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 United Kingdom based Managing Partner operating in the Financial Services space. If you think a Managing 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.
Frederic Court
Founder and Managing Partner of Felix Capital
Frederic is the Founder and Managing Partner of Felix Capital. He has worked in the technology industry for the past 20 years, prior to Felix as General Partner with Advent Ventures in London, and previously as an entrepreneur. At Felix, Frederic works closely with Farfetch (NYSE:FTCH), goop, Mejuri, Yoobic, The Business of Fashion, Highsnobiety and Mirakl. He led the growth investments in Deliveroo and Peloton. While at Advent, Frederic led investments in Farfetch, Zong (sold to eBay), Vitrue (Oracle), Dailymotion (Orange), Qype (Yelp), Fizzback (Nice Systems) and Ubiquisys (Cisco). Frederic was named “Investor of the Year” in Europe by his peers at the 2012 Investor All Stars event. He was on the Midas List Europe 2017 and 2018. Previously he was an entrepreneur in France, building a VC-backed online marketplace for the textile industry, and before that a technology banker in London and New York with Lazard. A graduate of ESSEC in Paris and Bocconi University in Milan, Frederic is fluent in English, French, Italian and Spanish.
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About Adverity, Deliveroo, Felix Capital, Forter, La Ruche qui dit Oui, Moonbug, Oatly, Peloton: Felix Capital is a venture fund that focuses on digital commerce, digital media, and information technology companies.
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Oliver Jung
Managing Partner of LAO Holdings
Oliver is a global investor and entrepreneur based in Tel Aviv. Oliver is investing in US and China based companies and helps them to go international. Previous projects include airbnb, houzz and hoteltonight.
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About HotelTonight, Houzz, LAO Holdings: LAO Ventures invests in disruptive, fast-growing US companies.
Saleh Romeih
Managing Partner, Investment Committee Member, SBIA, EMEA of SoftBank Vision Fund
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About SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Ruwan Weerasekera
Managing Partner, COO of SoftBank Vision Fund
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About SoftBank Vision Fund: SoftBank Vision Fund specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.
Alex van Someren
Managing Partner of Amadeus Capital Partners
Alex van Someren is a serial IT entrepreneur and CEO with two exits through IPO, nCipher pls (acquired by Thales SA), and ANT plc (acquired by Espial plc). He grew up near Cambridge, UK and worked at Acorn Computer on the BBC Microcomputer and its successor the Acorn Electron. With his brother, Dr. Nicko van Someren, he co-founded nCipher with venture capital backing to develop internet security products using advanced cryptography. The company became a world leader in IT security, counting major banking, finance and governments among its customers. He subsequently raised a total of £14 million in VC before he led the company as CEO to an IPO listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2000 (LSE:NCH) at a £350 million valuation. nCipher plc was sold to Thales SA in 2008. Alex lives in Cambridge, UK and is married with three children. He was appointed an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge in 2005. He has authored several books on computer applications and microprocessors, including the first published book on the ARM RISC chips, which was also pirated in Japanese. During 2019, Alex will be the Visiting Clore Innovation Professor at the Royal College of Art, London.
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About Amadeus Capital Partners, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), CyLon, Seldon: Amadeus Capital Partners caters to the technology sector with seed, early, and later stage venture, and private equity investments.
Simon Murdoch
Managing Partner of Episode 1
Simon set up online bookstore Bookpages in 1996 and sold it to Amazon in 1998. As VP Europe for Amazon, he managed huge growth from start-up through to multimillion turnover and hundreds of staff. As an Angel investor, he has invested in Shazam, been chairman of VideoIsland (now merged with and renamed LoveFilm, and purchased in Feb 2011 by Amazon.com), Zoopla! and Shutl (currently chairman). Simon founded and funded FriendsAbroad.com, a social network for developing language skills and contacts abroad which was successfully sold to Lesson Nine GmbH, operators of language learning site Babbel.com. Simon is currently CEO of StormForward, an e-commerce conversion consultancy which helpsonline retailers to increase their online sales and profits.
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About Episode 1, StormForward: Episode1 Ventures is a venture capital fund set up to invest in early-stage technology companies based in London, UK.
Aviad Eyal
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Entrée Capital
Aviad Eyal is the co-founder and Managing Partner at Entree Capital.
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About Empathy, Entrée Capital, SeatGeek, Stash Financial: Entrée Capital is a venture capital firm that funds multi-stage startups and companies all over the world.
Richard Muirhead
Founding Managing Partner of Fabric Ventures
Since 1995, Richard Muirhead has been involved in starting, funding, building and finding long-term homes for innovative software and internet businesses. He is currently Chairman of Tixdaq (www.tixdaq.com) and investor/advisor to T5M (www.t5m.com). From October 2002 to 2009, he was Chairman, CEO and Founder of [Tideway Systems] (http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/tideway) which with its IT discovery platform tackled the persistent and fundamental challenge of managing change in distributed applications. Tideway’s hundreds of clients included JPMorganChase, Avis, CarphoneWarehouse, Wachovia and BT. Tideway was acquired for cash by BMC Software in October 2009 and its product Foundation is a key strategic platform for BMC going forward. Between 2001 and 2002, Richard was Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Accel Partners at the inception of their London office. From 1995 to 2001, he was a co-founder SVP of Orchestream. Listing on LSE and NASDAQ, with a peak market capitalization that reached £1.0 billion. Now sold and supported by Oracle, Orchestream’s IP service activation software products are automating operations at service providers such as AT&T, Telstra and Vodafone to this day. Richard was a Technology Pioneer at the World Economic Forum for 2009, a finalist in the UK Technology Innovation & Growth Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2006 and runner-up in the British Computing Society’s Intel IT Leader of the Year Award for 2008. Richard holds an MA in Engineering from Cambridge University and is a citizen of both Australia and the United Kingdom.
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About Fabric Ventures, Firestartr: Fabric Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in scalable decentralized networks.
Calum Paterson
Managing Partner of Scottish Equity Partners
Calum Paterson is SEP’s Managing Partner. He has worked in the venture capital industry since 1991. Calum has led SEP since its formation and is chairman of our investment committee. He plays a key role in assessing all of our new investment opportunities and is closely involved right across our portfolio of investee companies. Calum is also a non-executive director of Skyscanner, the world’s fastest growing travel search company, and TotallyMoney.com, a digital media company focused on financial services. His leadership, commitment and professionalism are reflected in the strong relationships we have built up with our portfolio companies and our key Limited Partners over many years. Calum studied Economics at the University of Strathclyde and has BA and MBA degrees. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Calum works from both our London and Glasgow offices.
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About Scottish Equity Partners, The British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association: Scottish Equity Partners is a technology focused growth equity firm operating across the UK and Europe.
Bernard Liautaud
Managing Partner of Balderton
Bernard Liautaud founded Business Objects in 1990 and was CEO for 15 years then Chairman until January 2008. With 6,700 employees, 45,000 customers and $1.5 billion of revenue in 2007, Business Objects was the world leader in Business Intelligence and one of the 15 largest software companies in the world. Business Objects was the first European software IPO on Nasdaq in 1994. In January 2008, Business Objects was acquired by SAP for $6.8 billion, making it the third largest software acquisition at the time. Bernard is now a member of the Supervisory Board of SAP. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Stanford University. He has received a number of distinctions including Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2007 in France, Time Magazine Europe’s Digital Top 25 and BusinessWeek Stars of Europe of 2002, Top 10 CEOs in North America by Chief Executive Magazine in 2001.
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About Balderton: Balderton is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on backing European-founded startups.
