Hoffman, now executive chairman at professional social networking website LinkedIn, and partner at venture capital firm Greylock Partners, has revealed he plans to invest in an early-stage company based in London from the recently created Greylock Discovery Fund.
During a question and answer session at the “Silicon Valley Comes to Cambridge” event at the University of Cambridge last week, Hoffman told the crowd he was in the process of closing the investment during his visit.
But the accomplished Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur was tight-lipped about the details of the deal.
Asked whether he would consider investing in Europe during the session, he replied: ‘You have to have a strong network here, bring the right resources and network around the company, in order to make it big and successful.’
‘Greylock has a partner in London, Laurel Bowden. I made a personal investment here a few years back.
‘I am also in the process of closing a Discovery Fund investment, which is our kind of early seed stuff, in London this week.’
Hoffman, who joined Greylock last year, left the UK market in May 2007 when he sold his last investment on this side of the Atlantic, online music service Last.fm, to CBS for $280 million (£140 million).
He added: ‘Personally, when I [make] investments in Europe, I would generally work with someone who is local because it is actually a very important part of mine and our culture to work with entrepreneurs and companies in order to help them.
‘It is harder for me, operationally, to do that in the UK – I come usually once or twice a year – and so, for example, the thing that I am doing, I am working with the partner here … and that partner and the entrepreneur know how and when to call me in order for me to be helpful.’
Hoffman leads the Greylock Discovery Fund, which was announced in September this year with equity of $20 million. The fund will make investments as small as $25,000 and as large as $500,000 in start-ups.
Hoffman has played an integral part in building many leading consumer technology businesses, including LinkedIn and PayPal, and is also an angel investor in numerous Internet companies, including Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Ning, Six Apart and Zynga.
