Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top London based Chairman operating in the FinTech space. If you think a Chairman is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Brent Hoberman
Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Founders Factory
Brent Hoberman is chairman and co-founder of Founders Factory, an ambitious corporate backed incubator/accelerator based in London, and also of Founders Forum, a series of intimate annual global events for the leading entrepreneurs of today and the rising stars of tomorrow. Brent is a co-founder and was founding chairman of Smartup, Grip & made.com, a leading European direct-from-factory consumer homewares retailer. Most recently, Brent co-founded Firstminute Capital, a London-based pan-European seed fund, backed by some of the world’s top entrepreneurs. Brent co-founded lastminute.comin April 1998, was CEO from its inception and sold it in 2005 to Sabre for $1.1bn. Technology businesses he has co-founded have raised over $500m. Brent sits on the Advisory board for LetterOne Technology (a $16bn investment fund), the Oxford Foundry and the UK Government Digital Advisory Board. He is a board member of The Economist, a YGL and one of the Prime Minister’s Business Trade Ambassadors. Brent was awarded a CBE for services to entrepreneurship in the 2015 New Year’s Honour’s List.
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About 01 Founders, AccelerateHER, Firstminute Capital, Founders Factory, Founders Forum, Founders Intelligence, Founders Keepers, Founders of the Future, Grip, Karakuri, MADE, SmartUp.io: Founders Factory is a global corporate-backed venture studio and accelerator.
Neil England
Chairman of Augmentum Fintech
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About Augmentum Fintech, Mandata (Management & Data Services): Augmentum Fintech is a FinTech fund that invests in early and later-stage FinTech companies.
Alex Macpherson
Chairman of Octopus Ventures
Alex has been in the same position as many entrepreneurs having started, built and sold his own business. He founded Katalyst Ventures with his colleagues in 2000, creating the private angel network which would later be known as the Octopus Venture Partners. Over seven years, Alex led the business as CEO until its sale to Octopus in August 2007, providing succession plans for the executive team as a series of VCTs were raised to invest into 42 companies alongside the newly branded Octopus Venture Partners. Since 2007, the amount of assets that the Ventures team manages has risen from circa £20 million to in excess of £200 million at a time when the economy has seen the worst financial crisis in a generation. Alex is firmly of the belief that it is people that make the difference to businesses, whether within his own team, the Octopus Venture Partners, or most importantly, the entrepreneurs that are building the great businesses of tomorrow. Focusing on people rather than specific industry sectors has enabled the Ventures team to build a diverse portfolio of investments, including: Secret Escapes; Calastone; Zoopla; Graze; and SwiftKey. Alex is Chairman of the Octopus Ventures Investment Committee, remaining actively involved in new deal transactions, portfolio management, exits and new fund creation. Under Alex’s leadership, the Ventures team at Octopus has established itself as one of the leading UK venture capital houses.
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About Octopus Ventures: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Cyrus Ardalan
Chairman of OakNorth
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About : OakNorth is the creator of the ON Credit Intelligence Suite – proven cloud software that transforms commercial lending
Michael Jackson
Chairman of Elderstreet Investments
Michael Jackson MA FCA (Chairman of the Manager) founded Elderstreet Investments Limited in 1990 and is its executive chairman. For the past 24 years, he has specialised in raising finance and investing in the smaller companies quoted and unquoted sector. From 1983 until 1987 he was a director and from 1987 until 2006 was chairman of FTSE 100 company The Sage Group plc. He was also chairman of PartyGaming plc, another FTSE 100 company. He is a director of Elderstreet portfolio companies Uvenco UK plc, Fords Packaging Systems Limited, Baldwin & Francis Holdings Limited, AngloInfo Limited, Macranet Limited and Access Intelligence plc. Michael studied law at Cambridge University, and qualified as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand before spending five years in marketing for various US multinational technology companies.
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About Elderstreet Investments: Elderstreet Investments is a U.K.-based venture fund manager that provides development and growth capital funds for early stage companies.
Darren Campili
Vice Chairman, European Healthcare Investment Banking of Barclays
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About Barclays: Barclays is a global financial services company that provides various financial products and services worldwide.
Ken Brown
Chairman of Equity Capital Markets for Europe and the Middle East of Barclays
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About Barclays: Barclays is a global financial services company that provides various financial products and services worldwide.
Matt Cooper
Chairman of Tandem
Matt Cooper is Chairman of Octopus. Before joining Octopus, Matt was Principal Managing Director of Capital One Bank (Europe) where he led the team guiding strategy and operations. He helped the UK arm grow from a start-up to a business employing more than 2,000 people and generating over £275 million in revenue.
