Icon Ventures launches an office in Dublin to focus on investing in Europe and establishes a full-service recruiting operation in Toronto to help portfolio companies build world-class engineering teams.

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 12, 2021 – Icon Ventures, a leading Silicon Valley based venture capital firm specializing in Series B and C investing, today announced a broader global footprint. In addition to its offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco as well as its Asia Business Development team based in Tokyo, Icon has formally launched Icon Venture Capital Europe Ltd. and Icon Tech Recruiting Canada Ltd.

Icon’s new European activities will be based in Dublin to co-invest with leading venture firms active across Europe. General Partner Michael Mullany, a native of Ireland, is on point for this effort. Mullany joined Icon Ventures in 2014 and has led the firm’s investments in Alation, Timescale, Remesh, Paravision, Datrium (acquired by VMware) and Streamlabs (acquired by Logitech).

“Europe has established itself as a market with exceptional talent and the innovative products needed to create great companies,” commented Mullany. “With the emergence of category leaders like Stripe, Spotify, UiPath and others, we found ourselves increasingly looking to Europe for compelling investment opportunities consistent with our investment model.” Mullany has relocated to Dublin and is supported by Icon’s U.S. team.

Icon Ventures is also announcing its Canadian Engineering Talent Program, based in Toronto, Canada. This program is designed to be a complete turnkey service for Icon portfolio companies to recruit and establish their operations in Canada while capturing significant cost savings. Armand Obreja, a seasoned recruiter experienced in hiring high-quality engineering talent in Canada, will lead this effort for Icon Ventures. According to Obreja, “The exceptional technical programs within Canadian universities from Toronto to Montreal to Vancouver have spawned a plethora of highly skilled engineering talent that are wonderful fits for most tech start-ups.” Obreja has already demonstrated great results from his recruiting efforts for two of Icon’s portfolio companies.

In support of its new global and domestic activities, Icon is announcing the promotion of Peter Yi from Principal to Partner. Yi joined Icon in 2014 and has proven himself to be a valuable member of the team, with great skills and insights in areas including tech sector research and quality investment due diligence. He also provides important and highly valued operational support for portfolio companies.

According to Joe Horowitz, Managing General Partner, “At Icon it has been a core belief that venture capital works best with relatively small, proven, deeply integrated teams. Fortunately, through the digital transformation accelerated by Covid and with today’s collaboration tools, we can widen our aperture geographically while still maintaining a tight-knit organization focused on world-class entrepreneurs and extraordinary co-investors. It is a truly exciting time for our firm and for venture capital.”

 

About Icon Ventures

Icon Ventures believes that great companies start with extraordinary entrepreneurs. Icon Ventures is a best-in-class venture capital firm specializing in Series B and C financings. With over $1.1 billion under management, Icon leads financings alongside the most successful early-stage venture firms in companies that are category winners. To date, Icon Ventures has had 33 successful exits that exceed over $90 billion in exit value. They include Aster Data (Teradata), Bill.com (BILL), FireEye (FEYE), 41st Parameter (Experian), Infinera (INFN), MoPub (Twitter), Opcity (News Corp), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Proofpoint (PFPT) and Teladoc (TDOC). For more information visit iconventures.com and follow @iconventures.