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Iconiq, family office to tech billionaires, hires BlackRock exec as CIO

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Iconiq, private equity, family office, Nugi Jakobishvili, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook
A Facebook address sign at headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Oct. 10, 2018. Reuters/Elijah Nouvelage
  • Why this is important: ICONiQ is building out its senior team after a slew of departures

Nugi Jakobishvili, global head of alternative solutions at BlackRock, joined multifamily office Iconiq as chief investment officer in January, two sources confirmed to Buyouts.

Iconiq, often referred to as Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg’s family office, has a client list including Facebook’s Dustin Moskovitz, Sheryl Sandberg, her late husband Dave Goldberg, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman.

Iconiq CIO Nugi Jakobishvili. Photo sourced from LinkedIn.

Jakobishvili joined BlackRock in 2006. He was most recently managing director of alternative solutions, a group that develops and manages multialternative investment portfolios for BlackRock Alternative Investors.

The hire is an important one for Iconiq, which in 2018 saw several high-profile departures.

Iconiq Co-Founder Chad Boeding exited the firm to form his own multifamily office, EPIQ Capital Group, Buyouts reported last May.

Several senior Iconiq employees, including Ruth Robinson, Rick Withers, McKenzie Sullivan, Christopher Jackson and Henry Woodruff, at the time left to join Boeding’s firm.

Divesh Makan and Michael Anders, ex-colleagues from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, and Will Griffith of Technology Crossover Ventures, along with Boeding co-founded Iconiq in 2011.

Iconiq manages direct investments with a focus on growth equity, venture capital, middle-market buyouts and real estate. Its investments include VMTurbo, Dataiku, Coupa Software, GoFundMe, Sprinklr and Pluralsight.

The firm’s third co-investment vehicle raised more than $224 million in November, Buyouts reported. It is also in market with its fourth strategic partners fund, an SEC filing said.

Jakobishvili previously was with BlackRock’s financial markets advisory group. He was a senior team member in BlackRock’s strategic investment in PennyMac in 2008 and BlackRock’s acquisition of Helix Financial in 2010, according to BlackRock’s profile on Jakobishvili.

And Jakobishvili also worked at the SEC, covering issues related to cross-border M&A, highly leveraged institutions and counterparty risk, as well as international enforcement actions, according to the profile.

Iconiq did not respond to requests for comment.

Action Item: Read Iconiq’s Form ADV here https://bit.ly/2Fio9iD