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About Imaginatik, Tandem, VouchedFor: Tandem is building a bank and financial management universe, focused on freeing users from financial stress by making money simple.
Thomas Teichman
Chairman and Executive Director of Spark Ventures
Tom is the Chairman of SPARK Venture Management and has a long track record in backing, chairing and developing some of Europe’s most successful internet, technology, music, games and software businesses. Additionally, he has 20 years’ prior investment banking experience acquired at Credit Suisse, Bank of Montreal Nesbitt and Mitsubishi Bank, where he held various positions including Head of Corporate Finance, Trading and Syndicate. Tom was Executive Chairman of SPARK Ventures plc for 10 years until 2011 and now chairs SPARK Venture Management, which manages the SPARK Ventures plc portfolio and other significant technology and life sciences portfolios including funds from major institutions and 27 Oxford University colleges and the UK Government. Tom has operated hands-on after his City days in many small and fast growing businesses from start up to IPO or trade sale. Thus, unusually, he combines awareness of the capital markets and the M&A environments with that of entrepreneurial, rapid growth companies with mould-breaking ideas.
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About Simba Sleep, The Garage Soho: SPARK Venture is an early-stage venture capital investor in Europe.
Nick Caplan
Chairman of Fly Now Pay Later
Nick is a Senior Sector Partner of the Athene Capital Group. Nick is a transformation and change advisor helping companies get from point A to point B. As such, he has amassed a wide range of experience, currently holding boarding positions in the following companies: Travel Fund, ANDigital, myCSP, OXAND and Managed Networks. Previously, Nick started his career at EY and rose to become CMO and Group Exec Board Director of Logica.
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About Athene Capital: Fly Now Pay Later is a fintech company that helps consumers split the cost of their travel in monthly installments.
Alexandre Harkous
Founder & Executive Chairman of OneWealthPlace
Alexandre, BI-SAM founder, has over 20 years of solid experience in strategy and information systems for the Capital Markets and Asset Management industries. He began his career at Mitsubishi Bank as Head of IT before joining Demachy Worms & Cie Bank as Projects Director and then SIP in 1995 as Client Management Director. In 1998 he joined Deloitte Consulting where he developed the Asset Management Expertise Center working closely with various global clients such as HSBC, Merrill Lynch, ABN Amro AM and Dresdner RCM Global Investors. Throughout his career, Alexandre gained a significant international experience in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific and a solid experience in business development, strategy, change management and systems for banking and asset management including securities services, portfolio management and analytics. Alexandre holds a Degree in Engineering and Computer Science.
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About OneWealthPlace: One Wealth Place’s mission to support the digital transformation of private wealth banks and global asset services companies.
Kosta Kantchev
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Nexo
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About Credissimo, Nexo: The World’s Leading Regulated Financial Institution for Digital Assets
Laurent Laffy
Founder and Executive Chairman of SeedLegals
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About Prepay Technologies, SeedLegals: The simple way for companies to complete the legals needed to raise investment and distribute equity
Ismail Ahmed
Founder & Executive Chairman of Zepz
Ismail Ahmed, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, founding WorldRemit was the culmination of 20 years’ experience in the money transfer industry – spanning academic, consulting and in-house roles. Before setting-up his own business, he worked for the United Nations Remittance Programme, helping African money transfer companies comply with tough anti-money laundering rules introduced after the 9/11 attacks. Ismail has published widely-cited research on the effect of remittances in Somaliland following the country’s civil war. He holds an MSc and PhD from the University of London and an Executive MBA from London Business School.
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About Zepz, Zepz: Zepz is a money transfer service that helps migrants send money to their loved ones all over the world.
Marek Fodor
Chairman of Kantox
Marek began his career working in consulting and banking before moving on to internet-related projects. Before joining Kantox he co-founded and was CTO at Atrapalo, largest independent online travel agency in Spain. He is an active business angel investor and mentor for technology startups. He is specialised in marketing and growth strategiHe has a dual university education background in both computer science and in economics.
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About 4Founders Capital, Kantox, SeedRocket, Terminis, Toubkal Partners: Kantox is a leader in Currency Management Automation software that enables businesses to automate their end-to-end FX workflow
Alick Varma
Founder and Chairman of Osper
Alick Varma is the Founder and CEO at Osper, established in 2012. Osper offers a safe MasterCard prepaid debit card with a simple mobile banking app with separate logins for young people and parents. All money on Osper is safely managed by a European regulated bank. Alick previously worked at McKinsey and Spotify, and also trained to be a maths teacher.
