activity was concentrated in telecom, media, technology, entertainment and consumer-related sectors.
• Botman has emphasized media consolidation, strong consumer brands and monetizable must-read content in public comments about TMG and De Telegraaf.
• Cyrte’s communications around bol.com framed that investment as a long-term trend investment in media, entertainment and technology, with bol.com fitting because of its internet-based customer reach.
• Public sources support Dasym/Cyrte as a private-equity, public-markets and managed-accounts investor rather than a conventional seed-stage angel investor.