Chris Smith
Managing Partner of Playfair Capital
Chris is Managing Partner at Playfair Capital, a Kauffman Fellow (Class 25) and a Contributor to Forbes. He focuses his investing activities on seed (and pre-seed) deals in the UK and Israel. Chris is particularly interested in autonomous transportation, business and industrial automation (especially through AI, ML and computer vision), HealthTech (except diagnostics and therapeutics) and B2B SaaS. He loves finding companies operating in unloved/overlooked sectors that are ripe for disruption. Prior to joining Playfair, Chris held senior roles at plan.com including Sales Director, Head of Tech/BI and Head of Product Development. He was the 8th member of the team and over a 5 year period built an award winning sales team, introduced new products (organically and through acquisition) and lead the roll out of version 4 of the platform. Revenues grew to £50m in 2018 and the company ranked #1 in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100. In addition to his roles at plan.com, Chris worked on the re-launch/re-branding of Vannin Capital (another Bramden Investments’ portfolio company which was acquired by Fortress Investment Group LLC in September 2019). Chris executed 14 angel investments across the UK and US from 2008 to 2018 with four exits to date – SuperAwesome (acq. Epic Games), Nearbuy Systems (acq. RetailNext), Bidstack (LON:BIDS) & MoPowered (LON:MPM). He is passionate about investing in tech companies and supporting founders using his extensive operational and legal experience. In his previous life, Chris spent nearly a decade in the City as a transactional lawyer in the private equity team at Weil and the corporate team at Olswang. He has worked with some of the world’s leading private equity and venture capital funds on predominately international acquisitions, disposals and restructurings. At Weil, he spent time on secondment to the Silicon Valley office’s patent litigation team, UK-based food manufacturer Premier Foods and the Asset Protection Agency. He also setup a telecoms business offering discounted international calling from 14 countries in 2001 which he partially exited via an MBO in 2005.
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About Playfair Capital: Playfair Capital is an early-stage fund backing founders building technology that changes the way people live and work.
Stuart Chapman
COO & Managing Partner of Molten Ventures
Prior to joining Esprit in Febuary 2005 Stuart was a Partner of 3i Ventures. He was also a founding partner of 3i US, based in Menlo Park, CA. Stuart had 13 years of venture capital experience with 3i in Europe and the USA. While he was at 3i US he was responsible for 3i’s investments in Still Secure, CollegeNet and Appshop. Following his return from the US in October 2003 he was responsible for 3i’s investments in The Cloud, Telecity and Searchspace, the IPO of Pixology and the sale of Magic 4 to Openwave. Stuart is a member of the British Venture Capital Association Council. Prior to 3i, Stuart was involved in software and systems implementations in the Banking sector. He is a graduate of Loughborough University.
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About 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.
Michael Rosen
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Future Positive Capital
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About Future Positive Capital: Future Positive Capital is an investment firm that invests in deep tech companies.
James Cox
Managing Partner of YYX Capital
James Cox is a Founder & Exec Chairman at Itch Pet. Prior to entering venture investing, James was the Founder of a dynamic hedging Foreign Exchange business, focused on the optimization of share classes in fund management companies, that company now trades in excess of $120 Billion USD of foreign exchange per month. He then has spent the past 8 years advising and funding technology companies from startup to exit – including SuperAwesome, AirSorted, Monese, Waldo and many more. James is also the founder of Simba Sleep, the leading direct to consumer sleep business. Under James’ leadership, as Founder / CEO, Simba grew from zero revenue in February 2016 to $100m+ revenue run rate by March 2018, making it one of the fastest growing consumer businesses on the planet. Simba was rated the number two in the 2018 Startups 100 table and a member of Tech Nations Future Fifty program.
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About Itch, Simba Sleep, YYX Capital: YYX Capital invest in the next generation of innovative consumer companies. We partner with founders of early stage digital first brands.
James Westra
Managing Partner and Chief Legal Officer of Advent International
James Westra joined Advent in 2011 and serves as the firm’s General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer. Prior to joining Advent, he was a partner with the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where he served on the management committee and was co-head of the global private equity practice. James has represented private equity firms and their portfolio companies for over 30 years, and has worked on many transactions, involving public and private companies, in both the U.S. and numerous other countries. He has also represented the boards of directors of public companies in connection with strategic transactions. James graduated with an AB degree from Harvard College and a JD from Boston University.
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About Advent International: Advent International is a global private equity firm that invests in the business and financial services.
Yemi Lalude
Managing Partner and Head of TPG Growth’s investments of TPG
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About TPG: TPG is a private investment firm that manages capital across a family of funds.
Sitar Teli
Founder & Managing Partner of Connect Ventures
Sitar Teli is a founder and managing partner of Connect Ventures, a venture firm she and her partners started in 2012. Since its founding, Connect has invested in over 40 companies across Europe, including Fiit, Kheiron, Citymapper, Typeform, OurPath, and Soldo. Prior to starting Connect Ventures, Sitar was at Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, where she led that firm’s investment in SoundCloud’s Series A.
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About Connect Ventures, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL): Connect Ventures is a venture capital firm specialized in investments in seed, startup, series A, and early-stage companies.
Mark Beeston
Founder & Managing Partner of Illuminate Financial
Mark Beeston founded Illuminate after a 25+ year career in capital markets where he had been both the consumer of capital markets technologies as well as the entrepreneur, operator, and funder of capital markets businesses. Prior to founding Illuminate, Mark was the CEO for the Post Trade Risk and Information business at ICAP (now Nex) where he oversaw the creation of ICAP’s own investment subsidiary. Prior to ICAP Mark launched T-Zero (now ICELink) during his time at Creditex before the company was acquired by ICE in 2008. He started his career with 13 years at Deutsche Bank in derivatives trading and management, including periods as COO for both the Global Rates and Global Credit businesses. Mark has an undergraduate degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Mark was listed on the Institutional Investor Fintech Finance 35 and top 40 Lists, Financial News Fintech 40 Power List, Institutional Investor Trade Technology Top 30 and Top 40 Lists, and Derivatives Intelligence/Derivatives Week Rising Stars.
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About Illuminate Financial: Illuminate Financial is a venture capital firm backing companies that solve problems in financial services.
Robert Walsh
Managing Partner of QVentures
Robert Walsh is an investor in over 75 early-stage companies from the Pre-Seed, Seed, Mega Seed, and Series A stage. Over 10 years ago, Robert left investment banking to join the start-up world and has never looked back. As the Managing Partner of QVentures, Robert leads a team in investing and supporting the UK start-up community, proudly boasting a portfolio that is 40% located in the UK regions. Robert is a firm believer in syndicate investing and is a trusted voice among fellow investors, Family Offices, and emerging entrepreneurs. Serving on the boards of seven companies in his portfolio, Robert is passionate about supporting and growing the UK start-up ecosystem and actively hosts educational events to engage the investor community, as well as being a valued speaker and panellist at industry events.
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About QVentures: QVentures is a Venture Capital firm providing direct investment opportunities and fund management.
Stephen Chandler
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Notion Capital
Stephen Chandler is Co-founder and Managing Partner at Notion Capital. An entrepreneur, investor and company builder, with 20 years experience in forming, funding, running, advising and investing in technology businesses, he has been a co-founder of over ten businesses with involvement in dozens more, where he helped a number of leading tech companies develop and execute winning market strategies. He has primary responsibility for the external fundraising activities of the firm and is active in deal origination in SaaS, FinTech and eCommerce enablement in the UK and Nordic region. He is / was the Notion Capital representative on the boards of Tradeshift, Mojn, Selfnet and Star.
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About Notion Capital, SeedCloud: Notion is an early-stage venture fund that focuses on technology and cloud computing markets.
Birgir Ragnarsson
Managing Partner of Novator
Birgir Ragnarsson is the Managing Partner at Novator.
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About Klang Games, Novator: Novator is an alternative investment firm founded and led by an international investor and entrepreneur.