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About Osper: Osper is a prepaid debit card and mobile banking service empowering young people to manage their money responsibly.
Manoj Nair
Founder Chairman & CEO of RedGirraffe
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About RedGirraffe: RedGirraffe is a financial cum real estate technology company.
Karl Knoflach
Chairman, Co-Founder, Head of Marketing and Product of C88 Financial Technologies
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About C88 Financial Technologies: C88 connects banks and insurers in Asia to consumers buying financial products online.
Bundeep Singh Rangar
Chairman & CEO of PremFina
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About PremFina: PremFina is an innovative premium finance company providing insurance brokers with a high margin white-label premium finance solution.
Mushegh Tovmasyan
Chairman and Founder of Zenus Bank
Mushegh Tovmasyan is the Founder and Chairman at Zenus Bank.
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About : The first U.S. bank made for people outside the U.S.
Danny Kessler
Chairman of the Board & Investor of Sharegain
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About Sharegain, The Met Group, Unbound Global: Sharegain is a capital markets fintech democratising the $2.5tn securities lending industry.
Phil Hollingdale
Executive Chairman of Cushon
Phil Hollingdale is co-founder of digital wealth company Smarterly who aim to turn the UK’s workforce into a nation of investors. Employers promote Smarterly as an employee benefit, to help people build healthy saving habits with the convenience of saving directly from their pay, often with a contribution boost from the employer as a more accessible complement to pensions. Smarterly use sophisticated algorithms to analyse over 1,000 funds, build ready-made portfolios and comparison tables and then automatically monitor each customer’s individual portfolio on a daily basis. This is Phil’s sixth start-up tech venture. He’s also an active investor and advisor in several businesses across different sectors including Fintech, Healthtech and the Gig Economy.
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About Cushon: Cushon is a fintech company that provides investment, pension, financial wellbeing and workplace savings.
Charles McVeigh
Chairman of the Board of Director of Rubicon Fund Management
Charles was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director on 1 August 2000. Formerly, he was Co-Chairman of Citigroup’s European Investment Bank and served on the Boards of Witan Investment Company plc, Clearstream, the London Stock Exchange, LIFFE, British American Business Inc and was a member of both the Development Board and Advisory Council of the Prince’s Trust, he was also a Non-Executive Director of Petropavlovsk plc until mid 2015. e was appointed by the Bank of England to serve on the City Capital Markets Committee and the Legal Risk Review Committee and was a member of the Fulbright Commission. Charles has recently become Chairman of Rubicon Fund Management, a successful London based hedge fund.A Senior Adviser at Citigroup, Charles also serves on the Board of EFG-Hermes and is a Trustee of the Landmark Trust and the Natural History Museum Development Board.
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About : Rubicon Fund Management LLP is a privately owned investment management partnership.
Antony Jenkins
Founder & Executive Chairman of 10xbanking
Antony’s focus on driving innovation in the digital economy also extends to his role as Group Chairman of Currencies Direct, the leading UK non-bank provider of foreign exchange and international payment services; and his role as a board member of Blockchain, the world’s leading software platform for digital assets. He is a Board Director of Fannie Mae, sitting on the US mortgage lender’s Strategic Initiatives and Technology Committee and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Antony is a strong believer in the need for businesses to support the future workforce to acquire the right skills to thrive in the digital era; his commitment to education is recognised in his role as Chair of the Institute for Apprenticeships, an employer-led organisation established to promote high-quality apprenticeships by 2020. He was previously the Group CEO of Barclays plc for three years until July 2015.
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About 10xbanking: 10xbanking offers a digital banking platform that will transform the way financial services providers operate.
Mungo Park
Chairman of Innovator Capital Ltd
Mungo Park, Chairman of Innovator Capital, has been an investment banker, on both sides of the Atlantic, for 30 years focussing exclusively on emerging technologies. He was previously at Cowen & Co., Alex. Brown and Head of Corporate Finance at Nomura International.
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About : London based specialist investment bank advising sustainable, resource efficiency, ICT and life science companies from around the world
Neil Radley
Chairman & CEO of Jaja
Neil Radley is a CEO with an outstanding track record of growing/turning around international businesses in retail financial services and payments sectors. A leader strong on strategy, with a highly commercial, analytical approach and the ability to build and motivate high performance management teams. ACA qualified and FCA approved person whose background includes success in instigating and executing merger and acquisition work (with the subsequent delivery of business benefits). Private Equity experience with exposure to FCA and senior City contacts. The recent £530M acquisition by Jaja Finance of the credit card portfolio of The Bank of Ireland UK [including the credit cards customers of BOI, the AA and Post Office] have put Jaja Finance on the radar and show how finally a new challenger can enter the complex world of revolving credit.
