OMERS Ventures hires former Uber executive as London managing partner
OMERS Ventures, the venture capital investing arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, has hired former Uber Technologies Inc. executive Jambu Palaniappan to join its London office as a managing partner.
Palaniappan joined Uber in 2012 and led its expansion into the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions before being named the general manager for Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Russia. He then led Uber Eats for EMEA from its start in June 2016 until he left the company in April 2018.
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Palaniappan went on to be an executive in residence at Atomico, a London-based European venture capital firm. He’s currently a board member at Just Eat Holding Ltd. and Parisian mobile banking firm Kard Financial Inc.
“The scope of venture capital has broadened considerably in recent years and investors need to add value in so many more ways than just signing cheques,” said Damien Steel, managing partner and head of ventures at OMERS Ventures, in a press release. “But with less than 10 per cent of U.K. VCs having operational experience within a startup, it is clear that investor profiles have been slow to evolve to match these new demands.
“That’s why we’re so excited to welcome Jambu to our team. Having overseen the Uber Eats business in EMEA and run the Uber business across a number of markets, he is perfectly placed to ensure OMERS Ventures offers the right support to the startups we back at every stage of their growth journeys.”
OMERS Ventures launched in Europe in March 2019 and has since invested more than €76 million in European technology companies.