Wellington sparkles in Silicon Valley

German VC Wellington Partners has appointed Eric Ly, the co-founder LinkedIn, as a venture partner.

Based in Silicon Valley, he will help Wellington in the area of Internet services, with particular emphasis on social networking and social media applications, product development, technology scalability, and viral marketing strategies.

Ly founded LinkedIn, the online business network, in December 2002, and he is also founder and CEO of Presdo, an online scheduling application. He becomes Wellington’s tenth venture partner, a list which includes the likes of Loïc Le Meur, CEO of Seesmic, and Ram Sranivasan, former CEO of Fireclick.

“Being a venture partner allows me to leverage my entrepreneurial experience and Silicon Valley network to help European entrepreneurs build world-class businesses,” said Ly. “I’m delighted to be a part of this successful firm and to join such a high-profile team.”

Wellington has also opened an office in Silicon Valley, which it will use to support portfolio companies to expand in the US, helping them with relocation, marketing, business development and with partnerships with West Coast-based high-tech players.

Wellington GP Frank Böhnke said: “To fulfil global ambitions, you definitely have to be successful in Silicon Valley, the hub of the technology universe. For many years, we have supported our entrepreneurs in expanding their network beyond Europe and into the US, it was a logical step for us to also expand our operations to establish a global footprint for the firm.”

The new office is in Palo Alto and will be headed by Srinivasan, who joined the Wellington team in 2006.