Stop the clocks and give the dog a juicy bone. Max Niederhofer, sometime investor, entrepreneur and startup guru (if you missed his speech at GeeknRolla last year you seriously missed out), is going back into VC. He’s joined Accel in London. We’ll follow up with a little more soon enough. Suffice it to say that for now, its good news for the tech scene to have another experienced startuper at a major VC house, Accel in this case. He will focus on investment opportunities in consumer internet, mobile and software across Europe.
Max told me he wanted to shake things up. “How can I have the biggest possible impact in European tech? By founding another company? By setting up a little seed fund? Accel has an incredible team and an outstanding portfolio, so it felt like the right next move for me” he says.
He joins Accel Partners after selling his company Qwerly, a consumer data marketing firm in late 2011. Previously, he was an investment professional at Atlas Venture in London, working with portfolio companies such as Seatwave, Zoopla, MOO and DailyMotion. Over the last 10 years, he’s has also made a number of angel investments in companies such as OneFineStay, Boticca, Skimlinks and Last.fm.
“We’re thrilled to have Max on board given his relevant early stage investment and entrepreneurial experience in Europe,” said Kevin Comolli, Partner at Accel Partners.
And well he might. VCs in Europe need all the talent they can get right now as the market hits a white heat of activity this year.