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 Venture Partner operating in the Venture Capital space. If you think a Venture Partner 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.
Martin Gibson
Venture Partner of Accel
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About Accel, Accel: Accel is an early and growth-stage venture capital firm that helps a global community of entrepreneurs.
Adrian Colyer
Venture Partner of Accel
Advisor at Weaveworks & ClusterHQ. Board Member at Skipjaq.
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About Accel, Accel: Accel is an early and growth-stage venture capital firm that helps a global community of entrepreneurs.
Paul McNabb
Venture Partner of Episode 1
Paul has had a highly successful career in high tech as both a senior executive and an entrepreneur. Most recently, he served as the Chief Strategy Officer for Cisco Services, a $12bn division of Cisco, where he led the global strategy and acquisitions team. Previously he had run a series of global businesses for Cisco. As an entrepreneur he founded and exited two businesses in the US, one an innovative consulting firm sold to Cambridge Technology Partners, and the second a B2B Social Network for CIOs sold to Earthweb. His early background was in consulting, working for Accenture and other major international consulting firms, including his own. He has worked in venture capital in the US, and has broad experience in many B2B technologies. He has also worked globally, living in Shanghai, New York, San Francisco and multiple European Countries. With a passion for strategy and marketing, and an extensive network of contacts and experience to draw on, Paul enjoys nothing better than working with entrepreneurs to tease out the goals and priorities they need to operationalize their vision.
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About Episode 1, Opteran: Episode1 Ventures is a venture capital fund set up to invest in early-stage technology companies based in London, UK.
Pamir Gelenbe
Venture Partner of Hummingbird Ventures
Pamir is a Managing Partner at Libertus Capital and invests on decentralised systems, entreprise blockchain, and digital assets. He is an investor in Kraken, Ledger, Crypto Facilities and Shapeshift. Previously, he served as a Partner at Hummingbird Ventures, and also worked at Morgan Stanley and D.E. Shaw. Pamir graduated from Duke University and Columbia University with a BSc. in Electrical Engineering and MSc. in Operations Research.
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About CryptoFacilities, Gram Games, Hummingbird Ventures, Libertus Capital, On Device Research, ShapeShift: Hummingbird Ventures is a venture capital fund for high-growth digital media and software companies.
Arek Wylegalski
Venture Partner of Firstminute Capital
Arek is a Venture Partner at firstminute capital focusing on Blockchain and FinTech. Prior he was a Partner at an AI-focused seed fund, Fly Ventures, and an investor at Index Ventures. He led or worked on investments into: Wayve, Pyka, Revolut, Bonify, Culture Amp, Dubsmash, Prodigy, Property Partner, Funding Circle and others. He joined Index after Avenue Capital, a $15Bn AUM hedge fund, where he focused on special situations. Arek started his career in investment banking, trading credit for Barclays Capital and then in M&A advisory. He speaks publicly, mostly about blockchain, and is an active contributor to the start-up scene in London. He has been a long-time mentor and an investment committee member at Seedcamp. Arek is currently launching a fund dedicated to opportunities in the blockchain space across both equity and crypto-assets.
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About Firstminute Capital: Firstminute Capital is an early-stage venture fund based in London, investing globally. Backed by 30 unicorn founders and global strategics.
Steve Crossan
Venture Partner of Firstminute Capital
Steve is an Executive-in-Residence (XiR) at Atomico, focused on helping their portfolio company founders with their Product and Go-To-Market strategies. He also works closely with the Engineering team building a platform that allows Atomico to be efficient in discovering and being responsive to great companies & founders and oversees other tech solutions to support the firm’s core business. Prior to joining Atomico he worked at the world’s leading AI research company, DeepMind, in London. At Deepmind, Steve led the Product team responsible for putting DeepMind’s technology into Google – from data centre optimization to Google Assistant and protein folding – and reported directly into Deepmind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman. He joined DeepMind after several years at Google working on the Google Maps, Gmail, and Google Search product teams. In 2011, during the Arab Spring, he launched speak2tweet to open access to social media when the internet was cut off in several countries. Before all this he left a Ph.D. in AI at Sussex unfinished to start a series of startups including Runtime Collective which later became brandwatch.com. He also serves as a Venture Partner at seed investor firstminute capital.
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About Firstminute Capital, GSK: Firstminute Capital is an early-stage venture fund based in London, investing globally. Backed by 30 unicorn founders and global strategics.
