Miles Kirby and George Ugras (pictured) have founded UK and US-based venture capital firm AV8 with a $180m fund committed by insurer Allianz.
AV8 will mainly invest in seed and series A-stage deals in digital health, big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, mobility and robotics, according to Angel.co.
Prior to AV8, Ugras was head of IBM Ventures, the eponymous computing technology provider’s corporate venturing arm. Ugras initiated his VC career investing in early-stage technology companies, first at Apax Partners as a principal then at Adams Capital Management as a partner. He was nominated to GCV’s Powerlist for two consecutive years in 2016 and 2017.
Kirby, on the other hand, had been a director at Oxford Capital’s growth investments team before launching AV8. Prior to joining Oxford Capital, he had spearheaded US-based technology provider Qualcomm’s European unit as a managing director from 2012 to 2015. During his time at Qualcomm, he devised an internal incubator which specialised in augmented reality, wireless charging and machine learning.
Serpil Kuyucak-Schiebel, an Allianz alumnus who had been its head of staff, joined AV8 as an operations partner upon its launch in February. Kirby and Ugras were unavailable for comment.