Init Intelligence Atlas

Avid Larizadeh Duggan

2 min read

Avid Larizadeh Duggan

Senior Managing Director (EMEA) at Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG) — the late-stage venture / growth arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) — based in London. Operator-turned-investor with a 20+ year arc as developer, PM, founder, and VC, plus public-company board experience.

Snapshot

  • Now: Senior Managing Director (EMEA), Teachers’ Venture Growth (OTPP), London (joined 2021).
  • Archetype (for init): Strategic / Operator — operator-investor with UK/Europe reach.
  • Warm path: Ryan Carlson (The Operator Network).

Why an init.inc angel target

  • UK/Europe reach. TVG-EMEA seat gives her a European founder/operator network init lacks — useful for the open strategic-angel allocation as init builds out a transatlantic presence.
  • Operator credibility. Ex-founder (Boticca), ex-COO of Kobalt Music Group, ex-GV General Partner, ex-Accel — she has sat on both sides of the table and at growth scale (Canva, Databricks, DeepL-class deals at TVG).
  • Public-board / governance credibility. OBE; ex-NED of Barclays Bank UK (2018–2025); UK Council for Science and Technology (2025). Signals exactly the kind of institutional-grade name that strengthens a back-office-AI / ITSM company’s angel roster.

Conflict screen

  • Clean. No identified angel/advisor/board position in any init competitor (Serval, Console, Atomicwork, Ravenna, Moveworks, Aisera, Leena AI, et al.). TVG is a late-stage (Series B+) institutional fund, not a seed-stage ITSM/AI-MSP backer that would overlap with init. Her Barclays / Kobalt / GV history is career background, not an investment conflict.

Background

  • Current role dual-confirmed: OTPP bio lists “Senior Managing Director (EMEA), Teachers’ Venture Growth”; London Tech Week and EUVC podcast (Dec 2024) corroborate the same title.
  • Investing pedigree: started at Accel Partners; General Partner at GV (Google Ventures); now TVG, OTPP’s ~€5.4B growth-stage platform.
  • Founder/operator: co-founded Boticca (fashion-accessories marketplace, later acquired); COO of Kobalt Music Group (left Dec 2019) before TVG.
  • Barclays NED ended 31 Dec 2025 — confirmed via UK Companies House register (BARCLAYS BANK UK PLC, appointed 1 Jan 2018, resigned 31 Dec 2025). Corroborates the audited CRM note; older bios still listing her as a current Barclays director are stale.
  • Honours/identity: OBE (services to economy, business, education); WEF Young Global Leader; Kauffman Fellow; B.S./M.S. engineering (Stanford, Mayfield Fellow); MBA (Harvard). DOB Dec 1978; French/American — matches Companies House and Wikipedia, anchoring identity.

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