British tech entrepreneur, co-founder of Lastminute.com, Brent Hoberman,and now investor of MyDeco.com, Made.com, Founders Forum has recently announced that he will be leaving PROfounders Capital, the London-based investment firm he set up in 2009 together with Michael Birch, Peter Dubens, Jonnie Goodwin, Rogan Angelini-Hurll and Sean Seton-Rogers.
Hoberman has decided not to stay with the firm as it raises its second fund to invest in European startups; existing portfolio companies include OneFineStay, Busuu and GetYourGuide.
Instead, Hoberman is raising a separate fund to invest smaller amounts in more startups. In a note on his LinkedIn profile, the entrepreneur and angel investor says he aims to inject £500,000 to £1.5 million into promising early-stage tech companies.
Hoberman has declined to say who else is involved, who the backers are, and what the target size of the fund is, but he did say he’s been ramping up angel investments in startups like Maven and Onfido and is planing on doing more similar deals as 2016 unfolds.
Aside from the new seed fund, Hoberman is also going to focus on Founders Factory which is described on its website as “part accelerator, part labs, part venture fund”.
From the Founders Factory website, we learn at least some of the people who are also in the mix: Henry Lane Fox, Jim Meyerle, David Hickson, Paul Egan and George Northcott.
Aside from Founders Factory and the new seed fund, Hoberman will also remain involved in a number of other ventures, as chairman of Made.com, Founders Forum and startups such as SmartUp andIntros.at, and spend time evangelising Founders Forum For Good and the Founders Pledge.
Hoberman has also recently left the board of Guardian Media Group’s to join the board of The Economist and has also stepped down from the board of Shazam, though he will remain on the board of TalkTalk, and an advisory board member toLetterOne Technology and is also still an advisor to the UK government.
