Stripe and Klarna backer Atomico hires ex-Revolut strategy honcho as partner

Hoang headed up Revolut’s strategic initiatives as its VP global business and before that was director of business for Uber, responsible for its commercial efforts.

Venture capital firm Atomico, which has backed several fintechs including Stripe and Klarna, has hired former Revolut executive Don Hoang as a partner.

Hoang headed up Revolut’s strategic initiatives as its VP global business and before that was director of business for Uber, responsible for its commercial efforts.

Hoang, who in his earlier career was a private equity investor with Terrra Firma, and has been an angel investor as part of US venture capital firm’s Sequoia Scout Program, joins Atomico, as it looks to raise $1.35bn in new funds for financing startups.

Atomico was founded in 2006 by Niklas Zennström, the founder of Skype, and has grown into one of the largest venture capital investors in Europe.

According to Atomico, Hoang will head up investments across the venture and growth stages with a focus on earlier stage firms.

“He will also lead Atomico’s investments in the next frontier of fintech and mobility - sectors we’re enormously excited about,” Atomico added.

It pointed to investments it had made in the two sectors, such as Klarna, Stripe, Habito and LendInvest, as well as SheeldMarket in the crypto sphere. 

Atomico also pointed to a “third generation” of fintechs emerging.

It said: "Atomico is seeing a third generation of fintech emerge which will radically transform the financial services sphere.  This presents an enormous opportunity - the 50th largest bank is worth nearly $50 billion, with trillions of dollars in value yet to be created by fintech startups. But most importantly, consumers are ready for change. 

“Talented founders from previous generations of fintech are emerging, and benefitting from the progressive regulatory environment that trailblazers like Stripe, Klarna and Wise have built. 

“This is enabling the next generation of founders to progress into new and revolutionary technologies, built on decentralised finance, entirely away from the old systems, for a gen Z (and beyond) audience.”

Earlier this year, London-based Atomico dismissed one of its most senior partners, Hiro Tamura, following complaints from staff over his management style.

Tamura headed up Atomico’s investment team and was an earlier backer of startups Stripe, MasterClass and Telegram.