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Bloc Ventures

Bloc Ventures

Bloc Ventures is a permanent venture capital company that thinks differently about investing and scaling deep tech companies

  • Experience
  • Approach
  • Portfolio
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Experience

Tight complementary mix of experience

Technology is in our DNA. Born out of successful careers in corporate venturing, few others have been exposed to the scale and diversity of companies and technologies than the Bloc team. The team has an inimitable mix of technical, commercial and financial expertise but with a common background of engineering education. David and Bruce come out of two of the leading global technology companies’ that have shaped the future of technology, Vodafone and ARM, and Andrew from global investment bank Merrill Lynch.

David Leftley

David Leftley

Co-Founder and CTO

David Leftley

David Leftley

Co-Founder and CTO

David was Chief Engineer for Technology Evaluation and led Vodafone’s corporate venture team in Europe during his 14 years at Vodafone. In this time the fund was ranked in the top 5 CVCs, David was included in Wired Magazine’s top 100 innovators’ list and he was named as one of the most influential CVCs in the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist 100. He knows how to spot a commercial technology and test to ensure that it is defensible and disruptive. Starting in the defence industry he learned that with the right people and the right money anything is possible. He brings this invaluable expertise to Bloc and knows how to dig deep and personally look under the bonnet while understanding the commercial ramification of industry dynamics.

Bruce Beckloff

Bruce Beckloff

Co-Founder and CEO

Bruce Beckloff

Bruce Beckloff

Co-Founder and CEO

Bruce understands the concept of creating customer pull rather than relying on technology push after spending 12 years at ARM, masters in this field. He employs the same strategy at Bloc and with its investments by bringing in larger industry players, including Bloc shareholders, to work with our partner companies. He is instrumental in helping Bloc’s partner companies align their strategies to scale commercially and quickly. Bruce’s tech expertise and commercial acumen led him to own the overall corporate strategy for ARM and, as part of this, create ARM’s investment activity. He was named one of the most influential CVCs in the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist 100.

Andrew Griffin

Andrew Griffin

CFO

Andrew Griffin

Andrew Griffin

CFO

Andrew has worked with 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. Andrew understands the importance of rigorous financial management for all companies, an area which most start-ups either do not have the time, money or inclination to implement properly. Andrew spent 17 years in investment banking where he was a highly respected technology equity analyst, recognised as a No1 ranked semiconductor analyst in Europe, and was managing director of Merrill Lynch’s European technology research team.

Michael Dimelow

Michael Dimelow

CCO

Michael Dimelow

Michael Dimelow

CCO

Michael comes with a strong track record in technology companies from a strategic, commercial and an investment perspective. Following 15 years in senior leadership position at ARM Holdings and TTP Communications – two of the UKs most progressive deep technology businesses. As co-founder of Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV), acting as CIO, deployed over £85 million. Michael helped build a portfolio of over 30 companies which included B-secur, Push Dr, UIPath and deployed fund of fund investments in seven funds such as Entrepreneur First, IQ Capital and Seedcamp. During his career, Michael has led teams responsible for investing in excess of $500m in deep technology businesses.

Dimitris Stoimenou

Dimitris Stoimenou

Investment Director

Dimitris Stoimenou

Dimitris Stoimenou

Investment Director

Dimitris has hands-on experience of driving commercial and technology innovation across the telecommunications sector, gained through a wide variety of operational and strategic roles in mobile, fixed and satellite operators Vodafone, Colt and Inmarsat. While at Vodafone he was named on two telecommunications patent applications. He understands what it takes for a technology start-up to succeed in the enterprise space from a product and a commercial perspective, which he applies both during the investment identification process and in the subsequent post investment scaling phase. Dimitris has an M.Eng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Imperial College London, and an MBA from London Business School.

Ryan Procter

Ryan Procter

Head of Marketing

Ryan Procter

Ryan Procter

Head of Marketing

Ryan has spent his career working with startups to create effective marketing strategies. After three years launching products in the marketing team at Tech Nation, Ryan moved into VC as Marketing Lead for ADV (alongside Michael Dimelow) where he provided hands on support for 30+ portfolio companies. He then joined a startup, becoming Head of Marketing at Evolution AI, which extracts data from large sets of financial documents. Now he’s joined forces with Mike again as Head of Marketing for Bloc Ventures, leading all our communication efforts and supporting our portfolio companies as they engage with the world.

Allan Bartlett

Allan Bartlett

Senior Investment Analyst

Allan Bartlett

Allan Bartlett

Senior Investment Analyst

Allan has over 20 years’ experience of delivering new technologies with Motorola, Vodafone and the GSMA. Across his career he led technology strategy projects, driving investment decisions and bringing a rigorous strategic and commercial approach to identifying investment focus areas. Whilst at Vodafone he also worked in Vodafone’s corporate venturing unit. Allan has four patents to his name and a PhD in High Frequency Communications from the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Leeds.

Magda Theodorou

Magda Theodorou

Office Manager

Magda Theodorou

Magda Theodorou

Office Manager

Magda has worked with Bloc since 2016 and joined the team full-time in 2019. She is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations and administration of the Bloc office including accounting, invoicing and facilities management, organising events, and she acts as a exec assistant to the investment team. She was previously office manager at Bloc portfolio company Marmalade Game Studios, and at Investit, now part of the Accenture investment management insights business. Magda has a Masters and Engineering degrees in Environmental Protection (Natural Resources) and post graduate study in Health and Safety in a work place.

