Iconiq Growth hires Amit Agarwal from analytics firm Datadog in latest expansion By Reuters
By Krystal Hu
(Reuters) – Iconiq Growth, the venture arm of investment firm Iconiq Capital, has hired cloud analytics company Datadog (NASDAQ: ) president Amit Agarwal as a general partner in the latest expansion of its leadership team, the company told Reuters.
Agarwal joins Iconiq after 12 years at Datadog, a longtime Iconiq portfolio company for Iconiq Growth, whose parent company Iconiq Capital manages assets for some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names.
It plans to focus on software startups as artificial intelligence continues to shape the industry.
Agarwal said he has worked closely with Iconiq Growth since the firm first invested in Datadog in 2015, particularly with Matthew Jacobson, an Iconiq partner who sits on Datadog’s board of directors.
“I want to join a multi-stage firm where I can invest in companies at different stages of their growth. I’ve seen firsthand how influential Iconiq is as a portfolio partner, given the connections it can make within its network,” said Agarwal, who was a limited partner in several venture funds, including Iconiq.
Iconiq says its network of wealthy backers, most of whom made their fortunes in the tech world — including Meta’s (NASDAQ: ) Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey — can open many doors for founders.
The hiring is the latest expansion of Iconiq Growth’s investment leadership team, which last year added five partners to bring its total to 16. This follows the closing of a $5.75 billion fund in 2024, despite venture capital fundraising reaching a five-year low of $76 billion last year, according to PitchBook data.
With a larger fund size, Iconiq Growth has expanded further into early-stage investments. Half of the team’s investments over the past five years have been in younger startups with less than $10 million in revenue.
The firm’s recent hires have focused on former big-company executives, so-called operators—rather than career investors, including Alex Gorski, the former CEO of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: ).