Nenad Marovac
Managing Partner & CEO of DN Capital
Nenad Marovac has more than 25 years of venture capital and private equity investment experience in the technology and media sectors. Nenad is the Founder and Managing Partner of DN Capital. Prior to DN Capital, Nenad was a Partner at Advent International in London, where he focused on TMT investments. Nenad focuses on investments in marketplaces, software as a service (SAAS), fintech, consumer mobile applications and digital health companies. Amongst his select investments are Shazam Entertainment (sold to Apple), Auto1 (largest online marketplace for used cars), Apsmart (acquired by Thomson Reuters), Datanomic (acquired by Oracle), Endeca, (acquired by Oracle), Eve Sleep (IPO London), Happn, Hometogo, Hostmaker, Joblift, Mister Spex, Performance Horizon Group, Purplebricks (IPO London), Tbricks (acquired by Orc) and Quandoo (acquired by Recruit Holding). Nenad is also the Chair of Invest Europe and an active member of YPO in London and Berlin. Nenad received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School
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About DN Capital: DN Capital operates as an early-stage venture capital firm.
Mark Boggett
CEO & Managing Partner of Seraphim Capital
Mark is CEO and co-founder of Seraphim Capital a spacetech thematic investment firm. The group manages Seraphim Space LP, the world first VC fund focused on spacetech, manages Seraphim Space Investment Trust plc, a $300m London Stock Market Listed growth fund focused on spacetech and Seraphim Space Camp an accelerator for spacetechstartups. Mark has invested into a significant portfolio of spacetech businesses including 4 unicorns in the newspace sector. Seraphim group is the most prolific investo in the spacetech domain.
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About Seraphim Capital: Seraphim Capital is dedicated to financing the growth of companies operating in the space ecosystem.
Anthony Clarke
Managing Partner of Seraphim Capital
Active Business Angel Investor since 1996. Co-Founder/Managing Partner of £30m Seraphim Capital VC Fund in 2006 and its £67m Seraphim Space VC Fund launched in 2016. Currently Director of City of London based Newable Ventures (formerly London Business Angels). Chairman of EBAN Space since 2016 and Co- Founder and Director of UK Space Tech Angels. Co-Founder and Past Chair of UK Business Angels Association (2004-2012). President of EBAN European Business Angel Network (2004-2009) and currently President Emeritus of EBAN. Chairman of the European Commission’s Expert Group on the Cross-border Matching of Innovative Firms with Suitable Investors in 2011/2012. Qualified as a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Secretary at City of London based Deloitte Haskins & Sells (now PWC).
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About Seraphim Capital: Seraphim Capital is dedicated to financing the growth of companies operating in the space ecosystem.
Nazo Moosa
Managing Partner of Energy Impact Partners
Growth capital investor
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About Energy Impact Partners, Paladin Capital Group: Energy Impact Partners is an investment firm focused on companies optimizing energy consumption and improving sustainable energy generation.
Stuart McAlpine
Managing Partner of Cinven
Stuart leads the Business Services and Industrials sector teams. He is also a member of the Healthcare sector team and the UK and Ireland regional team. He has been involved in a number of transactions, including Amadeus, AMCo, CPA Global, Fitness First, Foseco, Medpace, Phadia, Sebia and Unique Pub Company. Stuart was previously with the Royal Bank of Scotland in its Leveraged Finance Group and before that at Ernst & Young in Boston and London. Stuart has a BAcc in Accountancy from Glasgow University. He joined Cinven in 1996.
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About Cinven: Cinven is an international private equity firm focused on building world-class global companies.
Peter Dubens
Founder and Managing Partner of Oakley Capital
Peter is currently the founder and head of Oakley Capital. Prior to founding Oakley, Peter was instrumental in establishing 365 Media as one of the UK’s leading online sports content providers. Peter subsequently led the sale of the company to BSkyB in December 2006 for £110 million. He was also Executive Chairman of Pipex, the AIM listed provider of integrated telecommunications and Internet services, where he led the strategic development and execution of 14 acquisitions building one of the UK’s largest broadband suppliers. Pipex was sold for £330 million. Peter has over 21 years of operating experience and over the course of his career has bought, sold and restructured over 40 businesses.
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About Oakley Capital, PROfounders Capital: Oakley Capital is a mid-market private equity investor.
Alan Vaksman
Founder and Managing Partner of Digital Horizon
Alan is the Managing Partner and co-founder of VC and Venture Builder, Digital Horizon. He is also Director at a number of fintech startups including YesGrowth, SteadyPay and ANNA Money UK.
Alan has over 20 years’ experience in the financial sector, having held senior roles at international banks and leading consulting companies in South Africa and Europe including PWC, KPMG, Goldman Sachs and First National Bank. He has lived and worked in numerous countries around the world, and this experience has made Alan a passionate advocate for immigrant-led businesses.
Alan is also a successful startup co-founder. Since founding Digital Horizon, Alan has built and exited Factorin, a blockchain trade finance platform digitizing processes across buyers, sellers, and banks and Aximetria, a Swiss crypto financial services provider. His experience also includes investing in Monday (IPO), Lemonade (IPO), Market Kurly, Carta, Relativity Space and others.
Alan has an economics and psychology bachelor’s degree, a postgraduate law degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and an MBA degree from NYU Stern School of business (USA), LSE (UK), HSE (France) under TRIUM eMBA program.
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About Digital Horizon: Digital Horizon is a next generation venture capital firm headquartered in London.
Digital Horizon has substituted the traditional approach to venture capital investment for its ‘new age’ methodology, which accelerates return on investment at every stage, minimizes risk and maximizes profitability. Digital Horizon supports and empowers passionate founders, especially migratory and diverse talents, who are creating enduring and meaningful start-ups.
Digital Horizon manages two multistage funds, a growth fund and a venture builder, and predominantly focuses on the fintech and enterprise software sectors. Its funds have invested in a portfolio of successful start-ups including Klarna, Lemonade, Monday.com, Ably, and Bolt.
Digital Horizon was founded in 2018 by Alan Vaksman, a venture capitalist and banker with over 20 years of experience in UK, Europe, and Africa. It now employs almost 100 specialists with expertise in VC, IT and product development.
Pal Erik Sjatil
Global Managing Partner and CEO of Lightrock
Pal Erik Sjatil is the Global Managing Partner and CEO at Lightrock, a global private equity partnership that seeks to achieve financial as well as societal and environmental returns. Lightrock invests in sustainable businesses built by purpose-driven entrepreneurs committed to innovation for systemic change at scale. The company has one of the largest impact-focused growth portfolios in Europe, Latin America and India. More recently, Lightrock has also started building out a portfolio of investments across Sub-Saharan Africa. It invests in companies that pursue scalable and technology-driven business models around the themes people, planet and productivity/tech for good. Specific investment sectors within these themes include education, healthcare, access to finance, mobility, transportation, renewables and circular-economy transition. Lightrock investments demonstrably contribute to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Lightrock’s portfolio currently encompasses more than 70 high-growth companies, including Infarm, one of the world’s fastest growing urban farming networks with more than 1200 farms installed; PharmEasy, one of the largest omni-channel healthcare platforms in India; DrConsulta, one of the largest healthcare chains in Latin America; and M-Kopa, a global pioneer for pay-as-you-go solar energy services for off-grid customers in rural East Africa. In 2019, CMR Surgical, a developer of surgical robots that will broaden access to keyhole surgery, was the first of Lightrock’s portfolio companies to become a unicorn – followed by several others, such as Lilium, the sustainable aviation company. As an active owner, Lightrock supports its portfolio companies from a board position in their dynamic growth and expansion phase. Prior to joining Lightrock, Pal Erik Sjatil was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, a member of the firm’s Shareholders Council, and the Managing Partner of McKinsey’s offices in Europe. Before assuming that role, he led McKinsey’s office in Norway, was part of the leadership of the Scandinavian offices, led the office complex in Eastern Europe, and was the Managing Partner of McKinsey’s offices in EEMA (Eastern Europe, Russia/CIS, Turkey, the Middle East, and Africa). Pal Erik also held leadership roles in the firm’s Telecommunications, High Tech, and Strategy & Corporate Finance practices. At McKinsey, he served clients in the telecom, high tech, financial services, and oil and gas industries and focused on corporate strategy, operations, and organizational transformations.
