Leta’s Lists: 30 European tech entrepreneurs turned VCs
In Venture Capital, there is conventional wisdom that in order to become great as a VC one needs to have previous entrepreneurial experience before launching a VC fund. Why is this the case? Simply because he/she would know how startups are built, having gone through major challenges along the way, holding priceless experience in most of the “running-a-startup” aspects from hiring to fundraising and closing the leads. Which eventually becomes a great intellectual asset which can be monetized via advising and investing in other tech founders.
A great analogy can be seen in sports, where players after retirement from their professional player career convert to coaches, enjoying previously trained athletic proficiency, knowledge and sometimes even brand name. Some of the great examples are Carlo Ancelotti, Kenny Dalglish, Jurgen Klinsmann, Franz Beckenbauer, Pep Guardiola, Zinedine Zidane — all European football; Doc Rivers, Bill Russell, Lenny Wilkens — NBA; Martina Hingis, Ivan Lendl — tennis and many more.
In this blog post, I’d like to share with you a list of 30 European tech entrepreneurs who eventually became very successful VCs having raised numerous funds on the backbone of great investment choices and a plethora of exits. Some of the people below are having such a successful VC career, that for many they are no longer associated with their previous entrepreneurial career, which in fact deserve the attention as well.
But before we jump into exploring the bits and pieces of the European tech elite’s stories, we should probably touch upon the same topic from across the Atlantic. CB Insights did research on the top-100 VCs in the U.S. and found out that ~40% of VC partners ranked had previously co-founded a tech company, while 6 out of top 10 VCs didn’t have any entrepreneurial experience whatsoever (Bill Gurley, Chris Sacca, John Doerr, Mary Meeker, Kirsten Green, Brian Singerman). An overall split between founder-turned-VC VS non-founder-turned-VC among top-100 US VCs looks as follows:
And how about Europe? As per our own research, out of 300 Europe-based VCs who have raised at least one $50M fund, roughly 50 have some previous entrepreneurial background (~17%), while the rest come from either number-crunching backgrounds or being former employees or execs of large organizations.
In this context, I believe we should praise those Europeans who, after having successful careers as tech founders (and making a fortune in most cases), didn’t choose to retire sailing yacht somewhere in Adriatic, but rather opted for a few more decades in the Venture Capital’s roller coaster giving back to the tech founders and tech communities across Europe and beyond.
Why should modern startup founders care whether this or that VC have partner(s) with a previous entrepreneurial background? Because it’s very likely that these particular partners were at the forefront of the European tech industry as we know it today so it’s always great to learn from the best.
As per the list below, on the left of each card, you’ll see the logos of the companies that this person previously co-founded and exited (or scaled) and on the right, you’ll find some details about the VC fund that he or she launched and is currently managing. Hope you’ll enjoy it! If you think there’s somebody important missing in this list — feel free to drop me a note to azemlyak [at] leta dot vc
Eric Archambeau: eGroups → Astanor Ventures
Notable portfolio: Betfair, Almonde, Xing, Spotify, SoundTrackYourBrand, MyTaxi, Import.io, Onfido, Aventron, Soil Capital, Good Eggs, La Ruche Qui Dit Oui, Maven Clinic, Infarm, Ynsect
José del Barrio: La Nevera Roja → Samaipata
Notable portfolio: Matera, Streamloots, Geomiq, Procsea, Spotahome, Foodcheri, Ontruck, Legl, 21Buttons, Motley, Totem, Colvin
Michael Birch: Bebo → PROfounders Capital
Notable portfolio: Made.com, Onefinestay, Tweetdeck, Flux
Leonid Boguslavsky: Logovaz Systems → RTP Global
Notable portfolio: Yandex, Ozon, Delivery Hero, Epam, DataDog, SnapDeal, HeadHunter, iContext, Biglion, ivi.ru, 2GIS, RingCentral
Russell Buckley: AdMob → Kindred Capital
Notable portfolio: Paddle, Pollen, Farewill, Disperse, LabGenius
Alex Chachava: Leta Group → Leta Capital
Notable portfolio: InDriver, Devar, Intelliboard, Unigine, Bright Box, Unomy, Novakid, Cerevrum, Buddy.ai
