Robin Klein | |
|---|---|
| Born | Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Alma mater | University of the Witwatersrand |
| Occupation | Founding Partner at Local Globe |
| Spouse | Hanna Klein |
| Children | Saul Klein and Dr. Melanie Morris |
| Relatives | Jonathan Klein (brother), co-founder and CEO of Getty Images; [1] Martin Klein |
Robin Klein (born December 1947 [2] ) is a British entrepreneur and investor. He was until 2015 a venture partner at Index Ventures and co-founder of The Accelerator Group, an advisor and investor in early-stage companies. [3] In April 2015, he and his son, Saul founded LocalGlobe, a seed stage venture capital firm.
Klein was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, specialising in cybernetics, [4] and a Master of Science degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, in 1969. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1976. [5]
From 1991 to 1997, Klein was chairman and CEO of Innovations Group PLC, which conducted the first documented e-commerce transaction in the UK, in May 1995. [6] Klein was managing director, marketing and home shopping, at Arcadia, from 1996 to 1999.[ citation needed ] Klein started his investing career in earnest in 1998, co-founding The Accelerator Group (TAG), a vehicle for investing in early-stage internet services, e-commerce and digital media businesses, with his son, Saul Klein. [7]
From 2010 to 2015 Klein was a venture partner at Index Ventures. He ran Index Seed, Index Ventures' seed fund, in partnership with TAG. [8]
In April 2015, Saul and Robin founded LocalGlobe, a Venture Capital Firm focusing on early stage (Seed) investment in Technology enabled businesses. They raised LocalGlobe 7, a fund of £45m by October 2015 and LocalGlobe 8, a £70m fund in March 2017.
Klein has been an early-stage investor in a number of companies, including Agent Provocateur (acquired by private equity firm 3i for £60m), [9] Lastminute.com (acquired by Travelocity for £577m, [10] Last.fm (acquired by CBS for $280 million, [11] Dopplr (acquired by Nokia), [12] LoveFilm (acquired by Amazon for $317 million), [13] Sit Up TV (acquired by Virgin Media), SlideShare (acquired by Linkedin for $119 million), [14] Fizzback (acquired by Nice Systems for $80 million), [15] Mashery (acquired by Intel for $180 million), [16] TweetDeck (acquired by Twitter for $40 million – $50 million), [17] and Twitterfeed (acquired by Bitly). [18] Klein is involved with OpenCoffee Club, a group his son Saul Klein started in 2007 to facilitate gatherings and networking among entrepreneurs, developers and investors [19] and is an advisor to Seedcamp which he helped to launch in 2007. [20] Klein is currently chairman of the board at moo.com, an online printing company; MyBuilder, an online marketplace bringing together consumers, builders and tradesmen; [21] and Wonga, a digital finance company, named the number one company in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100. [22] Klein is also a board member of EDITD, Farfetch, FreeAgent, Onefinestay, Skimlinks, and Zoopla, [23] an investor and board observer at TransferWise, and a non-executive director at Moneysupermarket.com (LSE : MONY), [22] and an investor in other companies.
From 2007 to 2010 Klein spent a day a week as venture partner at Atlas Venture, an early-stage technology and life sciences venture capital firm. [7]
Klein was chairman of Great Ormond Street Hospital Promotions Ltd, the funding company for Great Ormond Street Hospital, a children's hospital in London, [24] and was formerly on the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Community Centre for London which developed the JW3 community centre. [25]
