While at Atlas Ventures, the Belgian Fred Destin managed many of the investment firms French investments, including Dailymotion, Streamnation, KDS, Priceminister & more. After announcing he would leave his role as a Partner at Atlas Ventures to move back to Europe earlier this year, Accel Partners will be bringing him on board as a Partner.
Fred’s return to Europe was a big win for Europe – as an investor, he is both outspoken and opinionated the way we have come to expect leading US VCs to be, and also pragmatic about investing in European companies. His being francophone makes this a particularly large win for France – Next to Index Ventures’ Martin Mignot & Balderton Capital’s Bernard Liautaud, Accel Partners now counts both a French investor, Philippe Botteri, who invested in Blablacar with Accel and Criteo while at Bessemer, as well as a second Francophone one.
In addition to Accel’s latest $1 Billion fund in the Silicon Valley, Accel’s London office raised a $475 Million fund last year, which has gone, among other investments, into PeopleDoc’s latest $17.5 Million fundraising.
I’ve had the pleasure to exchange with Destin on his views around the French tech ecosystem several times on Twitter, and more recently in person – I look forward to having him back in Europe, and, hopefully, bringing more of that sweet London VC money to Paris.