London-based VC firm Hiro Capital has snapped up two high-profile individuals from the European tech scene, as it launches a new fund targeting the European scaleup gap.
Nick Clegg, the former deputy PM and former Meta executive, is joining as general partner and Meta's outgoing chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, is joining Hiro Capital’s advisory board.
The pair join as the VC firm launches a new UK and Europe-focused fund targeting the scaleup gap, a long-standing issue which sees European founders struggle to get scaling up capital across the continent.
The London and Luxembourg-based firm’s new fund, called Hiro lll, is a multi-stage fund deploying cheques of between €5m and €50m.
It will focus on an array of sectors including spatial AI, robotics, immersive computing and defence. The fund aims to have more than $582m to deploy, according to reports.
The VC, founded in 2018, has previously invested in gaming and metaverse companies in the UK, Europe and North America.
Hiro Capital was founded by Luke Alvarez, the co-founder of Inspire Entertainment, the Nasdaq-listed games and virtual sports firm, Sir Ian Livingstone, former chairman of the studio behind the game Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Cherry Freeman, the co-founder of crafts marketplace LoveCrafts.
It is unclear how many hours Clegg, who served as Meta's president of global affairs, will be dedicating to the role.
Clegg said: “I joined Hiro because I share with the founders a belief in the rise of immersive computing and Spatial AI. We will move from staring at the internet, to living in the internet.
"We are right in the early stages of that platform shift with the convergence of spatial technologies and next-generation world model AIs. Unlike other funds, Hiro is wholly focused on those themes, entirely within Europe.
"This is an amazing moment of opportunity for the UK/Europe’s tech ecosystem. We have some of the most outstanding researchers and universities on the planet, and great engineers and entrepreneurs, too. Our problem is not a lack of innovation, it is a lack of capital at scale.
"Europe may have its critics, but we have a vibrant start-up scene which is now ready to accelerate – I believe the Hiro team has the unique geographic and technological reach to help make that happen.”
LeCun, who is French, said: "I am delighted to be joining the Hiro advisory board. We are entering a new phase of AI – an era of systems which can understand the physical world, have persistent memory and which can reason and plan complex actions.
"Hiro's track record of investing in spatial technologies, 3D tech, wearables and gaming means they are exceptionally well placed to capitalise on this new wave of opportunity in Europe."
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