Avid Larizadeh Duggan

Avid Larizadeh-Duggan is an Iranian-French-American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. She is Chief Operating Officer at Kobalt Music Group and a non executive director of Barclays Bank UK.

After graduating from Stanford, she joined eBay on the product management team. She launched eBay’s first suite of global online selling tools, Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro, for which she holds a patent. She also led the design and launch of eBay’s picture services. While at Harvard Business School, she also worked in product management at Skype Technologies. After graduating from Harvard Business School, she joined Accel Partners in London as an Associate where she focused on software and Internet investments.

She left Accel Partners in 2009 to cofound Boticca, a global marketplace for independent brands of fashion accessories, where she was the COO, running product, engineering and editorial. Boticca was featured in Vogue, selected by Lady Gaga for her 2011 European tour, and worn by Kate Moss, Cameron Diaz and Jessica Alba. Boticca was acquired by Wolf & Badger.

In 2014 Larizadeh Duggan joined Google Ventures as the only female General Partner when GV launched its European fund. She was an investor, director and advisor to a variety of businesses, most in the software and Internet domain.

In February 2018, She left GV to join Kobalt, one of her portfolio companies as EVP Group, Chief Strategy and Business Officer. She now serves as Chief Operating Officer. Larizadeh Duggan was appointed as a non-executive director of Barclays UK in 2017.

Larizadeh Duggan has been named one of the 50 most inspiring female influencers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, academics and policy makers from across Europe three years in a row from 2015 to 2017. She has been named as “one of the most influential European female VCs” by Tech.eu “one of the 50 most influential women in UK IT” by Computer Weekly. In 2016 she was named one of the World Economic Forum's "Young Global Leaders".

Larizadeh Duggan has been involved with various organizations linked to education. She is on the Harvard Business School European Advisory Board and also on the Board of Trustees of Founders4Schools. She led Code.org in the UK , and helped over 13 million people try an hour of code in the UK. She has contributed to Forbes and the World Economic Forum. She is a Mayfield Fellow and a Kauffman Fellow.