Passion Capital fires founder following sexual assault charge
Venture capital Passion Capital has fired its founder tech tycoon Stefan Glaenzer following a sexual assault charge.
Funded by the British Business Bank, Passion Capital – which is Monzo’s majority shareholder – severed all ties with the 60-year-old adding it was seeking to stop him from making future profits, the Telegraph reported.
“We are in the process of removing his involvement and membership in all Passion entities that he held from his previous role, and are actively seeking to exercise any rights that would restrict him as much as possible from benefiting financially from any successes,” the company said.
“Whilst we continue to consider our legal position and options for holding him to account for bringing the firm into disrepute and allegedly behaving in a manner wholly incompatible with our values, we offer our most heartfelt apologies to all of our portfolio company founders and teams, co-investors and fund investors impacted – and most importantly any victims.”
Glaenzer was arrested in September following an allegation made to the police in June. He was charged with sexual assault on 7 March and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrate Court next week.
Commenting on the news, the government-owned British Business Bank – which had invested £17.5m in Passion in 2015 – said it was supporting the firm’s decision to remove Glaenzer from the funds.