Nearly a decade ago, GV opened the doors to our London office. We came in optimistic and driven by a single curiosity — could our approach to supporting innovative startup founders in the U.S. scale to Europe and Israel?
Since 2014, GV has deployed over $500 million to Europe and Israel’s flourishing startup ecosystems. Our nearly 40-person investment team has been fortunate to meet some of the region’s most transformative founders building GoCardless, CurrencyCloud, Gravity Sketch, Multiverse, Omass Therapeutics, Scandit, and Snyk. We’ve backed over 40 startups across the E.U. and Israel, investing evenly across enterprise, consumer, and life sciences sectors. In recent years we’ve expanded to new geographies, partnering with promising new startups in emerging tech sectors in Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
Building on these experiences, we’ve learned to stay nimble and curious across a diversity of sectors. And today, we’re entering a new chapter: we’re delighted to announce that the talented Luna Schmid has joined our team in London as an investment partner. Luna's breadth of experience ranges from high-conviction, high-risk, ambitious bets at the Softbank Vision Fund and partnership with bootstrapped founders at Summit Partners’ Venture Capital Fund; to distinctive private equity-style deals at Warburg Pincus and investment banking at Morgan Stanley. At GV, Luna will go deep on technology investments, including productivity software, “picks and shovels” businesses, and fintech.
Vidu Shanmugarajah, Tom Hulme, Luna Schmid
When we look to add new investment partners, we look for what we call “T-shaped” people: they have a breadth of experience — reflecting their innate curiosity and ability to think expansively — and they also have a depth of experience in sectors or disciplines that add something new to the whole team. We also look for people who are adept at building relationships, are empathic, and have the social skills to be inclusive and thoughtful. We believe these ‘soft’ skills are vital to enduring venture success. Our proof-of-concept for this approach is London-based partner Vidu Shanmugarajah. His training as a lawyer equips him with the tools to understand and solve complex problems and adds further value to his work with AI and enterprise companies, including Deepset, Rooser, and Synthesia.
Like Vidu, Luna is also a T-shaped person. When she first had dinner with our London team last summer, several things came to light: her drive, effective communication style, and nuanced technical prowess shone through. She’s thoughtful and humble, earning high regard from a network of entrepreneurs and investor peers who worked with her over the past decade.
Together with Luna, Vidu, and our U.S. colleagues, we’ve never been more excited about the opportunity to partner with driven founders as they create new companies for impact. We’ve already seen impressive progress in Europe and Israel: Vaccitech developed the technology that became the AstraZeneca vaccine and listed in New York. Lemonade developed the first breakout insurance technology listed on the NYSE. Nothing products are now in the hands of over a million delighted consumers. The impact of these early visions means billions of people are vaccinated, five million people are equipped with better insurance policies, and over a million people have a joyful new way to experience consumer technology.
We’re firm in our conviction that more companies of impact will build and endure. And most importantly, we’re thrilled that Luna is joining us to forge an even more dynamic future with today’s most innovative founders. Welcome to the GV team, Luna!
GV’s London team: From left to right, Vidu Shanmugarajah, Luna Schmid, Tom Hulme, Mim West, Abigail Joyce. Photography: Nick Wilson