Martin Varsavsky

Argentine entrepreneur Martín Varsavsky was born on 26 April 1960 in Buenos Aires to Carlos Varsavsky, a Harvard-educated astrophysicist, and Silvia Waisman-Diamond. 

Raised in a Jewish household, he attended the New Model School for his primary education and the Colegio Nicolás Avellaneda for secondary school. Aged 16, his studies were interrupted after Jorge Rafael Videla seized power in a coup d’etat. 

President Isabel Peron was overthrown and the military declared martial law. Martin was expelled from school because of his family’s political and racial persuasions. He refused to enrol in a different school, taking control of his own studies. He recalls his satisfaction returning to the school that had excluded him and passing all his exams. 

While backpacking in early 1977, he heard about the “forced disappearance” of his beloved cousin David, who had been kidnapped from his home by the junta. He was just 17 when he was murdered. The shock hit Martin hard and he fell ill, losing nine kilos in two weeks. When he recovered, he took a job as an apprentice carpenter at the local shipyard. It was backbreaking work and he vowed he would never do manual labour again. 

The Varsavsky family fled to the US with the help of Jewish organisation B’nai B’rith and were granted refugee visas by the New York Senator Patrick Moynihan. Martin took the scenic route to New York. He had been accepted to New York University but flew to San Francisco first, backpacking 6,000 miles across America. 

Martin earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University in 1981. He then obtained a Master of Arts in International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in 1983, followed by an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1985.

While in grad school, Martin founded his first company, Urban Capital Corporation. His partner was Len Kahn, who was eight years his senior and already successful in the real estate business. The business bought, renovated and managed properties in New York, focusing on Tribeca and Soho. Urban Capital was part of a burgeoning loft movement, turning industrial buildings into residential apartments and office spaces. It developed more than 400,000 square feet of property and the founders raised a total of $12m in debt and equity. Martin remains a passionate real estate investor to this day. 

Martin’s journey into medtech began in 1986 when he co-founded Medicorp Sciences with Claudio Cuello and César Milstein, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. Medicorp was based in Montreal and was among the first companies to develop AIDS and cancer diagnostic products, including HIV and PSA tests. 

More recently, medtech has become the focus of Martin’s career. In 2015, he pivoted into the fertility space, after he and Nina, then his partner but now his wife, struggled with infertility and used several reproductive technologies to have their children.  

He created Prelude Fertility in 2015 and Overture Life in 2017. Prelude is now the largest chain of fertility clinics in the US, while Overture Life has automated the embryology lab, making fertility treatments more accessible and affordable. It’s backed by visionary investors like Khosla Ventures and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff.  

Before helping people have children became his mission, he was focused on telecoms. He founded Viatel in 1991, Jazztel in 1997, and Ya.com in 1999, which was later acquired by T-Online International for over €550 million. In 2005, he launched Fon, a global WiFi-sharing network backed by major investors such as Google, Skype, and Microsoft.

In addition to his business ventures, Varsavsky has made significant contributions to education and democratic development through the Varsavsky Foundation. He supported the creation of educational portals like Educ.ar in Argentina and Educarchile.cl in Chile, and founded the Safe Democracy Foundation to promote transparent and inclusive democratic processes.

Varsavsky holds degrees from New York University and Columbia University, and has taught entrepreneurship at leading academic institutions including IE Business School, NYU and Columbia University. He also served on the supervisory board of Axel Springer, one of Europe’s largest digital publishing houses.

Throughout his career, Varsavsky has championed innovation, education, and social impact, positioning himself as a leading voice in global entrepreneurship and technological progress.