IQ Capital welcomes Simon Hirtzel as General Partner & COO

Simon Hirtzel, alumnus of the University of Cambridge holding a degree in Natural Sciences, served as Chief Financial Officer at PA Consulting Group until 2007, then as Chief Operating Officer of Kreos Capital, Europe’s leading growth debt provider for high-growth companies. In his new role at IQ Capital, Simon will focus on building LP relationships to further IQ’s ambitions of taking companies through their entire growth cycle, from seed to exit. Simon brings to IQ his experience of managing operations, finance and compliance teams, providing deal-level support to portfolio companies, and execution of overall fund strategy.

This appointment builds on IQ Capital’s £140m IQ Fund III investing at Seed and Series A and the £100m IQ Growth Opportunities Fund which provides later-stage capital to its existing venture portfolio, with investments including the portfolio’s outperformers Privitar, Thought Machine and Concirrus.

The firm also appointed Georg Glatz as Principal Investor, Mado Tocquin as Digital Marketing Manager, and Jo Slota-Newson as Investor. With a deep-tech and cyber security background, Georg has extensive experience working in start-ups, tech M&A and VC, most recently with Nauta Capital. At IQ he will be leading new investments within the growing portfolio of thought leading deep-tech companies. Mado Tocquin has held several roles working in the tech industry, and will be responsible for IQ’s digital marketing and portfolio community management. Jo Slota-Newson has extensive experience in the tech and VC industries, and previously worked as Investment Manager at Mercia Asset Management. Jo will be joining IQ in July 2020.

Simon Hirtzel, General Partner at IQ Capital commented:
“I am delighted to be joining IQ Capital, a firm renowned for the experience of its partners and strong growing team – and in backing ground-breaking deep-tech companies. IQ is in an exciting space in the market and is very well positioned, with four high-performing funds that demonstrate their expertise in IP-rich investment. The firm has also demonstrated that it is on an exciting trajectory, in particular with the recent Growth Opportunities Fund in bringing their investments to fruition. I have joined to build on the quality and standards that IQ has already developed to attract institutional investment into the deep tech space.

Max Bautin, Managing Partner at IQ Capital commented:
“We are hugely excited to have Simon on-board at this important phase of our growth and the excellent opportunity that lies ahead in early stage deep tech space. Like all IQ team members, Simon has a love of technology and deep tech expertise. He also brings valuable institutional experience to the firm – having gone through a similar trajectory at Kreos. Simon will play a key role in creating further relationships with institutional LPs and will help us grow our deep tech growth capital strategy. The appointment of Simon, Georg, Mado, and Jo is an important step in continuing to expand IQ Capital’s operating capability.”

ENDS

About IQ Capital
IQ Capital is a venture capital firm, based between Cambridge and London, that invests in ‘deep-tech’ across sectors including machine learning, AI, robotics, and advanced engineering and materials, and data-focused propositions based on disruptive algorithms. All of the firm’s portfolio companies are capable of dominating their respective markets on a global scale. Initial investments range from £300k to £5m, with capacity for follow-on investment up to £30m through the growth fund.

The IQ Capital team has achieved over 20 exits to date, to companies including Oracle, Google, Apple, Huawei, and Facebook, and several IPOs including Stillfront Group. IQ Capital has led 25 investments over the last three years. The firm makes initial investments at Seed and Series A stage, currently investing from its £140m 2018 vintage IQ Capital Fund III.

For more information, please visit www.iqcapital.vc