Marvin Ma
Venture Partner of Octopus Ventures
Marvin Ma joined as Octopus Venture Partner in March 2016. He is actively helping Octopus as well as its portfolios on China strategy and relationship building. Marvin is also Founder of Longhill Investments, an alternative investment firm based in Shanghai, helping Chinese institutions and family office for outbound investments and deal makings. Before that Marvin was a venture investor in HSBC Strategic Innovation Investment team covering Fintech Investments and ex Investment Banker in Torch Partners, a tech focus corporate finance advisory firm.
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About Octopus Ventures, Sumscope: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Anthony Collinson
Venture Partner of Octopus Ventures
Anthony was a co-founder of Katalyst Ventures, which was launched in 2000. As Chairman of the company he helped build its private angel network to over 100 people, as well as raising over £18 million to fund a portfolio of 25 companies before Katalyst Ventures was sold to Octopus in 2007. Now a consultant, he acts as a director and observer to a number of investee companies within the team’s portfolio. He has a manufacturing, operational and general management background as well as extensive small business experience. He was a director of Porvair PLC and Managing Director of Porvair International Ltd. Previously Anthony was managing director of Scotfresh Limited, Irish Leathers Group Plc and Holmes Hall Tanners Limited.
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About Octopus Ventures: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Tim Lebus
Venture Partner of Octopus Ventures
Tim Lebus has spent over 30 years in private equity and banking. He is currently Senior Adviser to Duke Street, the mid-market private equity group, having previously been a Partner from 2001 to 2012. Prior to joining Duke Street, Tim worked for more than 20 years as an investment banker, most recently as a Managing Director in the Financial Sponsor group at Deutsche Bank. He also works with Octopus Ventures, the venture capital arm of Octopus Investments. He is as an observer to a number of Octopus Ventures investee companies and is a director of Octopus Titan VCT 3 plc. In addition, he is a director of Bibby Line Group Limited. Tim qualified a lawyer and practised as a barrister in London and subsequently as a corporate lawyer in New York. He holds a degree in law from Cambridge University.
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About Octopus Ventures: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
George Whitehead
Venture Partner Manager of Octopus Ventures
Partner at ACF Investors.
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About ACF Investors, Clean Growth Fund, Octopus Ventures: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Philip Lay
Venture Partner of Octopus Ventures
Philip has been a partner at the Chasm Group, a Silicon Valley based strategy consulting firm founded by Geoffrey Moore, for the past 24 years. He joined Octopus Ventures as a Venture Partner in January 2018, after moving from San Francisco back to the UK. Earlier Philip had a successful entrepreneurial career, co-founding and leading a successful security and communications software company, TGR Software, before it was acquired, and before that he was a sales executive at IBM in the UK. Philip focuses mainly on B2B software/Saas. He has advised dozens of companies ranging from major tech companies such as Autodesk, HP, NetApp, Netsuite, SAP, Rackspace and Salesforce.com, to mid-sized players and startups entering their scale-up growth phase. Among the key themes of his work are: playing for power, land & expand business strategy and enterprise customer engagement. Philip has also delivered keynotes and moderated panels at industry and company conferences around the world; he teaches full-time MBA students at IESE in Barcelona
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About Octopus Ventures: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Ian Perry
Venture Partner of Octopus Ventures
Ian combines over 25 years sales, operations and general management experience in the IT industry with domain experience in the communications industry spanning wireline, wireless and IP service provider markets. Following consistent success in sales and sales management positions at Information Technology Ltd, Ingres and Sybase, Ian went on to join Portal Software as Vice President, EMEA in 1998. Building the EMEA organization from scratch his four year tenure at Portal Software saw the company rapidly achieve a dominant market position in convergent billing and customer care solutions securing the majority of Tier 1 operators across EMEA, and supported a highly successful NASDAQ IPO. Since leaving Portal in 2002, Ian operates an independent consulting business active in supporting and investing in early stage organizations spanning SaaS, direct / enterprise, channel and consumer business models. Ian currently holds non-executive board positions at Cloudmark Inc, Eseye Ltd, Central Europe On-Demand Zrt and Ontology Ltd.