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About Lightrock: Lightrock is a global private equity platform that backs purpose-driven entrepreneurs tackling the world’s biggest challenges.
Andy Baldwin
EMEIA Area Managing Partner of Ernst & Young
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About Ernst & Young: Ernst & Young is a provider of assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services.
Ashley Dunster
Managing Partner of Capital Group
Ashley is a managing partner at Capital International Private Equity with primary responsibility for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to this, he was a principal banker in the Early Stage Equity Team at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Ashley holds a BE in Civil Engineering from the University of Melbourne and a Masters in Mathematics from Oxford University. Ashley is also a non-executive director of Amoun Pharmaceutical.
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About Capital Group: Founded in 1931, Capital Group provides investment management services for long-term investors and is a private equity firm.
Manish Madhvani
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of GP Bullhound
Manish Madhvani is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of GP Bullhound. Manish has executed M&A and capital raising transactions since 1997, involving some of the best known global internet, software and media companies, including: Spotify, King.com, Believe Digital, WPP, Wipro, Fjord, Hearst Corporation, Accenture, Newscorp and Experian. Manish who was selected as one of the top 40 dealmakers globally by M&A Advisor, started his career at Barclays Capital’s Private Equity team. He has advised the Treasury on Entrepreneurship and graduated from Southampton University with an LLB in Law / MA in Marketing. Manish is a regular speaker on Bloomberg and CNBC and is currently an Ambassador for London Technology Week. He was recognised as one of the leading Entrepreneurs in the UK by the Sunday Times / Maserati 100.
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About GP Bullhound: GP Bullhound is a technology advisory and investment firm that provides transaction advice and capital to entrepreneurs and founders.
Hugh Campbell
Founder and Managing Partner of GP Bullhound
Hugh Campbell is a Founder and Managing Partner of GP Bullhound. Hugh is passionate about technology innovation and entrepreneurs with 15 years’ experience advising and investing in Europe’s current and future Unicorns. He has worked with all the leading growth equity funds in Europe and has sold businesses to Real Networks, Tesco, Disney, Accenture and Experian amongst others. Hugh started his career at Citibank in M&A before moving on to Goldman Sachs where he worked in Equity Research. Hugh is from an entrepreneurial publishing family who sold John Murray Publishers to Hachette in 2002 and founded an e-learning business, Pastest Limited, where Hugh is Chairman. In 2000, Hugh left Goldman Sachs and spent most of the year working and living in Beijing, China before going back to his investment banking roots by co-founding GP Bullhound. Hugh opened the Manchester office in 2013, is a Manchester Grammar School alum and graduated from Pembroke College, Oxford.
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About GP Bullhound: GP Bullhound is a technology advisory and investment firm that provides transaction advice and capital to entrepreneurs and founders.
Stephen Willson
Managing Partner of Unilever Ventures
Investment Director with 11+ years experience in early stage and growth capital investing across Consumer.
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About Unilever Ventures: Unilever Ventures is the venture capital arm of Unilever and invests in fast growing companies across consumer and enterprise technology.
François de Mitry
Managing Partner of Astorg
François de Mitry joined Astorg in 2012 and is a member of the Investment team. He has been involved in a number of transactions including MEGADYNE, LINXENS, IQ-EQ, FLOWBIRD, AUDIOTONIX and ANAQUA. Prior to this, François was with Intermediate Capital Group PLC from 1997. He was appointed Managing Director in 2005, then became progressively responsible for ICG’s investment activities in Mezzanine and Equity worldwide. Previously, he was an Associate Director at the LBO division of Société Générale in London. He began his carrier at the M&A division of HSBC in London. François graduated from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and Université de Dauphine Paris IX.
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About Astorg: Astorg is an independent private equity group with over €8 bn of assets under management.
Michael Sackler
Founder & Managing Partner of Supernode Global
Michael Sackler is the Founder and managing partner at Rooks Nest Ventures. He is a film producer of indie hit films like The Witch and Obvious Child, and the one behind film studio Rooks Nest Entertainment.
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About Huckletree, Supernode Global: Supernode Global is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in media-tech.
Alokik Advani
Managing Partner of Fidelity International Strategic Ventures
Alokik leads the Financial Services team which builds, backs and acquires innovative strategic financial services companies and technologies. He joined Eight Roads after ten years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as Head of Principal Strategic Investments, APAC, based in Hong Kong.
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About Eight Roads Ventures, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures: Fidelity International Strategic Ventures invests in fintech businesses and technologies.
Donatella Callegaris
Managing Partner of Flashpoint
Donatella joined Columbia Lake Partners in 2014. She is involved in the entire deal life cycle including assessing, evaluating and post investment monitoring. Donatella is focused particularly on CLP relationships with the equity sponsors ecosystem and on identifying high growth technology companies in need of growth financing that best suits CLP’s investment criteria. Prior to joining CLP, Donatella spent seven years working at Kreos Capital, managing several aspects of the investment process on a pre-term sheet and post-term sheet basis as well as managing the portfolio for technology and life science companies based in the UK, continental Europe and Israel. Donatella also managed various levels of the fund corporate governance for Kreos II, Kreos III and Kreos IV funds. Prior to this, Donatella worked in trust management. She holds a degree in Business Management from Birkbeck College, University of London and speaks both Italian and English.
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About Flashpoint: Flashpoint is an international asset management firm investing in tech businesses.
Maria Dramalioti-Taylor
Managing Partner of Beacon Capital
Maria is the founding managing partner of Beacon, pre-Series A VC firm specialising on enterprise tech ventures. She is on the board of a number of portfolio companies, is a member of the RAEng Enterprise and the Chairs in Emerging Technologies Committees, INSEAD EIR and Included.VC Board member. She is an engineer and holds an MBA. She used to fence the foil so watch out for her ripostes!
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About Beacon Capital: Investor of choice for post-seed enterprise tech founders
Udayan Goyal
Managing Partner of Apis Partners
Udayan is a keen proponent of technology driven reformation in banking and financial services and has exceptional domain expertise in this space. He is the Founder and co-Managing Partner of Apis Partners LLC, a $250m private equity fund focussed on investing in financial services companies in Africa and South Asia. He is a Founder Partner at Anthemis Group and is a prolific investor, having had seed investments in (Bank)Simple, Azimo, Ininal, IOCS, Huddlebuy and Earthport. He serves as a Board Director with Moven and Zyfin and also advises several digital financial startups, including those in the Anthemis Group portfolio. He has led a number of innovation projects including, most recently, Zapp, the UK mobile payments system sponsored by Vocalink and being adopted by the UK banks. Udayan is a much sought after commentator on digital finance and curates the very popular “Future of Money” annual session at Innotribe, SIBOS, where he also serves as a member of the board. He was formerly the Managing Director and Global Head of Financial Technology Advisory at Deutsche Bank AG in the Global Financial Institutions Group based in London. Prior to Deutsche, Udayan had specific responsibility for developing the pan-European specialty finance practice of Credit Suisse with a focus on financial technology. Udayan graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge with an MA (NatSci Tripos).
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About Apis Partners: Apis Partners is a private equity asset manager focused on Financial Services in Growth Markets.
Ian Lobley
Managing Partner – Asset Management of 3i Group
Ian is Managing Partner (Asset Management Group) at 3i – a leading international investment manager focused on mid-market private equity and infrastructure. Ian has been an investor with 3i for 30 years where, in addition to a number of board roles, he is a member of the Group Investment Committee and on the board of 3i Infrastructure plc (the FTSE 250 listed infrastructure fund). Ian has been an active board member on a wide variety of companies across 3 continents and numerous sectors. Those boards have included both private and public companies with a number of ownership dynamics including institutionally-owned, founder-owned and startups.
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About 3i Group: 3i is an international investment manager focused on mid-market Private Equity, Infrastructure & Debt Management.
