David Leftley
Co-Founder and Managing Partner @ Bloc Ventures
London, United Kingdom
David Leftley is a seed investor at Bloc Ventures in London focused on Internet of Things and Telecommunications. David has more than 30 years global technology industry experience in start-ups and multi-nationals as an engineer, manager, director and investor. From 1983 he worked as a design engineer in the defence industry, specialising in radar and airborne electronic countermeasures, first at Cossor Electronics and then at Racal Defence. In 1987 he movedinto the TV and film industry, working for Abacus Cox and then Vistek on the design of the world’s first digital TV production technology. In this time he progressed to become R&D Manager and later became General Manager. In 1996, as CTO he founded Digital Vision UK for DV AB of Sweden, a world leader in video compression, transmission and post production technology, securing contracts with the BBC, several Hollywood studios and customers as far afield as China. In 1999 DV AB successfully went to an IPO.In 2009 he joined Vodafone’s corporate venture team as head of its European activity, closing numerous investments in Mobile Health, Clean Tech, Infrastructure and Financial Tech services. In this time the fund ranked in the top 5 CVCs, achieved an IRR of 27% and in 2012 received an industry award for its exit of portfolio company Amobee for $321M. In 2010 David was ranked in Wired Magazine’s top 100 innovators’ list. He represented Vodafone on the boards of nine portfolio companies. In April 2013 David departed Vodafone to establish Bloc Ventures with Bruce.He has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Aston Birmingham, and is a Chartered Engineer.
- Total investments:
- 11
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 64%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries David Leftley invests in
Stages David Leftley invests in
Countries David Leftley invests in
Contacts
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| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
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Investment Focus
Industry
- Internet of Things 2 (18%)
- Telecommunications 2 (18%)
- Mobile 1 (9%)
- Payments 1 (9%)
- Security 1 (9%)
Stage
- Seed 3 (27%)
- Series A 2 (18%)
- Series B 1 (9%)
- Funding Round 1 (9%)
- Debt Financing 1 (9%)
Country
- United Kingdom 4 (36%)
- Belgium 1 (9%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| AccelerComm is an exciting semiconductor IP-core company that provides solutions to accelerate the next generations of wireless communications (3GPP rel 14, rel 15 and beyond).Their technology solves the bottleneck that would otherwise limit the speed of next generation wireless communication, namely the error correction decoding that isrequired to overcome the effects of noise, interference and poor signal strength. | $15M / May 29, 2025 | ||
| AccelerComm is an exciting semiconductor IP-core company that provides solutions to accelerate the next generations of wireless communications (3GPP rel 14, rel 15 and beyond).Their technology solves the bottleneck that would otherwise limit the speed of next generation wireless communication, namely the error correction decoding that isrequired to overcome the effects of noise, interference and poor signal strength. | $26.7M / Series B / Apr 11, 2023 | ||
| Pharrowtech designs next-generation solutions for fixed-wireless access, wireless VR/AR and ultra-high capacity wireless links. It builds on more than 12 years of top-notch R&D performed at imec, the Belgian R&D powerhouse. Leveraging deep technical expertise in algorithm, chip and antenna design for millimeter-wave systems, it createsproducts with best-in-class performance, power and cost features. | $15.6M / Series A / May 12, 2022 | ||
| Paytia is a specialist telephone payment processor. Paytia's systems allow businesses to take payment card details from their customers without putting their card data at risk over the phone. | $1.6M / Seed / Oct 27, 2020 | ||
| AccelerComm is an exciting semiconductor IP-core company that provides solutions to accelerate the next generations of wireless communications (3GPP rel 14, rel 15 and beyond).Their technology solves the bottleneck that would otherwise limit the speed of next generation wireless communication, namely the error correction decoding that isrequired to overcome the effects of noise, interference and poor signal strength. | $7.4M / Series A / Sep 21, 2020 | ||
| Zeetta Networks spun out of the renowned High-Performance Networks Group of Bristol University in 2015 to commercialise the group’s leading Network Virtualisation & Slicing technology. Our patent-protected software technology, NetOS®, enables network operators to virtualise their networks, and then automate operations and expose the network’scapabilities in a way that cannot be done today by any of Zeetta’s competitors. We have strong market traction and engaged with world leading players, including Deutsche Telecom, Orange, BT, Colt, Facebook, and Vodafone, amongst others. Moreover, NetOS® includes a powerful Virtualization Engine which uniquely operates across different types of networks. This enables the development of “network slices” i.e. logical and isolated sub-networks which can be used like real physical networks for the development of applications. Network Virtualization enables the most efficient use of the network resources because they can be shared among many users with guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) for each service and user. | $1.2M / Convertible Note / Jun 26, 2020 | ||
