Bloc Ventures adds Samantha Wren to its Board along with raising over £20m equity funding

– UK, London –  Bloc Ventures  Limited, the venture capital company focussed on early-stage European deep technology investment,  today announced the company has raised over £20m in equity funding from UK industry leaders.

The latest funding round  was led by Michael Spencer’s  investment company IPGL Limited and supported by a number of  other industry leaders including Warren East, Christopher Miller, Gavyn Davies, Stuart Roden, and Stephen Catlin, who also serves as a non-executive director on the Bloc Board. As part of the round, Samantha Wren, CEO of IPGL, also joins  as a non-executive director.

Bloc was founded by  CEO  Bruce Beckloff,  CTO  David Leftley,  technology  industry veterans from ARM and Vodafone respectively, and Chairman Paul Roy,  to fill the gap  in Europe  for expert-led  funding  of  early-stage deep technology companies.

Andrew Griffin, former managing director of European technology equity research for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, joined as CFO in early 2019.

The team  has already built a portfolio of nine companies and will use the new funds for new portfolio additions and follow-on investments in line with Bloc’s strategy to create companies of global scale with  enduring  value in the European deep technology market. Sectors in which Bloc has invested include  high-performance computing,  wireless communications, networking infrastructure, and the Internet of Things.

Commenting on this announcement, Paul Roy, Chairman of Bloc said: “We are very pleased to  have reached this  significant  milestone and to welcome further notable new shareholders to Bloc, and Sam Wren to the Board. Sam  brings considerable expertise and a full understanding of the perspectives of the professional investor to the table. Existing and new investors have supported Bloc in this funding round, and we are excited by the opportunity to accelerate the growth and success of  our current portfolio and continue our disciplined approach to investing in new  companies in the deep technology space.”

Bruce  Beckloff,  Co-Founder and CEO  added: “Our approach is to  invest in companies in the deep technology sector that provide the picks and shovels  for the digital world. With Bloc’s hands-on approach and complementary mix of  experience and  expertise, we are  uniquely  placed  to identify and invest in the next generation of technology companies, whilst de-risking the journey  for  our shareholders by actively helping our companies optimise and scale.  It is a significant endorsement of our strategy to have such notable industry players backing Bloc. We look forward to continuing our journey to build a global brand for investing in deep technology in Europe.”

About Samantha Wren

Samantha Wren joined the interdealer broker  ICAP  in 2009 as Group Treasurer and later became CFO and  COO  of the voice-broking division.  On the sale of this division, Wren became the Chief Commercial Officer for NEX Markets, which  houses  NEX Group’s trading venues, before becoming Group CFO and COO of NEX Group Plc.  In 2019 she became Chief Executive Officer of  ICAP  founder  Michael Spencer’s  private  investment company, IPGL.

About Bloc Ventures

Bloc Ventures is a permanent venture capital company  providing expert-led funding of European deep technology. Bloc is  passionate about supporting and growing the next generation of  European  technology businesses  at the forefront of telecommunications and  computing. It  provides  its  shareholders with access to the exciting, high growth early-stage European deep-technology landscape using an approach that lowers the risk of crystallising returns.

The Bloc team has a tight complementary mix of technology, commercialisation and finance expertise borne out of extensive careers in the technology industry, including many years in corporate venture capital and M&A  at Vodafone and ARM. They apply  expertise via detailed due diligence pre-investment, and a hands-on collaborative approach with portfolio  companies to scale them rapidly post-investment.

Bloc  serves  as the catalyst for  its portfolio  companies, moving them from early-stage to growth businesses and driving substantial value-creation. This positions Bloc as the preferred investor partner for tech businesses.

For more information: https://www.blocventures.com

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