Hoxton Ventures is stepping up its support for Europe’s earliest-stage startups looking to grow in North America by adding seasoned leaders and opening a new base in Silicon Valley. The firm, long known for spotting and backing companies like Deliveroo and Darktrace before they became household names, is now placing Payton Dobbs in San Francisco, bringing fresh investor relations leadership and deep operating expertise to its London-based team.
Since joining Hoxton in 2022, Payton Dobbs has sourced promising ventures and guided founders through critical early milestones. Her move to San Francisco will give portfolio companies a seasoned partner on the ground to help navigate U.S. fundraising rounds, recruit executive talent, and forge strategic relationships with investors and customers. Dobbs spent more than two decades at Google and Nest Labs, where she led teams on both sides of the Atlantic, giving her a unique perspective on the challenges European startups face when entering the world’s largest technology market.
Joining the firm as Head of Investor Relations, Isabel Fox has a track record as an entrepreneur, investor, and limited partner in funds like Outsized Ventures. She has backed more than a dozen startups in deep tech and life sciences and built two corporate communications businesses focused on venture capital. At Hoxton, she will nurture relationships with existing stakeholders while forging new ties with family offices, pension funds, and global institutional investors. Her dual perspective as a backer and operator will help Hoxton keep pace with rapid changes in the venture ecosystem.
In London, Rishabh Kaul steps into the role of Venture Partner. Kaul co-founded the HR tech startup Belong.co, was an early hire at the warehousing AI company GreyOrange, and most recently helped scale Appsmith into a favorite tool for more than 100,000 developers worldwide. He will now draw on his experience building repeatable go-to-market playbooks and managing cross-border growth to advise Hoxton’s companies on expanding sales and product capabilities across Europe and beyond.
Hoxton Ventures has raised over $360 million across three funds and typically writes the first significant checks in pre-seed and seed rounds, investing between $500,000 and $5 million and securing meaningful ownership stakes. With these new leaders in place and a stronger foothold in Silicon Valley, the firm aims to deliver hands-on guidance for its founders as they scale from European upstarts to global category leaders.
KEY QUOTE:
“These moves reflect Hoxton’s commitment to being a global partner for ambitious founders, and our conviction for showing what a deeply engaged investor can bring in even the most challenging times. With Isabel strengthening our LP relationships, Rishabh expanding our investment reach, and Payton on the ground in Silicon Valley, we’re doubling down on helping European startups become global category leaders.”
Hussein Kanji, Managing Partner at Hoxton Ventures
