Eze Vidra, former general partner at Google Ventures, on building up Europe’s startup ecosystem

As the founder of Campus London, Google’s first physical startup hub, Eze Vidra has a strong claim to being the ‘godfather’ of London’s current tech scene. Eze’s journey has taken him from product management and leadership roles in startups across the globe to managing strategic partnerships for Google and founding multiple businesses, including VC Cafe and not-for profit TechBikers, the charitable initiative that brings the tech community together with a 320km bike ride from Paris to London.

Joining Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Eze recalls the story of early days at Campus London and how it became the entrepreneurial hotbed it is today – with 3,600 jobs created and more than £128 million raised by Campus startups since launch five years ago.

Eze is currently Chief Innovation Officer at Antidote, a digital health startup matching the right patients with the right trials. Previously he was a general partner at Google Ventures and, prior to that, the European head of Google for Entrepreneurs, where he helped forge partnerships to strengthen the startup ecosystem. He also led Campus London, a collaborative environment for startups created by Google For Entrepreneurs. While at Google, Eze spearheaded strategic commerce partnerships in EMEA, and helped launch Google Shopping, Google Shopping Express, and Google Wallet.

Now in its sixth year, TechBikers, will take place 15-17 June 2017 with over 60 riders raising money for literacy charity Room to Read. You can donate here: http://bit.ly/TeamEze

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