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About Jaja: Jaja is a fintech company that provides digital and physical credit cards and other financing services.
Justin King
Vice Chairman and Head of Portfolio Businesses of Terra Firma
Justin is Terra Firma’s Vice Chairman, having joined the firm in September 2015. In addition, Justin serves as Chairman of Wyevale Garden Centres and sits on the board of Annington. He was previously the CEO of Sainsbury’s between 2004 and 2014, where he led the business through a major turnaround which led to nine years of profit growth. Before joining Sainsbury’s, Justin was Head of Food at Marks & Spencer. He held prior roles at Asda, Haagen-Dazs, PepsiCo and Mars in a thirty-year career spanning consumer goods and grocery retailing. Justin is a member of the Public Interest Body of PwC. He has previously served as a director of Staples and a board member of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and was on the audit committee of both organisations. He was also a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group. Justin is well known for his interest in motorsport. In early 2015, Justin played a key role in the recovery of the Marrusia Formula One team (now Manor Racing Formula One team) through a company voluntary arrangement and served as its interim chairman. His son, Jordan, races in the IndyCar Series, and previously competed in GP2 in addition to being a development driver for Manor Racing. In 2013, Justin was named Most Admired Business Leader by Management Today as well as Britain’s Most Impressive Businessman in the IPSOS-MORI Captains of Industry Report. Justin received an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Bath, and in 2009 the University of Bath awarded him with an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration. Justin was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 2011.
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About Terra Firma: Terra Firma is a private equity firm based in London, United Kingdom.
Neil Scarth
Chairman of KITE EDGE LTD
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About : Customisable Search Platform for Asset Managers/Banks
Stephen O’Connor
Chairman & Founder of Quantile Technologies
Co-founded Quantile in 2015. Previously, during a 20-year career at Morgan Stanley, Stephen, a member of the Fixed Income Management Committee, held a number of senior roles including Global Head of Counterparty Portfolio Management and Global Head of Client Clearing. Stephen has served on numerous industry bodies including as Chairman of ISDA and he was a board member of GE Capital International Holdings Limited. He is currently a board member of the London Stock Exchange Group PLC, where he is Chair of the Risk Committee. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the London School of Economics Systemic Risk Centre.
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About Quantile Technologies: Quantile helps market participants reduce their counterparty risk.
Giles Keating
Chairman of the Werthstein Institute of Werthstein
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About Werthstein: Werthstein is a digital wealth manager which focuses on intelligent storytelling of investment ideas, called zeitgeists.
Jonathan Rowland
Chairman and Founder of R8 Group
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About R8 Group, Redwood Bank: R8 Group is building the next-gen banking ecosystem for a decentralized economy.
Greg Karpovsky
Founder and Executive Chairman of Stenn
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About Stenn: Stenn is a non-bank trade finance provider that delivers innovative solutions to unlock working capital for buyers and suppliers.
Donal Smith
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Credit Benchmark
Donal Smith Co-founded Credit Benchmark Ltd., in 2012. Donal Smith served as the Chief Executive Officer at Markit Securities Finance Analytics Ltd. from March 2008 to April 2012. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Thomson Financial’s businesses in Europe and Asia at Thomson Reuters. He joined Data Explorers in March 2008. He served as the Managing Director of Thomson Financial’s banking and brokerage division joined at the end of 2001. He also served as the President and Chief Operating Officer for European and Asia Operations of Thomson Financial, Inc. He worked for the Financial Times Group as Managing Director of Business Information at FT Information and then as Director of Electronic Publishing for the FT Group. Donal Smith was responsible for the integration of Pearson’s portfolio of business and financial information services as well as the expansion of FT Group through acquisition and he was also responsible for the launch of FT.com as a global financial resource which quickly became the number one business website in Europe. He served as Chief Executive Officer of FT.com and member the Financial Times Group’s management board. He Co-founded eCountries.com in 1999 and served as its Chief Executive Officer and also FT Group’s Member of the Management Board. He serves as Non-Executive Chairman of Pirum Systems Limited. He serves as Chairman of BI-SAM Technologies S.A. He served as Chairman of Selerity, Inc. He serves as a Director of Selerity, Inc. He serves as a Non Executive Director of Commodity Vectors Ltd. Donal Smith serves as an Executive Member and Member of the Board at Data Explorers Limited. He served as a Non Executive Director of Trinity Mirror plc from March 1, 2012 to May 7, 2015. He holds a Degree in the History of Art and English Literature from University College Dublin.
