Nick Clegg Joins VC Firm HIRO Capital
Nick Clegg, the ex-president of global affairs at Meta and former deputy prime minister of the UK, has partnered with founder-led venture capital firm HIRO Capital to fund spatial AI advancements in Europe.
Clegg will team up with HIRO's general partners Luke Alvarez, Cherry Freeman, and British gaming icon Ian Livingstone in the new HIRO III fund, which seeks to raise over 500 million euros ($582 million) for investment.
Yann LeCun, who has recently declared his decision to step down as Meta's chief AI scientist, will be joining HIRO's advisory board, it stated.
Clegg, who departed Meta in January, noted that the HIRO team held a common conviction that the forthcoming phase of technology would center on spatial, immersive computing platforms, which support technologies such as robotics, augmented reality, and autonomous vehicles.
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"Significant expertise, extensive laboratory and scholarly research exists in Europe, which can and will grow in importance," he stated.
He argued that concerns regarding Europe's future compared to the U.S. or China were exaggerated, highlighting an increasing array of opportunities.
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"We remain a wealthy continent of over 500 million individuals possessing some of the finest researchers and laboratories globally, and our tech startup ecosystem is becoming progressively dynamic," he stated.
He mentioned that the team had already pinpointed prospects in robotics, sports and gaming, and defense, in addition to spatial computing technologies like orientation, navigation, and autonomy.
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The firm stated that the fund will invest between 5 million euros and 50 million euros, focusing on a gap for scale-up capital in Europe.