David Leftley has headed UK-based mobile provider Vodafone’s regional corporate venturing unit for more than three years.
As head of venture capital in Europe for Vodafone Ventures, which also invests in the US from its office in Silicon Valley, Leftley has seen an increase in the team’s activity.
Although Vodafone Ventures’ fund has been active since 2000, the group said it had “increased our engagement with the venture community since 2006 and we are one of the earliest mobile investors in the world”, with a portfolio that currently includes ItsOn, CellEra, Caringo, Perfecto Mobile, Pontis, Finsphere, VoucherCloud and LocalResponse. He has worked with Vodafone since at least 2003. For a period in the 1990s, he worked for Digital Vision UK.