European director of Facebook heads to White Star Capital

Christian Hernandez, the UK and pan-European director of Facebook, has quit the company to join an early stage investment company called White Star Capital.

White Star Capital was set up in 2007 by angel investor Eric Martineau-Fortin to support his portfolio of investments, which include Dollar Shave Club and Betaworks. A year ago, Martineau-Fortin and Hernandez combined their portfolios under the White Star Capital umbrella. The VC firm focuses on early-stage technology companies, from seed rounds through to larger, later-stage investments. Some of White Star's exits include Summly, which was bought by Yahoo, and Ludia, which was bought by FreemantleMedia.

Hernandez's departure from Facebook heralds a commitment to dedicate himself full-time to the combined portfolio of more than 20 investments. The plan is to invest in a further 20 once they've raised a new $100 million (£66 million) fund. Both Martineau-Fortin and Hernandez will be managing partners.

 White Star Capital has also recruited two principals -- John Henderson and David Szekely -- to develop the company. Henderson worked with Hernandez at Facebook before joining Summly, while Szekely has worked with Martineau-Fortin on a number of venture deals.

 The VC firm says on its website that it's different because the team believes in "the rise of mobile, the acceleration of ecommerce and the power of the social web" (although you might be hard-pushed to find a tech VC say anything to the contrary). They will be looking at social and mobile gaming, subscription based ecommerce models and "affinity networks" across Europe and the US.

Hernandez explained in a public Facebook post: "Some 1,350 days ago, I walked into Facebook for what has been one of the most amazing rides of my professional career. I have been able to work with and learn from some of the most amazing minds in tech, and have loved working alongside companies seeking to innovate on top of the Facebook platform and see them scale globally.

"The timing, however, is now right to put my passion for entrepreneurship and working with early-stage startups to use in a new way."

Hernandez leaves Facebook in "a few weeks" to join White Star.