| Zeetta Networks spun out of the renowned High-Performance Networks Group of Bristol University in 2015 to commercialise the group’s leading Network Virtualisation & Slicing technology. Our patent-protected software technology, NetOS®, enables network operators to virtualise their networks, and then automate operations and expose the network’scapabilities in a way that cannot be done today by any of Zeetta’s competitors. We have strong market traction and engaged with world leading players, including Deutsche Telecom, Orange, BT, Colt, Facebook, and Vodafone, amongst others. Moreover, NetOS® includes a powerful Virtualization Engine which uniquely operates across different types of networks. This enables the development of “network slices” i.e. logical and isolated sub-networks which can be used like real physical networks for the development of applications. Network Virtualization enables the most efficient use of the network resources because they can be shared among many users with guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) for each service and user. | $646.5K / Convertible Note / Feb 06, 2020 | ||
| Crypta Labs is a London-based quantum security startup specialising in the development of Quantum Random Number Generator chip and software to secure Industrial Internet of Things (IIoTs).They are currently working with the UK Centre for Defence Enterprise, part of the Ministry of Defence, to build them a bespoke Quantum Random Number Generatorused to seed encryption. We're one of a handful of companies in the world that can do this, and the ONLY one in the world (which they know of) that are commercialising this on a MOBILE phone. Winner of the Cybersecurity Awards for ‘Cyber Security Start-Up of the Year’, named by Hewlett Packard Enterprise as Top 5 UK Startups Revolutionising Enterprise Tech and Venture Radar UK’s Hottest New Fintech Startups, Crypta Labs scientific and technology advancement means we're one the leading scientific Startups that is tackling the problems of securing Industrial Internet of Things. | $2.1M / Debt Financing / Jul 12, 2019 | ||
| AccelerComm is an exciting semiconductor IP-core company that provides solutions to accelerate the next generations of wireless communications (3GPP rel 14, rel 15 and beyond).Their technology solves the bottleneck that would otherwise limit the speed of next generation wireless communication, namely the error correction decoding that isrequired to overcome the effects of noise, interference and poor signal strength. | $3.2M / Seed / Feb 05, 2019 | ||
| Zeetta Networks spun out of the renowned High-Performance Networks Group of Bristol University in 2015 to commercialise the group’s leading Network Virtualisation & Slicing technology. Our patent-protected software technology, NetOS®, enables network operators to virtualise their networks, and then automate operations and expose the network’scapabilities in a way that cannot be done today by any of Zeetta’s competitors. We have strong market traction and engaged with world leading players, including Deutsche Telecom, Orange, BT, Colt, Facebook, and Vodafone, amongst others. Moreover, NetOS® includes a powerful Virtualization Engine which uniquely operates across different types of networks. This enables the development of “network slices” i.e. logical and isolated sub-networks which can be used like real physical networks for the development of applications. Network Virtualization enables the most efficient use of the network resources because they can be shared among many users with guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) for each service and user. | $2.1M / Seed / Jul 25, 2017 | ||
| See all 11 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Bloc Ventures
Bloc Ventures is an investment company focused on investments in early-stage Deep Tech companies. Pitch directly to Bloc here: https://blocventures.com/pitching/Bloc Ventures is not an investment fund, it is a company that invests in early-stage tech companies. Bloc Ventures is very much a company in the traditional sense,with a rigorous focus on governance, costs, and profit, governed by a board of directors with an operational model that enables its stakeholders to focus on building value through a longer-term collaborative and evergreen approach to early-stage tech investing.The company was founded in 2013 and is based in London, England.
Bloc Ventures Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
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David Leftley
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
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Andrew Griffin
CFO
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Andy Green CBE
Senior Independent Director
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Bruce Beckloff
co-founder and CEO
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Dimitris Stoimenou
Investment Director
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FAQ
What does David Leftley invest in?
David Leftley invests primarily in Internet of Things, Telecommunications and Mobile startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 11 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United Kingdom. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
How do I contact David Leftley?
Public channels for David Leftley include LinkedIn. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did David Leftley last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for David Leftley closed in May 2025. Shizune tracks 11 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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