Octopus Investments, the investment management firm, has appointed Frederic Lardieg and Simon King to its ventures team. Lardieg will manage venture capital investments, having previously worked as a principal at Vodafone Ventures. He also previously worked for Sony Ericsson in acquisition management. King will work on early stage deal flow, and will evaluate investment opportunities and carry out preliminary due diligence. He was previously a research scientist at Imperial College London.