Five Key Innovation Areas at Hello Tomorrow
A summary of the innovation on show at this year’s Hello Tomorrow.
Andrew Griffin, former MD at BofA Merrill Lynch, joins Bloc Ventures as CFO
1 April 2019, London. Bloc Ventures Limited (Bloc), the permanent venture capital company, announces Andrew “Griff” Griffin as CFO. Griff joins the executive management team alongside co-founders, Bruce Beckloff and David Leftley who started Bloc specifically to meet the unmet demand in Europe for expert-led funding of early-stage deep technology companies.
Griff spent 17 years in investment banking where he was a highly respected technology analyst, recognised as a No1 ranked semiconductor analyst in Europe, and was managing director of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s European technology research team. He went on to work with a number of technology businesses advising on and implementing their growth strategies. He has worked with both public and private technology companies to raise money and improve their operating models, assisting them in explaining their businesses to outside investors, and in many instances to themselves – a role he continues with the Bloc portfolio.
Bruce Beckloff, CEO, commented:
“We are delighted that Griff has joined Bloc at such an exciting time in the company’s lifecycle. With a deep understanding of the industry and years of experience advising technology companies, Griff’s financial expertise perfectly complements Bloc’s already robust detailed due-diligence pre-investment and hands-on post-investment capabilities.”
-ENDS-
Notes to Editors
About Bloc Ventures
Bloc Ventures is a permanent venture capital company providing expert led funding of European deep technology which thinks differently about investing and scaling early-stage companies. Bloc is passionate about supporting and growing the next generation of European technology businesses at the forefront of telecommunications and computing. Bloc provides its shareholders exposure to the exciting, high growth early-stage European deep-technology landscape with 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 quickly scale them post-investment.
Bloc serves as the catalyst for portfolio companies moving them from early-stage to growth businesses, driving substantial value-creation. This positions Bloc as the preferred investor partner for tech businesses.