Valentina Sponza

Valentina Sponza

Finance Analyst

Valentina Sponza

Valentina Sponza

Finance Analyst

Valentina comes with a strong background in financial analysis, following up a Management degree at the University of Warwick with a Masters in Financial Analysis from the London Business School. She spent two years as an equity research analyst on the consumer team at Morgan Stanley in London. She joined Bloc in 2020 and predominantly works on Day-2 activities supporting the portfolio and actively working with the executive teams on financial modelling, fundraising, setting KPIs and improving the efficiency of finance operations.

Board of Directors

Bloc’s influential global network, many of whom have become shareholders, has been carefully curated over the years and Bloc draws on these key players as appropriate. Bloc’s Board and foundation investors are highly respected industry influencers who bring knowledge and access to further industry connections in all sectors.

Paul Roy

Paul Roy

Non Executive Chairman

Paul Roy

Paul Roy

Non Executive Chairman

Paul has over 40 years’ experience in the Banking, Brokerage and Asset Management industries. Having started his career at the stockbroking firm Kemp Gee he subsequently became Senior Partner following the merger with Scrimgeour Vickers and Citibank. In 1988, he joined Smith New Court as CEO, and merged the business with Merrill Lynch in 1995 after which he became EVP and President of Merrill Lynch Global Markets and Investment banking. He left Merrill in 2003 to found NewSmith Capital Partners, subsequently acquired by Man Group in 2015. He is former Chairman of New River Retail plc and Sky Bet. He is currently serving as a non-executive director of S4 Capital, a new age/new era digital multi-national advertising and marketing services company. He is also senior advisor to Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Japan’s largest fiduciary and asset management company. He has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Economics and an Honorary Doctorate of Law from Liverpool University.

Stephen Catlin

Stephen Catlin

Non Executive Director

Stephen Catlin

Stephen Catlin

Non Executive Director

Stephen has over 40 years’ experience in the Insurance industry. Having begun his insurance career in 1973 joining BL Evens & Others on Syndicate 264 at Lloyd’s, he founded Catlin Underwriting Agencies Limited in 1984, which later became part of Catlin Group Limited. Stephen served as the Catlin Group’s Chief Executive throughout its history and also served as the active underwriter of Lloyd’s Syndicate 1003 and later Syndicate 2003 until May 2003. He assumed the position of Executive Deputy Chairman of XL Group Ltd from May 2015 (upon the completion of XL’s acquisition of Catlin Group Limited) until May 2017. He was selected as Ernst & Young’s UK Entrepreneur of the Year in October 2011. Stephen was inducted into the International Insurance Society Insurance Hall of Fame in June 2015. He is Chair of the Insurance Development Forum. Stephen is a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation.

Sam Wren

Sam Wren

Non Executive Director

Sam Wren

Sam Wren

Non Executive Director

Samantha (Sam) Wren, CEO of IPGL, has joined the Board. Before IPGL, Sam was Group CFO and COO of NEX Group Plc, the electronic FX and government bond markets and post trade operator where she also served in a variety of roles including Group Chief Commercial Officer, Divisional CFO/COO and Group Treasurer. She also held senior finance positions at the gaming company Rank Group Plc and business services group Rentokil Initial plc. Sam is a chartered management accountant, holds a degree in economics and is a non-executive director of both the UK equity income fund City of London Investment Trust plc and English winemaker Chapel Down Group plc as well as a number of other non-quoted companies in her capacity as IPGL’s CEO.

Bloc’s technical knowledge and high-level of industry fluency helps to develop an immediate, empathetic and valuable connection with founders and removes their need to ‘dumb down’ pitches. Founders are drawn to Bloc because they know from the first meeting that Bloc understand their technology and can help through the application of ‘smart’ money. 

  • "Bruce and David with their science and engineering backgrounds combined with a deep grounding in technology at ARM and Vodafone have expert knowledge of the sector. Andrew Griffin, an experienced and highly rated Technology Analyst, formerly at Merrill Lynch, complements an outstanding team."

    Paul Roy – Chairman and Investor

  • "The main appeal of investing with Bloc is its highly professional team, who have the ability to offer targeted early-stage investments across multiple technology sectors. To date, we have participated in three separate capital raises and are now one of Bloc’s significant shareholders."

    Rupert Bullock – L Batley Holdings

  • "There are a number of reasons why Bloc’s permanent capital structure is attractive as an investor. It allows portfolio companies to grow and mature on a timeline that works best for them, rather than being dictated to by a typical fund timeline of 10 years."

    Christopher Miller – Melrose Plc

  • "The dynamics at play in their core target markets are numerous and their focused approach and deep understanding of tech gives them an edge over their rivals."

    John Martin – South Green Capital

  • "Bloc Ventures provides its investors with access to exciting technology investment opportunities that they might otherwise not be aware of."

    Clive Anderson – h2glenfern

Bloc Ventures Experience

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Bloc Ventures
+44 20 3826 7100
info@blocventures.com

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