Pete Daffern, president of EMEA at NetSuite, has joined the Octopus Venture Partner Group. Daffern joins Octopus with nearly 25 years executive experience in world-class businesses across San Francisco and the UK, such as NetSuite, ClairMail and Purisma, where roles held included CEO, President and Vice President.
In his role as Venture Partner, Daffern will be joining a collection of investors, consultants, entrepreneurs and global experts, who back Octopus portfolio with connections, advice, and hands-on support. Using his wealth of experience of developing and executing Go-To-Market and Product Development strategies, Daffern will support portfolio entrepreneurs and management teams, with the aim of helping them reach their growth potential. He will be spending some of his time supporting portfolio companies in the UK and in San Francisco, utilising an extensive network of connections built up over his career to help UK portfolio establish in the US.
Daffern has over two decades of experience in leadership positions at global technology companies across North America and Europe, as well as sitting on the boards of several other businesses in a Non-Executive capacity. He served as the CEO of ClairMail during its acquisition by Monitise, and served as Chairman and CEO of Purisma, which was acquired by Dun & Bradstreet. In his role at NetSuite Pete oversaw business operations in the EMEA region and the Worldwide Global Channel.
Daffern joins Debu Purkayastha, Chris Wade and Ian Perry, who are also part of the Octopus Venture Partner Group. They will work together to provide real-life, value-add support to Octopus’ portfolio entrepreneurs.
Alex Macpherson (pictured), head of Ventures at Octopus, says: “We are delighted to welcome Pete to the team. An incredible leader, Pete brings a fantastic range of skills ands go-to-market strategy experience to the table which will greatly benefit Octopus’ portfolio teams as they tackle their next stages of growth. His knowledge of the US market and established network of contacts will be an invaluable asset to the portfolio. Building world-class teams is about more than just finance, and Pete’s appointment is a great addition to the Octopus Venture Partner Group of support.”
Daffern says: “The London tech investment scene is at a particularly exciting tipping point as we see VCs around the world starting to pay attention to British technology businesses. As the market evolves the best investors will be those providing support beyond finance, and I’ve been incredibly impressed by the hands-on approach Octopus takes to working with their portfolio businesses. I’m very much looking forward to this new challenge.”