Philip White
Managing Partner, Head of Infrastructure of 3i Group
Phil joined 3i in 2007 and is Managing Partner and Head of 3i’s Infrastructure business and a member of 3i’s Executive Committee, Investment Committee and Group Risk Committee. Prior to joining 3i, he was Division Director in Macquarie’s Infrastructure Funds business, where he managed investments in the transport sector. Phil has over 20 years of infrastructure investment, advisory and finance experience from earlier roles at Barclays and WestLB. Phil has an MBA from London Business School.
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About 3i Group: 3i is an international investment manager focused on mid-market Private Equity, Infrastructure & Debt Management.
Mohsen M. Khalkhali
Managing Partner of Iratel Ventures
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About Iratel Ventures: Iratel Ventures is a VC firm investing in entrepreneurs building global companies at seed and early stage.
Alessandro Hatami
Managing Partner of Pacemakers.io
Alessandro is Managing Partner at Pacemakers. They provide independent advice to executive teams on selecting the right partners in order to convert digital strategies into commercial success. Previously, he was Group Innovation Director & COO Digital Banking at Lloyds Banking Group; MD of PayPoint.net, Director Large Merchant Services at PayPal & European Marketing Director at GE Capital. He is also a Board Advisor at CashPlus. He is a mentor of several FinTech start-ups working with Techstars, Seedcamp and Startupbootcamp. He is also an investor in several early stage companies.
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About Pacemakers.io: Digital Innovation in Financial Services.
Bill Nixon
Managing Partner & Founder of Maven Capital Partners
Bill is based in the Glasgow and London offices, and is the principal fund manager for all Maven VCTs. He has responsibility for all aspects of the Maven business, including strategy, new investment activity, client management and business development. At Aberdeen Asset Management Bill was Head of Growth Capital, responsible for the UK investment team. In the mid 1990s he was Head of the Private Equity team at National Australia Bank and with more than 30 years of experience in banking, corporate finance and fund management, is one of the most experienced smaller company private equity practitioners in the UK. Bill is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, and has an MBA from Strathclyde University.
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About Maven Capital Partners: Maven Capital Partners is a private equity firm that provides a range of funding options to SMEs and investment opportunities.
Simon Turner
Managing Partner of Inflexion Private Equity
Simon co-founded Inflexion with John Hartz in 1999. Together they jointly chair our Investment Committee. Simon has 30 years’ experience of developing and leading buyouts for growth businesses, having started his private equity career in the early 1990s. He and John co-founded Daiwa Europe’s Private Equity Group, which they ultimately spun out to form Inflexion. When not working, Simon leads Inflexion’s involvement in The Prince’s Trust, is a trustee of Impetus-The Private Equity Foundation, and chair of The Roundhouse. He has skied to both the North and South Pole as part of the Antarctic Enterprise, raising over one million pounds for charity. Simon also enjoys playing tennis and golf and holds an MA in Modern History from Oxford University.
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About Inflexion Private Equity: Inflexion is a mid-market private equity firm, investing in high growth businesses.
Nic Brisbourne
Managing Partner of Forward Partners
Nic is the Managing Partner of Forward Partners, an “Applied VC” that backs early-stage companies from day one and provides them with a support team to supercharge their business.
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About Forward Partners: Forward gives founders their best shot at success.
Kevin Dillon
Managing Partner of Atlantic Bridge
Kevin has 24 years’ operating experience in the technology sector, including a total of 13 years operational experience in Paris, London and Dublin as an executive in the software industry and five years in Silicon Valley. Kevin served as Vice President, Microsoft EMEA and helped grow the regional business from $500 million in 1991 to $9.5 billion in 2004. At Microsoft, Kevin was a member of Microsoft EMEAs’ senior management team responsible for various roles in Finance, Operations and Sales and Marketing. At Microsoft, Kevin developed a substantial network of European and U.S. channel partners, outsourcing partners and service providers to technology companies. He was responsible for various EMEA finance functions, product manufacturing, distribution, logistics and merger and acquisition integration, licensing and subsidiary development, customer care and channel management. He supported and was jointly responsible for the formation of many new subsidiaries, functions and lines of business. This included working with local management in establishing financial, operational and customer functions in more than 20 subsidiaries. Kevin established the European Operations Centre in Dublin, hiring up to 700 people and serving all of Microsoft�s customers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East while becoming one of Ireland’s top revenue generating companies. He outsourced more than 500 manufacturing jobs between 1997 and 2000 and closed down this function internally, replacing it with customer and partner roles. He was also responsible for building the operational infrastructure for the successful launch of Xbox as a new product and line of business within Europe. He led Microsoft’s EMEA customer care, customer satisfaction, loyalty and related programs. From 1985 through 1991, Kevin was an international tax advisor at Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) in Europe, the U.S. and South Africa. In that capacity, he helped structure international growth, acquisitions and income repatriation planning for many leading technology companies in Silicon Valley. Prior to 1985, Kevin practiced law in South Africa, including serving as a Legal Officer in the South African Navy. He is a frequent industry speaker and was ICT Ireland Industry Person of the Year in 2001 and elected a fellow of the Irish Management Institute in 2000. He holds various degrees in Business, Finance, Taxation & Law and is an Attorney at Law, Certified Public Accountant and Certified Investment Manager. Kevin is a director on the boards of Panda (where he is Chairman), PolarLake and GeoVector and is an observer on the board of Acision.
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About Atlantic Bridge: Atlantic Bridge Capital is a global growth equity technology fund.
David Klein
Managing Partner of One Peak Partners
David is a co-founder and Managing Partner of One Peak Partners. Prior to One Peak, he was a senior investment professional at growth equity fund Summit Partners in London where he was responsible for sourcing and executing technology and healthcare investments across Europe and Israel. He also led technology investments at Morgan Stanley Principal Investments. Throughout his career, David has sourced and led the execution of investments totaling more than €300 million, with a focus on software and communications technology. He also served on the boards of 9 portfolio companies.
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About One Peak Partners: One Peak is a specialist private equity firm focused on growth stage technology and tech-enabled companies.
Humbert de Liedekerke
Managing Partner of One Peak Partners
Humbert is a co-founder and Managing Partner of One Peak Partners. Prior to One Peak, he was a senior investment professional at growth equity fund AnaCap Financial Partners in London where he was responsible for tech-enabled financial services investments across Europe. He also led financial technology and healthcare investments at Morgan Stanley Principal Investments. Throughout his career, Humbert has sourced and led the execution of investments totalling more than €500 million and served on the boards of 10 portfolio companies. Before joining Morgan Stanley Principal Investments, Humbert worked in the Financial Institutions Group at Morgan Stanley in London, advising clients on M&A and capital markets transactions. Prior to this, Humbert held an analyst position at ABN AMRO and worked as business development manager for Umicore in China. Humbert speaks English, Dutch, and French. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Relations from London School of Economics and a Master’s degree in General Management from Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Belgium.
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About One Peak Partners: One Peak is a specialist private equity firm focused on growth stage technology and tech-enabled companies.
Temitope Lawani
Managing Partner, Member of Executive and Investment Committees of Helios Investment Partners
Mr. Lawani received his BS in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Juris Doctorate (cum laude) from Harvard Law School and MBA (2nd Year Honors) from Harvard Business School. He is co-founder and Managing Partner of Helios Investment Partners, LLP an Africa-focused private equity firm with approximately $1.8 billion in assets under management. Prior to forming Helios he was a Principal in the San Francisco and London offices of TPG Capital (“TPG”), a leading global private equity firm managing over $50 billion in capital. Tope is also a former Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate Development Analyst at the Walt Disney Company in Burbank, California. He serves on Boards of Directors of Vivo Energy, First City Monument Bank PLC, Helios Towers Nigeria, InterSwitch Limited, Helios Towers Africa Limited and Finacity. He also serves as a member of the Harvard Law School Dean’s Advisory Board; the Overseers’ Visiting Committee of the Harvard Business School; and the MIT Open Courseware Advisory Board.
