Balderton Capital announced that they have brought on former General Partner of Wellington Partners Daniel Waterhouse, a move that comes as Balderton Capital continues to grow its European presence. Alongside Accel & Index Partners, Balderton Capital is among the few pan-European VC funds that actually invests pan-European, and the addition of Waterhouse – who has built up a hefty network across Germany, investing in YPlan, EyeEm, Hailo & more through Wellington – bodes well for Balderton Capital.
For French startups, Waterhouse may best be known for his days at Yahoo, where he was in charge of $600 Million acquisition of Kelkoo, easily one of France’s largest exits in recent years (especially in the B2C space). He’ll be joining a VC firm that has backed nearly 100 entrepreneurs in the past 10 years, with nearly $2 Billion in Assets Under Management.
Waterhouse will likely welcome the change, given that Wellington Partners has been rumored to be parting ways with the tech sector in favor of its life sciences division. Balderton, meanwhile, has invested in 12 startups in the past 12 months, and shows no sign of stopping.
I recently sat down with another veteran partner at Balderton, Bernard Liautaud, to talk about his time at Balderton and what the future holds for Balderton & himself. Given the buzz around Balderton these days, I think they will easily surpass Accel in terms of European technology portfolio – Index Ventures may be another story, but we may find ourselves talking less about “Index & Accel” and more about “Index & Balderton.”