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About Credit Benchmark, Pirum Systems, RIMES Technologies, Web Financial Group: Credit Benchmark is a financial data analytics company.
David Heslop
Chairman and Co -founder of China Ventures
Co-founder and Chairman, David has extensive experiences in corporate finance and leadership management, has been working across many industries including automotive, financial services, confectionery, healthcare and advertising, etc. As investor, David holds various portfolio of interests including renewables, security, the music industry, housing and transport, etc. Prior to joining in China Ventures, David served as Chairman of MCL Finance and Chairman of AGL Finance, also held positions of Chief Executive of KIA (UK), Chairman of Mazda Cars (UK). David earned his MBA from London Business School in 1978.
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About China Ventures: China’s global deal marketplace and a leading China-centric investment community on the globe.
Joe Seifert
Chairman & Co-founder of H4
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About H4: H4 is a digital platform transforming the documentation that underpins global financial markets and legal contracts.
Andrew Irvine
Chairman of the board and Founder of MatchPlace Limited
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About MatchPlace Limited: New generation Fintech platform. Integrating Financial Services solutions, bridging the gap between Financial Institutions and SMEs
Thomas Balk
Chairman and Co-founder of StockViews
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About StockViews: StockViews is an investment research platform.
Diederick van Thiel
Chairman, CEO, FOUNDER of AdviceGames
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About AdviceGames, E-cology innovations, Ikano Group, JADS (Jheronimus Academy of Data Science): AdviceGames provides virtual financial assisting and gamification for consumers and small businesses.
Yann Gindre
Deputy Chairman and Head of Advisory board of Akoni Hub
Advisory Board Member, bringing international finance and diverse experience servicing corporate banking clients. Senior executive with global experience In Corporate Investment Banking, Hedge Funds with a front to back experience. Previous roles from 2004 to late 2012, include CEO Natixis, The Americas & CEO Natixis UK, Chairman of the New York and London Executive committees, Chairman of Natixis Alternative assets. Yann has been a financial consultant and a Director at UNPRI until 2015. Between 1988 and 2004 he was MD Global Head of DCM at JP Morgan Chase, UBS and Barclays Capital and Global Head of Markets at Commerzbank. Yann Gindre holds an MBA from London Business School.
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About Akoni Hub: Akoni provides simple cash management tools for individuals and SMEs.
Graham Peacop
Non Executive Chairman of Witstock
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About Witstock: Witstock is a specialized and independent practice that creates tailored solutions to clients’ card and payment challenges.
David Priestley
Executive Chairman of Cuelogic Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
A career entrepreneur in technology for the Finance and Commodities sectors. Founder of 6 successful start ups over a 30 year career. Finalist in the 2001 Entrepreneur of the year and winner of the AIM Fastest Rising Share in 2003. Responsible for the creation of several hundred technology jobs in the sector and with an excess of over £100 million in exports achieved over the years Priestley remains committed to deploying the very latest technology using the very best software engineering talent. David was part of Gissing Software’s management team that sold the business to Reuters in 2008. David co-founded MDX Technology in 2010.
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About Cuelogic Technologies Pvt. Ltd., MDX Technology: Outsourced Product Development for leading edge startups and Fortune 500 enterprises looking to compete with unicorns.
Marius Bausys
Founder & Chairman of the Board of ArcaPay
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About ArcaPay: Cross-border payment, foreign exchange and currency risk management solutions for business.
Scott Law
Executive Chairman of Deko
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About Deko: Deko is the best way for merchants to help customers finance the important things in life.
Ruben de Noronha
Chairman of RDN Companies
Ruben de Noronha is a 16-year-old young entrepreneur. Ruben has 2 businesses which go by the name: RDNHD and TechExpound. RDNHD Ltd, has grown and evolved to become a digital agency. TechExpound is a successful technology website, home to thousands of passionate technology enthusiasts who rely on the site for honest, accurate technology reviews, news and guides. Ruben started developing apps at the age of 13 and built RDNHD from scratch. Ruben now has 4 apps on the Google Play Store which have thousands of downloads from more than 10 different countries. Ruben now develops apps for clients internationally. Ruben is also a keynote speaker, he has delivered a TEDx Talk in March 2016 which has attracted more than 120,000 views, on the talk: Age Does Not Matter and certainly inspired many young people. Ruben loves sharing his story and journey with ambitious young people, all around the world while inspiring them to not let their age be a barrier to their success.
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About RDN Companies, RDNHD: Holding company of Ruben de Noronha.