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About Helios Investment Partners: Helios Investment Partners is a private equity and venture capital firm that focuses on African companies.
Babatunde Soyoye
Managing Partner of Helios Investment Partners
Mr. Soyoye holds a Master of Business Administration degree and Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He is a co-founder of Helios Investment Partners and a Board member of Africatel Holdings B.V.
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About Helios Investment Partners: Helios Investment Partners is a private equity and venture capital firm that focuses on African companies.
Matthew Brockman
Managing Partner of Hg
Matthew Brockman is a Managing Partner, Chair of the Hg Investment Committees and is a member of the Hg board. Matthew focuses on day to day leadership of the firm including the Genesis and Mercury funds. Matthew joined Hg in 2010 and originally led the development of the software focused Mercury funds, acting across many of the investments in that fund including Allocate, Intelliflo and Sequel Business Solutions. He remains a board member of several Hg fund investments including Mitratech and Achilles. Prior to joining Hg, Matthew was a Partner at Apax Partners and has a B.Eng (1st class) from Imperial College, London and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Fulbright Scholar.
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About Hg: Hg is a private equity firm that invests in software and services, focused on backing businesses.
David Harrison
Managing Partner of True Potential
David Harrison Managing Partner, True Potential LLP In 1997, David founded financial services firm Positive Solutions and grew the business to the largest in the country, representing 1,900 independent financial advisers (IFAs), with a turnover of £114 million and profits in excess of £1 million a month. In 2007, David became Managing Partner of Newcastle-based financial services group True Potential LLP, which had a turnover of £56.7 million in 2015 and currently employs over 250 staff and Partners. David oversees the strategic and key business decision areas for the Group and is a crusader for technological advances in financial services. His vision is to foster a nation of educated savers who set clear targets for their future and use technology to reach their goals. He also believes in the value of building the right savings habits and accessing investments in a way that suits savers’ lifestyles. This has led to the development of world-first technology such as impulseSave®, which helps savers top-up their investments from anywhere in the world with as little as £1 at a time. David invests in technology, chiefly by hiring the brightest developers from the three world-class universities on his doorstep. He currently has 24, most of whom joined the company while still students. He is a regular commentator on the UK’s savings gap crisis and has featured in coverage by the BBC, The Times and The Guardian.
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About True Potential: True Potential is one of the fastest growing and most innovative financial services groups in the UK.
Jeremy Hand
Founding Member & Managing Partner of Horizon Capital
Jeremy co-founded Lyceum. He works on sourcing and executing investment opportunities and currently sits on the Boards of Access, Clearswift and SGP. Before Lyceum, Jeremy was a founding shareholder and partner of Duke Street Capital. Jeremy is a past Chairman of the BVCA. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) and holds a joint degree in computer science and accountancy from Manchester University where he is also an honorary teaching fellow.
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About Horizon Capital: Horizon Capital private equity firm invests in high-growth technology and business services companies.
Matus Maar
Managing Partner Ventures & Co-Founder of Talis Capital
Matus is both an experienced entrepreneur and venture capital investor. Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Pirate Studios – the world’s largest chain of music rehearsal studios, fully autonomous and live streaming equipped, he has also been involved since inception with Threads – the pioneering chat-based ecommerce platform. As an investor he has led or closed over 50 private equity and venture capital deals. Matus enjoys early stage investing, working closely with the entrepreneurs. Matus represents (or did in past) Talis on various boards for companies such as Onfido, iwoca, Pirate Studios, Threads, Import.io, eporta, Narrativ, Price f(x) and others. Matus is passionate about world changing technology companies and spending time with entrepreneurs who are building them. Matus loves travelling and experiencing different cultures, he has lived in six countries and speaks five languages.
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About Talis Capital: Investing on behalf of a community of cross-sector entrepreneurs, we back founders who see the future differently.
Vasile Foca
Managing Partner & Co-founder of Talis Capital
Vasile is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Talis Capital with more than 20 years of investment and entrepreneurial experience. Over his career, Vasile has helped scale a vast number of organisations from all stages of the business lifecycle. He holds (or did in the past) board positions on the boards of Darktrace, Luminance, IWOCA, Homelyfe, Learning People, PassTheKeys, CensorNet, PremFina, Beyond, Cygnet (among many others). He has actively contributed to key strategic decisions with a hands-on approach. Vasile also has extensive experience in building and scaling companies and is co-founder of several businesses including INTRESCO, Cygnet and Skwire. Vasile holds an MBA degree from London Business School and speaks Russian and Spanish. He enjoys digital photography, psychology, wine tasting and travelling.
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About Talis Capital: Investing on behalf of a community of cross-sector entrepreneurs, we back founders who see the future differently.
Francesco Loredan
Co-Chairman and Managing Partner of BC Partners
Mr. Francesco Loredan serves as a Founder and Member of Advisory Board of Innogest SGR S.p.A, where he was a Director. Mr. Loredan served as Co-Managing Partner and a Co-Chairman at BC Partners. He joined BC Partners in 1989. Prior to this, he served at the Boston Consulting Group for four years, where he worked on assignments in France and Italy. Previously, he spent three years in corporate finance at Bank of America Corporation as a Credit Officer. He serves as the Chairman of Mark IV Industries Inc., U.S.A. He serves as Non-Executive Director of Heating Finance PLC. He served as a Non-Executive Director of Interpump Group SPA. He served as a Director of Baxi Group Ltd from January 16, 2004 to February 18, 2008. He speaks Italian, English, French, and Spanish. Mr. Loredan has an M.B.A. from INSEAD and holds a B.Sc. degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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About BC Partners: BC Partners is an international alternative investment firm focused private equity, credit, real estate, and investment strategies.
Mike Powell
Managing Partner of FinEx Capital Management
Mike Powell is the Managing Partner at FinEx Capital Management. He also Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Thematic Capital.
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About FinEx Capital Management, Thematic Capital: FinEx Capital Management offers asset management and investment management solutions.
Kerry Baldwin
Managing Partner, co-founder of IQ Capital
Co-founder/Managing Partner of IQ Capital, a Cambridge based, deep tech focused, early stage venture capital investor, which invests in Machine Learning, AI, Data Science and Data-based propositions and IP based on disruptive algorithms. IQ Capital invests £1-5m in the first round and subsequently adds further capital through follow-on investments, IQ Capital is actively seeking Series A with rich deep tech IP at the core. Kerry has 20 years in early stage Venture Capital both in the UK and Europe starting with VTL in 1997 (the first investor in Autonomy), KVS amongst other deep tech investments and had numerous successful exits including to Yahoo, Sun Microsystems and other secondary sales. In 2006 she co-founded IQ Capital raising a £25m fund, followed by a £50m fund in 2015 with British Business Bank as a key investor. The fund has enjoyed exits to Google, Huwaei and Becton Dickinson. She specialises in Competitive Intelligence, Product, Strategic Marketing and team dynamics.
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About Cambridge Judge Business School, CybSafe, IQ Capital, The British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association: IQ Capital is a Cambridge & London -based VC firm investing in early-stage deeptech companies.
Ed Stacey
Managing Partner of IQ Capital
Co-founder and Managing Partner of IQ Capital, a Cambridge based, deep tech focused, early stage venture capital investor, which invests in Machine Learning, AI, Data Science and Data-based propositions and IP based on disruptive algorithms. IQ Capital invests £1-5m in the first round and subsequently adds further capital through follow-on investments, IQ Capital is actively seeking Series A with rich deep tech IP at the core. In 1997 Ed co-founded Venture Technologies, a predecessor of IQ Capital. Having invested £31m in 22 investments, the fund achieved a number of highly successful exits and delivered over 30% net IRR to its investors. Successful exits included three flotations, (including Autonomy plc, the first technology company on EASDAQ), a secondary purchase, and a number of trade sales to companies including Sun Microsystems, Veritas and Yahoo. Post 2002, when Venture Technologies portfolio was fully realised, Ed advised a private UHNWI syndicate on the execution of over 15 investments and advising on sustainable growth strategies and maximising shareholder returns. During his time with IQ Capital, Ed has been responsible for the technology side of portfolio companies, investment strategy and, as a member of the Investment Committee, general investment activity. Ed is currently in on the board of Speechmatics and serves as board observer in Privitar, Biobeats, Oxford Space Systems, SenseEye and CPS. His IQCF1 exits include Imsense (Apple, 2010) and Rosslyn (AIM, 2014). He holds an MBA from Manchester Business School and a BSC in Physics.
