Kai Buehler

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT KAI BUEHLER

Kai Buehler, Ph.D, is Co-Founder of ZALUD, the Citrus Sake Aperitivo from the Mediterranean, and an active early-stage investor in tech, better-for-you and climate startups. In Kai co-founded his first start-up, plan_b media, which he successfully grew to be a leading provider of mobile entertainment content with offices in New York, Cologne, London and Vienna. The company was acquired by a T-Mobile Venture (now boku) in 2005. From 2004 – 2016 Kai lived in NYC and LA/SF where he founded and managed start-ups and corporate spin-outs such as Watchpoints. In 2011, Kai sold Watchpoints, the first app that rewarded viewers for watching television, to Viggle (NASDAQ: VGGL). Previously, Kai was the CEO of Mobile Messaging Solutions (mms), Inc, a leading mobile engagement provider that divested out of VeriSign in 2009 (NASDAQ: VRSN). His company managed and processed over 1 billion SMS messages annually for major iTV shows, including American Idol, America’s Got Talent, Big Brother, Survivor, and Dancing with the Stars. Kai was also a Professor of Digital Entrepreneurship at the RFH University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany (Rheinische Hochschule Köln) from 20••••24 and a Representative for the German State of NRW in California (NRW.GlobalBusiness). As an angel and venture investor, he has made over 30+ startup investments, among them the eCommerce extension Honey, which was acquired by Paypal for $4 billion in 2020.In 2025 Kai turned his passion and interest for sake and aperitifs into a business. He founded ZALUD (from the Spanish Salud - cheers, health) and started brewing sake with organic Spanish rice and blending it with citrus fruits and botanicals from Mallorca. The result is a refreshing, lower-alcohol aperitivo that highlights tropical fruit, umami and citrus flavours. He also completed his education as a Sake Sommelier, holding the WSET Level 3 Award in Sake and the Certified Sake Professional-certificate. Kai studied at Universities in Europe and Asia; he graduated with a Master in Business and a PhD in Economics from the University of Paderborn, Germany and the University of Hong Kong. He was also founder of KARMAKARMA, a social enterprise that worked with 150+ non-profits providing over one million real social impacts throughout the world.