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About Octopus Ventures: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Alan Cairns
Venture Partner of Octopus Ventures
Alan, who joined Octopus Ventures in 2018, is a Venture Partner focussing on People & Talent Strategies across the portfolio. He’s a seasoned digital/tech focussed chief people officer having spent 8 years helping take MoneySupermarket from IPO, through a range of acquisitions including the substantive Moneysavingexpert, to a FTSE 150 with a £2Billion Enterprise value. He hired the executive team including CEO, several NED’s and the leadership team as well as building out the people strategy. He’s spent the past two years as CPO of MOO where he made some significant exec hires, codefied it’s culture and values as well as launching an all employee stock option plan. Alan is currently CPO for a systematic hedge fund, a proud mentor for ALT and an advisor to a nascent startup in psychometrics.
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About Octopus Ventures: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Vishal Gulati
Venture Partner of Molten Ventures
Vishal Gulati: Vishal serves as a venture partner specialising in digital health at DFJ Esprit, Europe’s leading Silicon Valley style venture capital firm with over $1b under management. Since 2012, Vishal has been Europe’s leading promoter of investment into the emerging digital health sector and chairman of Digital Health Forum, which supports the best in class digital health companies to grow into global enterprises. Vishal serves on several boards including Horizon Discovery Group PLC (Cambridge, UK), a gene editing company; Fluidics Analytics (Cambridge, UK), a next gen protein discovery engine, Frameshift a healthcare information flow platform (London, UK) and EcoEos (San Francisco, USA), a consumer genomics business. His previous investments include Napo Pharmaceuticals, Glenmark, Renovo and Phagenesis.
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About Frameshift, Molten Ventures: Molten Ventures is Europe’s largest listed tech VC firm. We inject the most visionary companies with energy to help them transform and grow.
Alan Duncan
Venture Partner of Molten Ventures
Alan has been in the venture capital industry for more than twenty years, initially through establishing a corporate venturing fund for Ferranti and then with Foreign & Colonial Ventures, Newmarket Venture Capital and Prelude Ventures. He joined DFJ Esprit when it was formed in 2006. Alan is responsible for a portfolio of DFJ Esprit’s electronics investments including Phyworks, Lime Microsystems, SiConnect, XMOS and DisplayLink. His previous investments have included Alphamosaic (sold to Broadcom) and nCipher (IPO on LSE). Alan has an electronic engineering background and gained his industrial experience in computer systems with Ferranti plc. Alan is a past member of the European Venture Capital Association High Tech Committee and lecturer on the EVCA’s venture capital professional training courses.
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About Molten Ventures, XMOS: Molten Ventures is Europe’s largest listed tech VC firm. We inject the most visionary companies with energy to help them transform and grow.
Jim Faulkner
Venture Partner of Apple Tree Partners
Jim Faulkner is a venture partner at ATP. A highly experienced biopharmaceutical development leader with specialist skills in gene and cell therapy, he has been significantly involved in taking more than 25 different medicines into the clinic, including multiple CAR-T assets. Most recently, Jim headed Product Delivery for Autolus Ltd, a clinical-stage CAR-T company spun out of University College London. During his tenure, he set up and led a team of over 75 scientists and engineers in the US and UK responsible for process development, technical operations, engineering and supply chain, and he served on the leadership team that took Autolus from start-up to successful IPO in three years. Prior to that, Jim held various leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline, including overseeing the chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) development and supply of a portfolio of pioneering product types that included gene and cell therapies, oligonucleotides, therapeutic enzymes, and molecular chaperones, and playing a significant role in the successful filing of the first-ever autologous ex vivo gene/cell therapy product license (for Strimvelis™). He started his career at British Biotech, the first biotechnology company to be publicly listed in the UK. Jim earned a BSc in biotechnology from the University of Leeds and completed his PhD in molecular biology at the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research.
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About Apple Tree Partners: Apple Tree Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medtech, and healthcare services.
Rajesh Chopra
Venture Partner of Apple Tree Partners
Raj Chopra is a venture partner at ATP. At The Institute of Cancer Research in London, as director of the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit, he led one of the largest academic drug discovery groups in the world and focused on targeted protein degradation and complex 3D cell culture models. Raj also worked at Celgene from 2009 to 2016 as corporate vice president of Translational and Early Drug Development, leading an international team of more than 100 scientists. Before joining Celgene, he held leadership positions in AstraZeneca’s Oncology Therapeutics group in the UK and US. Raj started his academic career as the director of Hematological Oncology at Christie Hospital and was group leader at the Paterson Institute of Cancer Research, both located in Manchester, UK. He is a non-executive director of Artios Pharma, established to develop a next-generation DNA damage response target pipeline of cancer therapeutics, and co-founder of Monté Rosa Therapeutics, a biotech focused on targeted protein degradation. Raj trained in medicine at University College London, where he earned his PhD in medicine, cell and molecular biology. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Royal College of Pathologists, and the Royal Society of Biology.