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About IQ Capital, The ID Co.: IQ Capital is a Cambridge & London -based VC firm investing in early-stage deeptech companies.
Max Bautin
Managing Partner of IQ Capital
Max has worked in venture capital since 2001, first building seed stage investment business at NW Brown and then co-founding IQ Capital in 2007. He has led investments in over two dozen high-technology companies – including Phonetic Arts (Google), Sirigen (BD), Neul (Huawei), DanioLabs (Summit), Quotient (EKF), Reevoo, Novacta and Transversal – and currently represents IQCP on the boards of Grapeshot and Stillfront. Max started his career in Millicom, a corporate investor into mobile telecom companies in developing countries. He holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Maryland and an MBA from the University of Cambridge.
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About IQ Capital: IQ Capital is a Cambridge & London -based VC firm investing in early-stage deeptech companies.
Gil Dibner
Founder & Managing Partner of Angular Ventures
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About Angular Ventures, Imubit: Angular Ventures is a specialist venture capital firm backing early-stage deep technology enterprise companies.
Nick Adasi
Managing Partner, Head of UK of DealGlobe
Nick was a member of the DealGlobe launch team in 2014. Previously he worked in a leading European hedge fund, based in London and specialising in Venture Capital. Before this he worked at Goldman Sachs in New York as part of the luxury & retail sector team. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland holding a BSc in Finance
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About DealGlobe: DealGlobe offers a full suite of financial advisory services for cross-border deals with China, underpinned by unique proprietary technology
Christian Thun-Hohenstein
Managing Partner of DealGlobe
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About DealGlobe: DealGlobe offers a full suite of financial advisory services for cross-border deals with China, underpinned by unique proprietary technology
Warwick Hunt
Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer of PwC
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About PwC: PricewaterhouseCoopers is an accounting firm that provides tax, HR, transactions, performance improvement, and crisis management services.
Edward Barroll Brown
Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Grafton Capital
Ed is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Grafton Capital, which makes growth stage investments in tech-enabled businesses. Ed is a board director of Third Financial Software, Alva Reputation, SportPursuit and HomeViews.
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About Grafton Capital: Grafton Capital is a provider of growth capital to founder-owned, tech-enabled companies.
Craig Netterfield
Managing Partner of Columbia Lake Partners
CLP’s Founding Partner. Over 13 years’ venture lending experience in North America and Europe. Previously Partner at Wellington Financial. Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and MBA from the Ivey School of Business.
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About Columbia Lake Partners: Columbia Lake Partners is an experienced team of investors providing growth loans to European technology companies.
Lindsey McMurray
Managing Partner of Pollen Street Capital
Lindsey McMurray is the Managing Partner and Co-founder of Pollen Street Capital, an independent alternative investment management company, which has focused on accelerating the growth of the financial and business services sectors. Lindsey founded Pollen Street Capital in 2013, and it has since grown into a team of 70+ professionals with offices in London and New York City. Today, the company operates across private equity and credit strategies on behalf of investors. These include leading pension funds, asset managers, banks, and family offices from across the globe. Beyond this role, Lindsey McMurray is also Chair of the Pollen Street Capital private equity and credit investment committees, while she also serves as a non-executive director on the boards of several of Pollen Street Capital’s portfolio companies, including Shawbrook Bank, Oplo, and Freedom Finance. Lindsey has been a private equity investor for more than 25 years with a particular focus on the financial services sector. Before she founded Pollen Street Capital, she led the Principal Finance business for the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Throughout her time at RBS. Lindsey also successful structured and carried out several credit investments on behalf of the bank, which included a £200m infrastructure finance deal in 2006. Moreover, from 2007, Lindsey led the launch of the £1.1bn Special Opportunities Fund within RBS. Prior to her time at RBS, Lindsey McMurray spent six years as a Partner at Cabot Square Capital, focusing on operating investments in real estate and other asset backed investments, together with investments in the financial services sector. She has a First Class Honours degree in Accounting and Finance and studied for an MPhil in Finance from Strathclyde University. Outside of work Lindsey McMurray is a keen runner having successfully completed the Marathon Des Sables twice in 2007 and 2011. She also supports several charities with a particular focus on mentoring children in state schools as a trustee for the Future First charity, supporting climate action initiatives through producing documentary films, as well as supporting the speech and language charity, Auditory Verbal UK, that provided early years therapy to her daughter Grace.
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About Pollen Street Capital: Pollen Street Capital is an independent alternative investment manager, focused on investing in the financial and business services sectors
Mark Pearson
Managing Partner of Fuel Ventures
Mark is an award winning digital entrepreneur having achieved multiple successful exits over the last decade. Mark takes an active role in mentoring the Fund’s portfolio of companies.
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About Fuel Ventures, Groupola.com, HushHush, MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, MyVoucherCodes.co.uk: Fuel Ventures is a technology fund investing in marketplaces, fintech, platforms, and SaaS companies.
Melanie Hayes
Managing Partner and Investment Director of Bethnal Green Ventures
Melanie leads on our operations and helps our ventures raise further investment. She was previously an investment manager at Octopus Investments and Channel 4’s Innovation for the Public (4iP)
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About Bethnal Green Ventures: Bethnal Green Ventures (BGV) is Europe’s leading early stage tech for good VC.
Robert Knorr
Co-Managing Partner of Mid Europa Partners
Robert is the Co-Managing Partner at Mid Europa Partners. He co-chairs the Investment Committee and Management Committee of the firm. He is also head of the Budapest office. Prior to joining the team, Robert worked with Bankers Trust in London and Deutsche Bank in Milan.
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About Mid Europa Partners: Mid Europa Partners is a private equity firm specializing in private buyouts.
Matthew Strassberg
Co-Managing Partner of Mid Europa Partners
Matthew is the Co-Managing Partner at Mid Europa Partners. He co-chairs the Investment Committee and Management Committee of the firm. He is also co-head of the Warsaw office. Prior to joining the team, he worked in the leveraged finance team at Merrill Lynch in London. Previously, he worked in the M&A department at J.P. Morgan in London and New York. Matthew began his career in New York where he worked at Merrill Lynch and TLC Capital Partners, the investment firm of Reginald F. Lewis.
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About Mid Europa Partners: Mid Europa Partners is a private equity firm specializing in private buyouts.
AF_initDataCallback({key: \’ds:1\'” alt=”” class=”wp-image-14850″ width=”154″ height=”152″/>David Leftley
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Bloc Ventures
David has more than 30 years global technology industry experience in start-ups and multi-nationals as an engineer, manager, director and investor. From 1983 he worked as a design engineer in the defence industry, specialising in radar and airborne electronic countermeasures, first at Cossor Electronics and then at Racal Defence. In 1987 he moved into the TV and film industry, working for Abacus Cox and then Vistek on the design of the world’s first digital TV production technology. In this time he progressed to become R&D Manager and later became General Manager. In 1996, as CTO he founded Digital Vision UK for DV AB of Sweden, a world leader in video compression, transmission and post production technology, securing contracts with the BBC, several Hollywood studios and customers as far afield as China. In 1999 DV AB successfully went to an IPO. In 2009 he joined Vodafone’s corporate venture team as head of its European activity, closing numerous investments in Mobile Health, Clean Tech, Infrastructure and Financial Tech services. In this time the fund ranked in the top 5 CVCs, achieved an IRR of 27% and in 2012 received an industry award for its exit of portfolio company Amobee for $321M. In 2010 David was ranked in Wired Magazine’s top 100 innovators’ list. He represented Vodafone on the boards of nine portfolio companies. In April 2013 David departed Vodafone to establish Bloc Ventures with Bruce. He has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Aston Birmingham, and is a Chartered Engineer.
