Kirill Tasilov
Associate
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- Full Name
- Kirill Tasilov (also spelled Kirill Tashilov)
- Title
- General Partner, Talis Capital (previously Principal; joined as an analyst)
- Firm
- Talis Capital
- Firm Type
- Early-stage venture capital firm (private-wealth / multi-family-office backed). *Note: the stub's "Angel Investors" label is inaccurate — Talis is an institutional early-stage VC.*
- Investment Stage
- Seed through Series B (leads Seed and Series A rounds)
- Check Size
- ~$1M–$10M, with a reported "sweet spot" around $4M
- Target Company Profile
- Founder-led, technically ambitious early-stage startups with global potential — spanning consumer/gaming, frontier B2B infrastructure, and deep-tech tooling
- Sector Focus
- Gaming and consumer internet, AI/data, biotech and scientific tooling, proptech and commerce infrastructure, cybersecurity, SaaS, fintech, and insurance/health tech
- Geographic Focus
- Global, with a base in London and activity across the UK and Israel
- Location
- London, United Kingdom
Background
Kirill Tasilov is a General Partner at Talis Capital, a London-based early-stage venture capital firm. Originally from Moscow, he grew up in Prague, Czech Republic, and graduated from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Before entering venture capital, he co-founded a content-marketing startup and worked at UBS in Hong Kong, where he focused on APAC equities.
Tasilov's path at Talis is a "homegrown" one: he joined the firm as an analyst and rose through the ranks — analyst, associate, principal — to become an equal partner alongside the firm's founders, Matus Maar and Thomas Williams. (As of the firm's January 2022 PortalOne announcement he was still titled Principal; he has since been elevated to General Partner.)
Talis Capital itself was founded in 2009 and evolved from a single-family office into a multi-family, private-wealth-backed VC platform, serving as an access point for 30+ families and high-net-worth individuals into technology deals. The firm has invested over $600M into early-stage technology companies, and is best known as an early backer of cyber-AI unicorn Darktrace, whose Series A it led in 2015.
Within the firm, Tasilov has built a notably broad remit rather than a single narrow thesis — leading deals across gaming and consumer, biotech/scientific tooling, and complex B2B and commerce infrastructure.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Invests primarily at Seed and Series A (and follows on into Series B), typically writing checks in the $1M–$10M range with a sweet spot near ~$4M.
- Backs founder-led, technically differentiated companies with global ambition, across a deliberately wide surface area: gaming/consumer internet, AI and data services, biotech and scientific tooling, proptech/commerce infrastructure, cybersecurity, SaaS, fintech and insurance.
- Draws on Talis's private-wealth / multi-family-office model, which lets the firm act as a flexible, conviction-led early investor rather than a fund constrained to one stage or sector.
- Gravitates to category-defining or "first-of-its-kind" products — e.g., on PortalOne he said: *"PortalOne is redefining mobile by unlocking new hybrid experiences at the intersection of games and video, and we are thrilled to be a part of their journey."*
Notable Investments
- PortalOne — Oslo-based "world's first hybrid games platform" combining live shows with interactive games; Talis backed the $15M seed (2021) and the $60M Series A (Jan 2022, led by Tiger Global).
- Seqera Labs — Barcelona-based scientific/bioinformatics software company behind Nextflow (biotech and data-pipeline tooling).
- IMMO — Proptech platform aggregating and operating residential rental housing at scale.
- Laced — UK sneaker and streetwear resale marketplace (commerce infrastructure).
- Zyper — Community-marketing / brand-superfan platform.
- SoWork — Virtual-office / remote-collaboration platform.
- Reedsy — Marketplace connecting authors with editors, designers and publishing professionals.
- Darktrace — Cyber-AI company; Talis led its Series A (2015) and rode it to a public listing/unicorn outcome.
- Luminance — AI-powered legal document analysis (Series A, 2016).
- Pirate Studios — Music/rehearsal studio network (Seed, 2018).
- omni:us — AI for insurance claims processing (Series A, 2018).
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