Only a few weeks after 20VC introduced its third funding car, TechCrunch has discovered from a number of sources that the comparatively new VC agency primarily based in London is gaining a brand new basic companion. Julien Codorniou is leaving Felix Capital, the place he has been a founding advisor since 2015 and a companion since 2021, to affix 20VC to deal with early-stage investments.
Harry Stebbings launched 20VC in 2020 because the enterprise capital extension of his eponymous podcast collection. The podcast was inbuilt 20-minute episodes that had been interviews with founders, traders and operators, and 20VC was initially envisioned as a “micro VC”, during which Stebbings would make investments smaller quantities alongside greater backers, offering abilities and recommendation on development alongside his cash.
However similar to Stebbings’ interviews lately have change into for much longer than 20 minutes, 20VC has additionally grown. In 2021, 20VC closed a $140 million fund. And for its third fund two months in the past, 20VC managed to safe $400 million. Round $125 million of that fund is devoted to seed investments and $275 million shall be allotted towards Collection A rounds.
Provided that there are few acquisitions and even fewer IPOs in Europe lately, elevating $400 million within the present tech atmosphere may very well be thought-about an achievement. It additionally proves that Stebbings has constructed a profitable media platform that may be leveraged for tech investments with optimistic community results.
Over the previous few months, 20VC has been rising its group in order that it might deploy the capital it has raised. Along with Kieran Hill, who joined as a seed companion again in 2021, Paul Bonnet (basic companion) and Alexandre Dewez (companion) respectively left DST International and Eurazeo earlier this 12 months to deal with Collection A investments (and later) for 20VC.
Julien Codorniou is the newest addition to the group. He’s going to be 20VC’s third basic companion, specializing in seed investments. This shall be a change of tempo for him, as Felix Capital often leads funding rounds at a later stage.
As a part of Felix Capital, he participated in funding rounds in Pigment, Agave, Omada, TechWolf, and Prediko and Agave — a gaming firm whose Collection A was introduced solely yesterday. He has additionally been a enterprise angel, investing his personal cash in Bloom & Wild, Xentral, Homesome, Olio, Peanut, Nabla, Curio, Bits, and Sunday.
As an angel investor, he additionally obtained to work together with Stebbings as they each invested in Tripledot Studios, BeReal, and Linktree.
Earlier than his profession in VC, Codorniou was at Microsoft after which spent 11 years working for Fb (now Meta). Particularly, he oversaw Office, Fb’s communication platform for enterprise clients.