After leaving Accel, Fred Destin is raising seed fund with Twenty Minute VC host Harry Stebbings
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Just last month news broke that Fred Destin, one of Europe’s best-known VCs, had left London venture capital firm Accel to focus on “very early-stage financing,” including possibly raising a fund of his own. At the time, details were scarce, partly because, in Destin’s own words, it was “early days.”
However, in a move that is bound to raise more than a few eyebrows in the London VC community, TechCrunch has since learned that the ex-Accel VC is joining forces with Harry Stebbings, the founder and host of the popular “The Twenty Minute VC” podcast. Until yesterday, Stebbings was also Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Atomico, the VC firm founded by Skype’s Niklas Zennström.
In a call, Destin declined to comment, and said it was too early to go into further details. The plan, I gather, was to remain in stealth mode for a while longer (sorry!) and Destin stressed that there is a lot of work to be completed yet before anything can be announced officially.
I also understand from sources that Destin feels that Stebbings brings as much to the table as himself, including the podcaster-turned-VC’s infectious enthusiasm and ability to learn fast, and his keen networking prowess and likability amongst young founders.
It was also an open secret that Stebbings sought a role in VC and that his podcast was always intended as a way to achieve just that. In hosting “The Twenty Minute VC,” Stebbings has won lots of VC friends in Silicon Valley, New York and Europe (and in a very short time), as well as building a hugely popular franchise that is listened to by many in the wider investment and startup community.