In the latest game of VC musical chairs, more personnel changes have taken place in London’s Venture Capital community, including departures at MMC Ventures, Balderton Capital, DFJ Esprit, and Index Ventures.
In a heartfelt and extremely candid blog post (and subsequent podcast), Harry Briggs announced on Friday that he was leaving Balderton Capital, where he’d been an investor for 5 years, to help start a new VC fund, promising more details in the coming days.
Good to his word, news broke on Sunday that Briggs is teaming up with Rory Stirling, who has left MMC Ventures, and ex-Lovefilm CEO Simon Calver, to lead a new £200 million fund targeting early-stage U.K. technology startups on behalf of Business Growth Fund (BGF).
Meanwhile, TechCrunch has learned that Gil Dibner and Scott Sage have quietly left DFJ Esprit. Dibner’s departure dates back to March, while, according to his LinkedIn profile, Sage left last month.
Both appear to have departed the London-based VC firm to double down on their own independent investments and startup advisory roles. In Dibner’s case, he’s running a syndicate on AngelList, which has already raised over $500,000 (thought to be the biggest outside of the U.S.), and will be investing in European and Israeli startups in the enterprise space.
Of note, it was only in late 2013 that Dibner left Index Ventures, where he was a Principal, to become a Partner at DFJ Esprit. And just a few months earlier Sage was promoted by the firm to become one of the youngest to make full Partner at a major VC in Europe.
(Update: It’s looks like DFJ Esprit has also lost General Partner Krishna Visvanathan, who, according to his LinkedIn profile, quit the firm in April.)
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Finally, it would be remiss not to note what feels like the end of an era at Index Ventures. In April, Saul Klein announced that he was leaving the VC firm, where he’d been since October 2006, to focus his “energies on starting new companies and investing in, supporting and mentoring founders at inception stage”.
Klein, who most recently co-founded Kano, also said he plans to continue working with his father, Robin Klein, who, as of last month, has also ended his role at the London-based VC firm where he was a Venture Partner, according to the Index Ventures website.
