David ?

Logo of David ?

David is co-founder and operational head behind the YouTube channel Simplicissimus, which was founded as a team together with Jonas and is today one of the most far-reaching social media channels for political and social video essays in the German-speaking region. After a period with the public broadcasting Funk network, David moved with Simplicissimus to independence in 2022 and built production up to a 32-member team, which also handles international projects and podcasts. In summer 2025, the sale of a majority stake to Electrify Video Partners followed, a step that was viewed critically by parts of the community and raises questions about editorial independence as well as commercial influence on the channel's topic selection. Simplicissimus defends the cooperation by stating that Electrify does not interfere editorially but rather handles administrative processes and thus creates space for content work.
Little is publicly known about David, as he, like his co-founder Jonas, consciously maintains anonymity. Only their place of residence, Amsterdam, and their voice are known. Their working methods and public presentation are carefully curated, with personal information disclosed only to a limited extent.

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  • Jonas ?
    Jonas is co-founder and creative head of Simplicissimus, which he founded together with David. Along with David, he also operates the channels fern, UNFASSBAR, and 2 bored guys. Jonas and David together hold up to 49.9% of Simplicissimus's operating company. The real names and appearance of both founders are not publicly known—they justify this with a desire for anonymity and threats that have been received following the publication of opinion essays.
  • Owen Maher
    Owen Maher is co-founder and co-CEO of Electrify Video Partners. In his role, he focuses primarily on optimizing the operational business of Electrify's investments. He coordinates contact with the individual channels under the Electrify umbrella. He is currently president of the company behind the English-language YouTube channels Veritasium and Simple History (together more than 30 million subscribers). Previously, he held leadership positions in the private equity business at Credit Suisse and KKR.
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ownership data is not publicly available, company/channel denies the release of information or does not respond, no public record exists
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The ownership stakes in Simplicissimus's operating company are not accessible in public registers. Through research, however, we were able to confirm that Electrify Video Partners Ltd acquired shares in a range of 50-80% through its investment and that no other shareholders apart from "David" and "Jonas" have ownership in Simplicissimus's operating company. David resides in the Netherlands, a jurisdiction with low disclosure and documentation requirements, which is why only limited information about the operational business behind Simplicissimus and David's business activities are publicly available.

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