Rob Kniaz

Who they are

Rob Kniaz is a Partner at Hoxton Ventures — co-founded the firm in 2013 with Hussein Kanji and later co-founded H Tree Capital, a deep tech and biotech-focused fund, in 2023.

Person

Rob studied Computer Science at the University of Maryland, then took a Master's in Management Science & Engineering at Stanford — a combination that set him up for a career sitting at the boundary of engineering and business. He worked at Intel in a technical role, then moved into tech's product and commercial layers at Google as Product Manager for AdSense, and spent time at Fidelity Ventures on the investment side. He joined Hoxton Ventures in 2013 when the firm was newly founded and Fund I was targeting $50M — and has built it over more than a decade into one of Europe's better-known early-stage firms. In 2023 he co-founded H Tree Capital with Vanela Bushi, a healthcare expert, focusing specifically on deep biotech and deep tech in Europe — a second vehicle sitting alongside his Hoxton work. He co-founded two firms: Hoxton Ventures (2013, early-stage European tech VC) and H Tree Capital (2023, deep tech and biotech). The through-line is Silicon Valley training applied to European early-stage investing — backing non-obvious bets before they become obvious. He writes for Forbes on European VC, appears on BBC Radio and CNBC for VC commentary, and keeps a personal site at robk.com covering London tech investing.

Company

The freshest signal from Hoxton is the May 2026 acquisition of portfolio company Avantia — an AI-native legal-tech firm — by Carta, the ERP platform for private capital used by over 50,000 companies and investors. That exit validates Hoxton's thesis that AI will rebuild legacy legal and financial infrastructure from the ground up. In March 2026, Hoxton participated in Giraffe360's $10M Series B. The firm also co-led a $30M Series A for Phagos and participated in Datacurve's $15M Series A, both in October 2025. In January 2026, portfolio company Preply reached a $1.2B valuation with a $150M Series D co-led by Hoxton. On the team side, September 2025 brought two moves: Partner Payton Dobbs relocated from London to San Francisco to anchor the firm's U.S. presence, and Rishabh Kaul joined as Venture Partner to advise portfolio companies on growth strategies.

Market

Hoxton operates in European early-stage VC — pre-seed and seed rounds of $500K to $5M, targeting 10–20% ownership stakes, with $360M raised across three funds and a portfolio of about 90 companies including names like Deliveroo, Darktrace, Babylon, and Preply. The firm's cumulative portfolio valuation is cited at over $7 billion, with 1 IPO and 21 acquisitions on record. Octopus Ventures is the most frequently cited co-investor and competitor in the same segment; the broader dynamic is that European early-stage VC has matured enough that category-defining exits are now a credible expectation, though geopolitical and regulatory complexity around cross-border deals — sanctions, export controls, national security reviews — is adding friction to deal execution and portfolio company expansion.

Network

Rob co-founded Hoxton with Hussein Kanji, who serves as the firm's other senior partner. He co-founded H Tree Capital with Vanela Bushi, a healthcare expert. Within Hoxton's current team, Dylan Collins serves as Venture Partner, Payton Dobbs as Partner (now based in San Francisco), and Rishabh Kaul joined as Venture Partner in 2025.

Hussein Kanji· Co-founder and Partner, Hoxton Ventures
Vanela Bushi· Co-founder, H Tree Capital; healthcare expert
Dylan Collins· Venture Partner, Hoxton Ventures
Payton Dobbs· Partner, Hoxton Ventures (San Francisco)
Rishabh Kaul· Venture Partner, Hoxton Ventures

How they likely show up

Long tenure at Hoxton (founded 2013, still Partner in 2026 — over 12 years) → thinks in fund cycles and decade-long conviction, not quarterly portfolio management.
Founded H Tree Capital alongside his Hoxton role → high agency; comfortable running parallel tracks rather than operating within a single institutional mandate.
Active Forbes contributor on European VC, BBC Radio and CNBC commentary → comfortable being a public voice; likely responds well to substantive debate about the European tech market rather than surface-level rapport-building.
Amateur coding and building internal data science tools as a side interest → retains a technical instinct; won't be impressed by handwavy product narratives — he'll probe the architecture.
Stanford MS in Management Science & Engineering after a CS undergrad, then Intel → technical roots shaped by engineering rigor, not just product intuition.
Aiming to visit 100 countries as a personal goal → appetite for unfamiliar environments; possibly — this maps to his comfort backing non-consensus, early-market bets in Europe before they became fashionable.

Conversation tips

→ Come in with a specific view on European deep tech or biotech — he's running H Tree Capital as a deliberate thesis, not a generalist vehicle, and will engage harder if you have an actual position.
→ Reference his Forbes writing or his robk.com posts if you've read them — he'll clock immediately whether you've done the work.
→ The Avantia/Carta exit in May 2026 is a fresh and relevant hook — ask what it signals about AI-native legal-tech specifically, not AI generally.
→ Don't pitch him on an idea by analogy to a US company — his whole model is backing European category creators before the US comparison is obvious.
→ He's been at Hoxton since day one; don't position your conversation as educating him about European VC — engage him as a peer with a point of view.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the Avantia acquisition by Carta in May 2026 — Hoxton backed one of the earliest AI-native legal-tech firms, and the exit into Carta's private-capital ERP platform is a specific validation of a non-obvious early bet.
Mention H Tree Capital — he co-founded a separate deep biotech and deep tech vehicle in 2023 with Vanela Bushi, distinct from Hoxton's broader mandate, which signals a deliberate thesis worth asking about.
Reference his Forbes writing on European VC or his site robk.com — he's been a consistent public voice on the London tech investing scene, and naming the specific property signals you've actually read it.

Discovery questions

H Tree Capital sits alongside Hoxton rather than replacing it — how do you decide which vehicle a deal fits, and where do the theses diverge?
Hoxton relocated Payton Dobbs to San Francisco in 2025 — what does a permanent U.S. presence change about how you support portfolio companies at the Series B stage and beyond?
The Avantia exit went to Carta rather than a strategic or public market — what does that tell you about where AI-native legal-tech infrastructure is heading in the next three to five years?

Avoid

Don't treat him as a generalist European VC commentator — he has a specific anti-thematic, pro-founder investment philosophy and will disengage if the conversation stays at the level of broad market trends rather than concrete investment conviction.

Make it yours