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About Apple Tree Partners: Apple Tree Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medtech, and healthcare services.
Andrew Bayliffe
Venture Partner of Apple Tree Partners
Andrew Bayliffe is a venture partner at ATP. With more than 20 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, he possesses expertise in the discovery and development of both small molecule and antibody therapeutics across a broad range of diseases areas. Most recently, at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), he served as head of the Fibrosis and Lung Injury Discovery unit at GSK’s R&D headquarters in Stevenage, UK, and held senior roles in antibody discovery and development in the US and UK. Andrew is an honorary professor at the Wolfson Institute of Experimental Medicine at Queens College in Belfast. He completed his undergraduate and PhD studies in pharmacology, physiology, and molecular biology at Manchester University and Leeds University in the UK.
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About Apple Tree Partners: Apple Tree Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medtech, and healthcare services.
Simon Greenman
Advisor, formerly Venture Partner of DN Capital
Simon Greenman has over twenty years of leading digital transformations through technology, data science, and AI. He is co-founder and partner in Best Practice AI, a London based AI executive advisory with a leading library of AI use cases and case studies. Earlier in his career, Simon was a co-founder of MapQuest.com, one of the first internet brands. He has over ten years as a chief digital officer leading transformations of media companies for private equity. He has also consulted or worked for HomeAdvisor Europe, AOL, Bowers & Wilkins, and Accenture. Simon is highly active in the AI startup community. He is an AI entrepreneur in Resident at Seedcamp, co-president of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of London, and an advisor and former venture partner at DN Capital. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BA in computing and artificial intelligence from the University of Sussex.
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About Best Practice AI: DN Capital operates as an early-stage venture capital firm.
Tom Buehlmann
Venture Partner of DN Capital
Tom has over 15 years of experience with technology-enabled marketing service businesses, with a particular focus on general management, sales and marketing. Until recently, Tom served as Executive Chairman of Lumata Group, a global digital customer engagement, analytics and loyalty company. Previously, he spent a number of years as CEO and in senior management at EYC, a loyalty CRM and analytics provider, and at Catalina Marketing, a provider of targeted point-of-sale couponing. Tom was also a Venture Partner at DN Capital, where he managed and evaluated existing and new investments in the e-commerce, data and retail technology sectors. Early in his career, Tom had a number of sales and marketing roles at Procter & Gamble and Lindt & Sprüngli. He holds an MA from Cambridge University.
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About DN Capital: DN Capital operates as an early-stage venture capital firm.
David Buttress
Venture Partner of 83North
David is based in our London office. He joined JUST EAT in March 2006 to launch its UK business, and was appointed CEO in January 2013. David led JUST EAT in the UK from startup to becoming Europe’s largest technology IPO in a decade. As CEO of JUST EAT David was responsible for leading several major investments and acquisitions. Highlights include acquiring leading technology businesses in Australia (menulog), Spain (la nevera roja) , Italy (Pizza Bo), Canada (Skip the Dishes), UK (hungryhouse and Flypay) and LATAM (ifood). In 2014, David was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Investor Allstars Awards and he was also named as one of Britain’s most influential people in the Debrett’s 500 2015, 2016 and 2017. David was a Special Advisor to 83North for several years before joining as a partner in 2017.
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About 83North: 83North is a global venture capital firm with more than $1.8B million under management.
Ravinder Dhaliwal
Investor and Venture Partner of Crane Venture Partners
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About Crane Venture Partners: VC firm investing into seed and early stage intelligent enterprise and deep tech companies in Europe.