Filip Dames: Zalando → Cherry Ventures
Notable portfolio: Flixbus, Auto1, Infarm, SellerX
Robert Dighero: QXL ricardo → Passion Capital
Notable portfolio: Flattr, Picklive, Smarkets, StylistPick, Twilio, OnDevice Research, Pusher, Bonfire.fm, Moviepilot, Mendeley, Luluvise, Adzuna, GoSquared, GoCardless
Alexander Galitsky: Elvis → Almaz Capital
Notable portfolio: Acumatica, Vyatta, Odin, StarWind Software, Parallels, Acronis, CarPrice, GoodData, GridGain, iBox / 2can, Jelastic, Octonion, Petcube, Virtuozzo, NFWare, Qik, NavMaps, Start Telecom, Magnifire, SJLabs, PGP
Yaniv Golan: Yedda → Lool Ventures
Notable portfolio: Zooz, Kidoz, Tonara, MyPermissions, Sensibo, Mabaya, Dronomy, DBMaestro, Home365, LowGeex, Farm Dog, MarketMan, Medisafe, Wibbitz, Talenya, Saga Foundation, Voca AI
Fabrice Grinda: OLX → FJ Labs
Notable portfolio: Alibaba, Flexport, Delivery Hero, Betterment, Brightroll
Brent Hoberman: Lastminute.com → firstminute capital
Notable portfolio: echoecho, Roomorama, made.com, Blink Booking, Luluvise, onefinestay, Applifier, CitySocialising, Keynoir, Wayve
Oliver Holle: 3united → Speedinvest
Notable portfolio: Bitmovin, Wefox, TIER Mobility, Billie, Curve, Tourradar
Christoph Janz: DealPilot.com → Point Nine Capital
Notable portfolio: Zendesk, FreeAgent, Geckoboard, Algolia, Typeform, Contentful, ChartMogul
German Kaplun: RBC → TMT Investments
Notable portfolio: Wrike, Bolt, Pipedrive, PandaDoc, DepositPhotos, BlackBlaze, Kanvas Labs, Todoroo, VitalFields, FriendlyData
Saul Klein: Lovefilm → LocalGlobe
Notable portfolio: Last.fm, Dopplr, LoveFilm, Moo, Tweetdeck, Soluto, AlertMe, Codeacademy, MyOptique, Songkick, Chartbeat, MyHeritage, Mind Candy, Kano Computing, Tessian, Improbable, TransferWise, Zoopla
Joshua Levinberg: Gilat Satellite Networks → JAL Ventures
Notable portfolio: Dome9 Security, Fornova, Matan Digital Printers, Feedvisor, NanoRep, DenTack, Kargal
Bernard Liautaud: Business Objects → Balderton Capital
Notable portfolio: Voi, Revolut, Healx, GoCardless, Kaia Health, Simple Feast, Virtuo, Tessian, Darktrace, InFarm, CityMapper
Dov Moran: M-Systems → Grove Ventures
Notable portfolio: TowerJazz, modu, GlucoMe, RapidAPI, TriEye, NeuroBlade, Kiralis Technologies, Wiliot, Spry Health, Triple Jump Medical, Consumer Physics
Marius Nacht: Check Point Software → aMoon
Notable portfolio: Apos Therapy, Igentify, Medial Early Sign, Nobio, Cartiheal, Ayala
Hans Otterling: Waymaker → Northzone
Notable portfolio: Tobii, Klarna, HappyOrNot, Footway, Fishbrain, Outfittery
Panos Papadopoulos: BugSence → Marathon VC
Notable portfolio: Netdata, LearnWorlds, Lenses.io, InAccel, norbloc, balena
Christian Saller: swoodoo → HV Capital
Notable portfolio: GetYourGuide, Cabify, Tourlane, Zencargo, Exporo, Dreamlines, Warehousing1, Zeuz, Trustyou
Mika Salmi: MadRaces → Lakestar
Notable portfolio: Agora, Amuse, Darewise, Netspeak Games, Teralytics, Trace, Welcome, Gameye
Eden Shohat: Face.com → Aleph VC
Notable portfolio: Joytunes, Windward, Houseparty, Colu, CommonSense Robotics, Anodot, LawGeex, TinyTap, Panorays
Marc Simoncini: meetic → Jaïna Capital, daphni
Notable portfolio: Appsfire, Keyade, Monnier, Myfox, OLX, Peak, Plyce, AdoreMe, Devialet, Made.com, Zooz
Jon Uriarte: Ticketbis → All Iron Ventures
Notable portfolio: Barkyn, Indexa Capital, Instacarro, Ironhack, Jeff, JobandTalent, Kodit, Lime, Lingokids, Lookiero, OnTruck, Paack
Jos White: MessageLabs → Notion
Notable portfolio: Brightpearl, eSellerPro, NewVoiceMedia, Tradeshift, GoCardless, Paddle, Unbabel
Elie Wurtman: Deltathree → PICO Partners
Notable portfolio: Vroom, Spot.io, Gloat, ChargeAfter, AutoLeadStar, NJOY
Niklas Zennström: Skype → Atomico
Notable portfolio: Rovio, Klarna, Last.fm, Xobni, Seesmic, Playfire, Wrapp, Quid, 6Wunderkinder, myGengo, Chemist Direct, Lilium, Graphcore, Infarm
Thank you for reading till the end! As a small bonus for your diligence, here is a link to a detailed spreadsheet, which includes not only those from the list above but also a few more! I’m sure there are many more European tech entrepreneurs turned VCs — feel free to reach out to me and share suggestions, and I’ll make sure to update the list accordingly! You can find me on azemlyak[at]leta[dot]vc
At LETA Capital we are pleased to support and invest in Russian-speaking tech entrepreneurs all over the world at late Seed, Series A and early growth stages.
