A Deliveroo rider close to Victoria station on March 31, 2021 in London, England.
Dan Kitwood | Getty Images
European enterprise capital agency Hoxton Ventures, a backer of a number of the U.Okay.’s best-known tech unicorns, is ready to lose one in all its founding companions.
Rob Kniaz, who co-founded Hoxton in 2013 with Hussein Kanji, is in talks with institutional funding corporations about establishing a brand new enterprise capital fund specializing in deep tech investing, sources aware of the matter informed CNBC.
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Kniaz’s departure is just not imminent and he’ll proceed managing the $215 million fund the agency raised final yr as he prepares to ultimately exit to deal with his new VC agency, in response to the 2 sources, who most popular to stay nameless as the knowledge has not but been made public.
The timeline on Kniaz’s departure stays unclear at this stage, the sources added.
Kanji and Kniaz, two Americans who moved to the U.Okay. to spend money on European startups, have backed a number of the nation’s most notable unicorns. They embody meals supply app Deliveroo and cybersecurity agency Darktrace.
News of Kniaz’s plan to exit the agency arrives at a tumultuous time for the tech business. Last yr was a troublesome one for growth-stage startups, whose valuations declined in response to rising rates of interest and softer client spending. Layoffs have additionally plagued the business.
Some of Hoxton’s portfolio corporations have seen their public market values sink as buyers re-examined their publicity to tech.
Deliveroo has fallen 68% because it debuted in April 2021. Darktrace, which floated shortly after Deliveroo, is down 21% beneath its IPO value and is the topic of a short-seller assault over alleged flaws in its accounting. Babylon Health has misplaced 95% of its market worth since going public through a mix with a particular function acquisition firm.
Nonetheless, Hoxton generated a hundredfold return on its early bets on Deliveroo and grew the worth of its Darktrace place by fiftyfold since first investing within the firm, in response to one of many sources.
It did nevertheless lose cash on its Babylon Health deal, the supply added.
Source: www.cnbc.com”