500 Startups makes the headlines these days closing new deals with new investments partners as it intensifies its intention to conquer the world.
Two days after it closed its third $85 million deal, 500 Startups has immediately took it into a spin and hired six new partners to focus on specific roles. Vator News has reported that the company has hired former PayPal employee Matt Lerner to work in the UK and lead Distro Dojo. The other notable hire is Erhan Erdogan who will supervise things on Turkey. AngelList's European liaison, Philipp Moehring, will lead Germany. Moreover, Diana Moldavsky, the former chief revenue officer for ZeptoLab, will be assigned to work on Eastern Europe and Tel Aviv. Adam Benayoun, Binpress founder and former CEO, will be working with her. Lastly, the company has hired James Riney to invest in Japan. Riney is former DeNA venture capitalist.
500 Startups is a five-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based venture firm. Their 500 investors include Dentsu, Yahoo Japan, and Berhad, another venture company by the Malaysian government.
In a report published by TechCrunch, 500 Startups had originally targeted $100 million for its newest fund. But it fell short just like it did in 2013 when it targeted to raise $50 million but only raised $44 million. Nevertheless, it's a fast growing company and it has big plans for the future as it continuously announces significant expansion all over the world.
According to VentureBeat, 500 Startups has tapped markets beyond U.S.A. They have made seed investments in companies in more than 15 countries. In fact, 25% of its portfolio is made up of companies from abroad; it has already invested in about 1,200 startup companies and has over $200 million in assets.
500 Startups is truly looking to conquer the world and find its next unicorn to add to their growing list that includes Credit Karma, Twilio, and Grab Taxi.
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