Background and career
Daniel Georg Ek (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈdɑ̂ːnɪɛl ˈjěːɔrj ěːk]; born 21 February 1983) is a Swedish businessman and technologist. He is the founder and executive chairman of Spotify. As of August 2026, his net worth was estimated at $12.5 billion by Forbes.
Ek grew up in the Rågsved district of Stockholm, Sweden. He graduated from high school in IT-Gymnasiet in Sundbyberg Municipality in 2002 and then studied engineering at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology for 8 weeks before dropping out to focus on his IT career.
Ek began making websites and open-source technologies as early as fourteen years old. Shortly after graduating high school he worked at Jajja, a search engine optimization firm. Ek had a senior role at Nordic auction company Tradera, which was acquired by eBay in 2006. He was also the CTO of the browser-based game and fashion community Stardoll and later started Advertigo, an online advertising company. Advertigo was sold to TradeDoubler in 2006, after which Ek briefly became the CEO of μTorrent, working with μTorrent founder Ludvig Strigeus until μTorrent was sold to BitTorrent in December 2006. Strigeus would later join Ek as a Spotify developer.
The sale of Advertigo as well as his previous work made Ek wealthy enough that he decided to retire. However, after a few months, he realized he wanted a new project, leading to him founding Spotify. Ek first had the idea for Spotify around 2002 when peer-to-peer music service Napster shut down and another illegal site Kazaa took over. Ek said he "realized that you can never legislate away from piracy. Laws can definitely help, but it doesn't take away the problem. The only way to solve the problem was to create a service that was better than piracy and at the same time compensates the music industry – that gave us Spotify." Ek incorporated Spotify AB with Martin Lorentzon in Stockholm, Sweden in 2006. Lorentzon had previously worked at and co-founded TradeDoubler, which acquired Ek's previous company Advertigo. In October 2008, the company launched its legal music streaming service Spotify. Initially, Spotify ran on a peer-to-peer distribution model, similar to μTorrent, but switched to a server-client model in 2014. In October 2016, Spotify co-founder Martin Lorentzon announced he would be stepping down as chairman and Ek would be taking over alongside his role as CEO. As of April 2019, Spotify has 217 million active users and as of June 2017 had raised over $2.5 billion in venture funding. In 2011, 2012 and 2013, Ek was selected for the Forbes 30 under 30 list in the Technology, Consumer Technology and Music categories, followed by the Forbes 30 under 30 Hall of Fame in 2022. In 2017, Ek was named the most powerful person in the music industry by Billboard. In May 2022, Ek invested an additional $50 million to acquire more Spotify shares, citing an optimistic future outlook for the streaming giant. Spotify at that time had 182 million paying subscribers and was growing at 15% year on year. On 30 September 2025, Ek announced that he would step down as CEO of Spotify at the end of the year, while remaining as executive chairman. In the role, his succeeding co-CEOs will continue to report to him, while he focuses on capital allocation, long-term strategy, and regulatory efforts.
Ek co-founded the medical technology company Neko Health in 2018, along with engineer Hjalmar Nilsonne. The company provides full-body scans and blood tests, and uses sensors and artificial intelligence to collect and analyze health data. Initially self-funded with €30 million from Ek through his investment vehicle, the company has since received backing from outside investors. Ek chairs the company but is not involved in daily operations. As of 2026, the company has locations in Stockholm and London.
Ek established Prima Materia, an investment company, along with Spotify investor Shakil Khan in February 2021, pledging to invest $1 billion into European "moonshots." Prima Materia was an early investor in German defense technology company Helsing, of which Ek is chairman. In 2025, the Financial Times reported Prima Materia led a €600 million (£446 million) investment in Helsing.