Kevin D’Silva
Venture Partner of Catapult Ventures
Kevin is a Venture Partner with Catapult’s GM&C Life Sciences Fund, where he assesses investment opportunities and works with the Fund’s smaller investments to help companies successfully grow, with a particular focus on medical devices. Kevin has held a number of non-executive and Chairman positions, including Monica Healthcare, which generated a 3.5x cash return for Catapult, and Crystallon, which generated a 5.2x cash return. He is also a Director and former Chairman of both Surface Transforms plc (AIM listed) and Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging Ltd. Kevin was a founding director of Ferraris Group plc (FTSE: listed) and created Salusinvest in 2006 to invest in a number of EU and US life science businesses. He is also a former Director of Acuity VCT 3 and Octopus VCT 1. Kevin graduated from Leeds University with a BSc in Chemical Engineering and has an MBA from Manchester Business School.
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About Catapult Ventures, GM&C Life Sciences Fund, KDS, Octopus Ventures: Catapult Ventures specialises in providing Equity Capital for businesses requiring between £50k and £2m.
Chris Spencer
Venture Partner of Catapult Ventures
Chris is a Venture Partner with Catapult’s GM&C Life Sciences Fund, where he assesses investment opportunities and works with the Fund’s smaller investments to help companies successfully grow, with a particular focus on digital health technologies. Chris was until recently CEO of EMIS Group plc (FTSE listed), the UK leader in healthcare software and solutions across nearly every major healthcare setting – from GP surgeries to high street pharmacies, and hospitals to community services. Chris joined EMIS in 1999 and his roles have included Commercial Development Director, Group Legal Counsel, Chief Administrative Officer and since 2013, CEO. Chris has nearly 40 years’ experience of general management, leadership, law and software/digital development within the healthcare, legal and educational sectors both as a founder of his own companies and a senior manager in established companies. Chris graduated from Leeds University with a LLB in Law.
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About Catapult Ventures, GM&C Life Sciences Fund: Catapult Ventures specialises in providing Equity Capital for businesses requiring between £50k and £2m.
Kasia Robinski
Venture Partner of Beacon Capital
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About Beacon Capital: Investor of choice for post-seed enterprise tech founders
David Ryan
Venture Partner of Beacon Capital
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About Beacon Capital, Oxford Space Structure: Investor of choice for post-seed enterprise tech founders
Dionysia Kaplan
Venture Partner of Beacon Capital
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About Beacon Capital: Investor of choice for post-seed enterprise tech founders
Larry Levine
Venture Partner of Beacon Capital
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About Beacon Capital: Investor of choice for post-seed enterprise tech founders
David Lofthouse
Venture Partner of Clocktower Technology Ventures
David is London-based Venture Partner, leading Clocktower Technology Ventures in the UK and Europe. He is responsible for all fintech investment activity, including originations, investment execution and portfolio management in this region. David was previously Co-Founder and CIO of Prologue Capital, a highly successful fixed income global macro hedge fund. David’s earlier career in trading spans JP Morgan, Greenwich Capital and Goldman Sachs. David holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham. David lives in Mayfair with his wife and young child.
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About Clocktower Technology Ventures: Clocktower Technology Ventures invests in the insurance, payments, personal finance, lending, credit, and asset management sectors.
Lisa Rodwell
Venture Partner of MMC Ventures
Lisa joined Nutmeg in 2018 bringing over 25 years’ experience growing some of the world’s most exciting businesses and brands, working exclusively in tech-enabled, online or app-based companies since 2002. At Nutmeg, she oversees the Customer Team, with responsibility for marketing and communications, strategic partnerships, personalised financial advice and the specialist customer support team. Prior to joining Nutmeg, Lisa has worked for some of the world’s largest and most recognisable brands, including: Procter & Gamble, Ogilvy, eBay, Yahoo!, and more recently MOO.COM, Wool and the Gang and Starling Bank. Having attained a Bachelor of Commerce Honours from Queen’s University in Canada, she has lived and worked in Canada, Sweden, Czech Republic and the UK.
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About MMC Ventures, Procter & Gamble Company: MMC Ventures is an investment firm that invests in technology companies at Seed and Series A.
Pratima Aiyagari
Venture Partner of Nauta Capital
Pratima is a Venture Partner at Nauta Capital and is based in London. At Nauta, Pratima focuses on enterprise software and deep tech domains. Pratima has 18+ years of professional experience. She is a software developer by background and spent several years in Silicon Valley working on developing intelligent network services in the network management domain. Pratima joins Nauta from US-based cybersecurity-focused investment firm Paladin Capital. Previously, Pratima led investments and acquisitions at Cisco Corporate Development in Europe with a specific focus on ML/AI, Enterprise Collaboration and Silicon. During her investment career, Pratima led an investment or held board seats in Aimotive, Adbrain, Evrythng, Secure Code Warrior, decentriq, Dashbird, and several fund investments. She also managed investments in several companies including Behaviosec, Italtel, ip.access, and Corvil. Pratima received her MBA from INSEAD in France and an MS in computer science from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the US. Pratima is a co-author of a US patent in the area of network device clusters and high availability.
