Ignition Partners VC Frank Artale resigns in light of misconduct allegations

Frank Artale, a managing director at Ignition Partners, has resigned, according to the firm. Earlier this month, the firm received a misconduct complaint regarding Artale, Ignition Partners wrote on Twitter last night. Within a few days of receiving the complaint, the firm asked for Artale’s resignation and he agreed.

“We took this serious and near-immediate step, in part, due to this complaint, combined with a prior third-party accusation of inappropriate conduct by Mr. Artale in 2016,” Ignition wrote in a statement. “At that time, we engaged outside counsel and conducted an exhaustive investigation into the event. While the investigation did not substantiate the allegations, it did indicate the he demonstrated poor judgment, which we addressed with him. Following that report, we retained an expert consultant to conduct sensitivity and anti-harassment training.”

It’s not currently clear what the nature of these allegations of misconduct were. While at Ignition, Artale held board of director seats on startups like Apprenda, Cask and SnapLogic, according to his LinkedIn.

Artale is the latest VC in the past month to resign in light of allegations of inappropriate behavior. In late June, Binary Capital co-founder Justin Caldbeck first took an indefinite leave of absence before ultimately resigning following allegations of sexual harassment and unwanted advances. Caldbeck’s co-founder Jonathan Teo later resigned, as well as a recently added Binary Capital partner Matt Mazzeo.

Shortly after the allegations against Caldbeck surfaced, several claims of sexual harassment came out against 500 Startups co-founder Dave McClure, as well as one against Chris Sacca. McClure resigned from 500 Startups a few days later.

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