David Leftley, head of Europe at Vodafone Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous UK-listed mobile phone operator, has left to join Bloc Ventures, a nascent venture capital firm.
At Bloc, which is raising £100m ($150m) for its inaugural 13-year fund focused on the industrial internet, Leftley will join Bruce Beckloff, former head of corporate strategy and venturing at chip designer Arm.
Leftley, who had also been a member of the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist 100, had been nearly four years as head of venture capital Europe at Vodafone and been a board observer at portfolio companies Oxford BioSignals, TOT Power Control, Compliant Phones, Vasona Networks, CellEra and Affirmed Networks.
In an email, Leftley said: “After 14+ years in arguably the most exciting and fastest growing industry of its time, I am moving on to explore new ventures [Bloc].”
Vodafone has been developing its venturing strategy under Fay Arjomandi, head of Vodafone Xone, which includes ventures, development and incubation since July.
Last year, Peter Barry, head of Vodafone Ventures left to set up Tane, while Leftley’s European colleague, Frederic Lardieg, left to join VC firm Octopus.