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About Cisco, Nauta Capital: Nauta Capital is a pan-European Venture Capital firm investing in early stage technology companies.
Iain Wilcock
Venture Partner of Seventure Partners
Iain established and ran the healthcare investment business of Quester Capital, an early-stage venture capital business, for over 10 years. n 2000, Iain founded Vela Venture Partners to advise early-stage investors in the UK. He is now working at NESTA as an Investment Director; and at Seventure, a French venture capital company, as its UK healthcare investment advisor. He is an experienced non-executive director, having served on the boards of biotechnology and med-tech companies, including Vivacta, Avidex, Oxxon, Lectus, and Xention. He is a member of the British Venture Capital Association, the BioIndustry Association and UNICO. Iain was recently appointed to the Strategic Advisory Board for IP Policy to advise the UK-IPO (UK Intellectual Property Office).
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About Seventure Partners: Seventure Partners is a French venture capital firm targeting in information and communication technology, and life sciences companies.
Dyson Bogg
Venture Partner of GMG Ventures
Dyson Bogg is a venture partner at GMG Ventures. He is also the founder and partner at Kerogen Capital.
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About GMG Ventures: GMG Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund that invests in companies related to media-tech.
Rupesh Chatwani
Venture Partner of RLC Ventures
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About RLC Ventures: RLC Ventures is an award-winning VC which continues to back founders building global tech companies, from idea to exit.
Matthew Mead
Venture Partner of Mercia Asset Management PLC
Matt is the Chief Investment Officer of Mercia Technologies PLC and joined the business in May 2015. He has over 20 years’ experience in early-stage technology investment. Matt oversees all of the investment activity of the Group across venture, growth equity and debt, in addition to managing the Investment Team. He also sits on the boards of portfolio companies Impression Technology, Science Warehouse and Intelligent Positioning. Matt has been a Board director of both UK and US software companies, including Metatstorm, Datanomic, Insensys and Vistorm, which have all successfully exited. He worked at 3i from 1995 to 2009 where latterly he managed the disposal of its venture portfolio, realising over £200.0million of proceeds through sales, and managed its pan-European venture portfolio team, returning over £180.0million of cash in two years. Matt subsequently joined the innovation agency, NESTA, as managing director of investments, to run its £30.0million venture capital fund and in 2010 was appointed CIO, managing all investment activity including its £350.0million trust assets and its venture portfolio.
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About Mercia Asset Management PLC: Mercia is a proactive, specialist asset manager focused on supporting regional businesses to achieve their growth aspirations.
Philip Gasslander
Venture Partner of Pioneer Fund
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About Pioneer Fund: Pioneer Fund is a venture capital firm investing in the top Y Combinator startups.
Guclu Ozenci
Venture Partner of Founder Institute
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About Founder Institute: Founder Institute is a pre-seed startup accelerator, with chapters in 180+ cities and a portfolio with $20B+ in value.
Roberto Solari
Venture Partner of Imperial Innovations
Roberto is a Venture Partner at Imperial Innovations and his career has been focused at the interface of innovation and entrepreneurship, including technology transfer, venture capital, pharma, biotech and academia. He is currently working at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, on the mechanisms of Rhinovirus replication. He is an advisor to Imperial Innovations and Brandon Capital, and is on the board of Heptares and the Science Advisory Board of Astex Pharmaceuticals. Roberto was previously Vice President in GSK’s Respiratory Therapy Area based in Stevenage, UK where his role covered drug discovery from target identification through to proof of concept studies in man. Before joining GSK, Roberto was CEO of the UK Medical Research Council’s technology transfer arm, MRCT, creating spin out companies and developing an internal drug discovery group. He has advised and worked in venture capital firms Apax Partners and Abingworth following a period at GlaxoWellcome, and academic positions at the Institut de Biochimie, Universite de Lausanne and Liverpool University. He has a PhD in Physiology and Cell Biology from Nottingham University.
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About Imperial Innovations, Myricx Pharma: Imperial Innovations is a technology commercialization and venture capital investor that focuses on technology.
Ameya Upadhyay
Venture Partner of Flourish Ventures
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About Flourish Ventures: Flourish is a global venture capital firm focused on early-stage Fintech investments that enhance financial health.
Steve Collins
Venture Partner of Frontline Ventures
Steven Collins is a partner at Frontline Ventures.
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About Frontline Ventures: Frontline is the venture firm for globally ambitious B2B companies on both sides of the Atlantic
Peter Horsburgh
Venture Partner and Founder of ETF Partners
Founder and Chairman at ETF Partners (Environmental Technologies Fund).
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About ETF Partners: ETF Partners supports talented entrepreneurs and management teams with investment capital and experience.
Kevin Sara
Venture Partner of Aster
Kevin has over 20 years experience as an investor and entrepreneur. He was responsible for technology principal investments at Nomura, and co-founded Hazel Capital, one of the first cleantech investment managers in London. He also founded Nur Energie, a solar development company with landmark projects in France, Italy, Greece and Tunisia. He has a degree in Physics from Vassar College and an MBA from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, and previously worked as a management consultant and investment banker. With Aster, Kevin is developing a thematic fund focused on Sustainable Aviation. The fund will back entrepreneurs developing new electric aircraft and associated technologies.
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About Aster, Nur Energie Ltd: Aster is a Venture Capital firm, partnered with more than 60 teams of entrepreneurs that are transforming markets with disruptive offers.
Matthew Knowles
Venture Partner of TempoCap
Matt joined TempoCap in 2017 following 19 years running HiFX, a global leader in digital international payments. He co-founded the business in 1998 and built the business up to be one of the largest non-bank players globally. In his time as CEO, Matt led the business through an MBO, 3 separate acquisitions (including the acquisition of XE) and the ultimate sale of HiFX in 2014 for $250m to Euronet Inc (Nasdaq: EEFT). Matt’s move into the venture capital industry is driven by his passion to help build great businesses. Matt studied Accountancy and Law at Kingston University.
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About TempoCap: TempoCap is a growth and secondary direct venture investment firm.
Greg Kelton
Venture Partner of Rubicon Venture Capital
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About Rubicon Venture Capital: Founded in 2013, Rubicon Venture Capital is a bi coastal SF/NYC early-stage VC investing in software/tech and DTC companies.
David Whitcombe
Venture Partner of GM&C Life Sciences Fund
David is a Venture Partner with Catapult’s GM&C Life Sciences Fund, where he assesses investment opportunities and works with the Fund’s smaller investments to help companies successfully grow. David is a well-known consultant and non-executive director/Chairman who co-founded DxS Diagnostics in 2000 to exploit a personalised medicine technology he had invented while with AstraZeneca Diagnostics. DxS was sold to Qiagen in September 2009 for in excess of £100m. Prior to DxS, David was Head of Technology Development at AstraZenica Diagnostics for four years where he led a team of up to 15 scientists working on new genome technologies. David began his career as a Post-Doctoral Fellow with Warwick University Department of Biological Sciences, before joining Cambridge University Department of Medicine as a Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow where he researched the Genetics of Human Disease for six years. David holds a First Class BSc in Genetics from the University of York and PhD in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology from the University of Leicester.
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About GM&C Life Sciences Fund: GM&C Life Sciences Fund is a provider of venture capital funds to entrepreneurs operating in the life sciences area.
Tony Flinn
Venture Partner of GM&C Life Sciences Fund
Tony is a Venture Partner with Catapult’s GM&C Life Sciences Fund, where he helps assess service company (CRO) investment opportunities and works with the Fund’s smaller investments to help companies successfully grow. Tony is a well-known non-executive director and motivational speaker who co-founded Onyx Scientific in 2000 to offer contract chemistry services to many of the world’s leading drug developers. He grew the business to become one the fastest growing technology companies in the UK, employing more than 60 staff at its peak, managed an MBO in 2007, and ultimately sold the business to IPCA, a large Indian pharmaceutical service provider, in 2011. Tony began his career as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, first with the Cancer Research Institute, and then with Oxford University. After a period as a Research Chemist with Dow Chemical he began the first of several business development roles.
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About Apex Molecular, GM&C Life Sciences Fund: GM&C Life Sciences Fund is a provider of venture capital funds to entrepreneurs operating in the life sciences area.