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About Bloc Ventures: Bloc Ventures is an early-stage Deep Tech investment company. Pitch to Bloc here: https://blocventures.com/pitching/
Alex Fortescue
Managing Partner of Epiris
Alex joined Electra Partners as Chief Investment Partner in 2011. Prior to this he spent eleven years at private equity firm Apax Partners, where he was Global Head of the Retail and Consumer Group. Before Apax he spent nine years at OC&C Strategy Consultants where he focused on corporate strategy and private equity commercial due diligence. In total he has more than 20 years Private Equity experience. Alex chairs Electra Partners’ Management Committee and is a member of its Investment Committee. He sits on the boards of Electra Partners’ portfolio companies AXIO Data Group, Parkdean Resorts, Davies, Hotter Shoes and Knight Square. He has a first class degree in Electronic Engineering from Imperial College, and an MBA from INSEAD. He is a keen sailor and cyclist.
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About Epiris: Epiris is an independent private equity firm.
Francois Mazoudier
Founder & Managing Partner of TLC
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About TLC: TLC is a co-investment club for Tech CEOs (and Tech Leaders) with significant track records.
Paul Shea
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Beechbrook Capital
Paul is co-founder and Managing Partner of Beechbrook Capital, where he is responsible for originating and executing private debt and equity co-investment opportunities. He sits on the Investment Committee for the Private Debt Funds and the UK SME Credit Fund. Beechbrook invests in the UK and Northern European lower mid-market by financing new buy out transactions or providing expansion or acquisition finance. Beechbrook have made over 45 investments to date and continue to benefit from a lack of debt finance from traditional providers to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Beechbrook has raised over €550m to date across four separate funds. Before starting up Beechbrook in 2008, Paul worked in the investment banking division of Schroders before joining MetLife to invest in European leverage loans, high yield bonds, mezzanine and private placements. He graduated from Oxford University in 1996 with an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
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About Beechbrook Capital: Beechbrook Capital provides mezzanine finance and equity co-investments to support buy-outs of businesses by private equity.
Daniel Sasaki
Managing Partner of Mayfair Equity Partners
Daniel joined LDC in 2008 from Hemisphere Capital, where he was a co-founder and Managing Partner. He has over 17 years of private equity experience; prior to LDC, he held senior investment roles at the Private Equity Division of Credit Suisse First Boston and SOFTBANK Inc. Daniel has invested across a broad range of transactions and sectors, from early stage growth capital to large leveraged buy-outs. Representative exits include ESAT Telecom (Irish mobile operator listed on NASDAQ), the ComplEATFood Group(UK premium food category manager) and Gala Coral Group (UK diversified gambling company). Raised in the US, Daniel has a law degree from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree from Cornell University. He sits on the boards of several portfolio companies, including Easynet, Fever-Tree, UK2 and Ocean Outdoor.
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About Mayfair Equity Partners: Mayfair Equity Partners provides buyout and growth capital to dynamic businesses in the TMT and Consumer sectors.
Sam Gray
Managing Partner of Apposite Capital
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About Apposite Capital, OrthoD Group: Apposite Capital is a London-based investment firm focused on healthcare services and life sciences companies.
Andrew Wordsworth
Managing Partner, CEO of Sustainable Ventures
Andrew is our executive chairman and responsible for fundraising, partnership negotiation and long term strategic management. He firmly believes that the electric transport revolution is well underway, and that car clubs like E-Car can not only reduce emissions but make transport more affordable and more convenient for communities across the country. With over ten years’ experience in the sustainability and renewables sector, he knows that organisations like this can’t survive on their carbon credentials alone. They need to provide a new solution which is both more cost effective and better suited to people’s needs. He’s very much a “hands on” Chairman and you’re more likely to see him on the street checking out the cars or talking to customers in the call centre than in the board room. Andrew holds a first-class MEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge, where he was awarded the University Fox Prize.
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About E-Car Club, Sustainable Ventures: Sustainable Ventures offers entrepreneurs with workspaces, accelerator programs, and support to develop their businesses.
Thomas Depuydt
Managing Partner & Co-Founder of SmartFin
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About iMinds, SmartFin: SmartFin operates as an early stage venture capital fund with a focus on companies developing smart technologies.
Omiros D. Sarikas
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Brookstreet Equity Partners
Omiros D. Sarikas is a managing partner at Brookstreet Equity Partners and a founding member. Omiros is the Chairman of the Worshipful Company of International Bankers’ Fundraising Advisory Board.
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About Brookstreet Equity Partners: Brookstreet Equity Partners is a private equity/venture capital investment group supporting companies experiencing transformational growth.
James Outland
Managing Partner of New Capital Partners
James Outland serves as a Managing Partner at New Capital Partners.
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About New Capital Partners: New Capital Partners is an Alabama-based private equity firm that manages private equity and economic development funds.
Jim Little
Managing Partner of New Capital Partners
Jim Little serves as a Managing Partner at New Capital Partners.
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About New Capital Partners: New Capital Partners is an Alabama-based private equity firm that manages private equity and economic development funds.
Anderson Hicklen
Managing Partner of AIM Group
Anderson graduated from Samford University with a degree in Business Management and Marketing. Over the last several years, he has served in business development roles throughout Alabama. He came from an IT staffing company where he recruited software developers for Huntsville and Birmingham, and most recently worked at a banking software start up in Birmingham selling compliance software to community banks. Born and raised in Huntsville, Anderson currently lives in Birmingham with his wife Allison.
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About AIM Group: Angel Investor Management Group operates as an early-stage funding source in the Southeast.
Olav Ostin
Managing Partner of TempoCap
Olav is a Managing Partner of DFJ Esprit Secondaries and has been involved with the venture capital industry for the past 12 years. He has a particular focus on telecom and media industry and leads the firm’s presence in France, Germany, and the Nordic region. Olav has been involved with the acquisition of some of the largest European secondary direct venture portfolios, such as Viventures (14 assets), Siemens Mobile (25 assets), and WestLB (19 assets) portfolios. In 2006, Olav co-founded Tempo Capital Partners, a specialist direct secondary venture investment firm, when the venture division of Nova Capital Management Limited which Olav had co-led with David Tate since 2004 was de-merged to form Tempo. In February 2012, Tempo joined the DFJ Network to form DFJ Esprit Secondaries. Between 2000 and 2004, he was a Managing Director of the ETF Group, a venture capital firm, where he was responsible for sponsoring and managing all investments in the UK and the Nordic region. Before ETF, he spent over 6 years in investment banking at Enskilda Securities where he was a Director and the Head of the technology team in London.
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About TempoCap: TempoCap is a growth and secondary direct venture investment firm.
David Tate
Managing Partner of TempoCap
David is a Managing Partner of DFJ Esprit Secondaries and has been involved with the venture capital industry since 1998. In 2006, David co-founded Tempo Capital Partners, a specialist direct secondary venture investment firm, when the venture division of Nova Capital Management Limited which David had co-led since 2004 was de-merged to form Tempo. In February 2012, Tempo joined the DFJ Network to form DFJ Esprit Secondaries. David has been involved with the acquisition of some of the largest European secondary direct venture portfolios, such as Viventures (14 assets), Siemens Mobile (25 assets), and WestLB (19 assets) portfolios. He has a particular focus on software, including SaaS, investments. Prior to 2004, David was the Head of Investments and an Executive Director at WestLB Panmure, where he was responsible for sponsoring and managing 10 venture investments in WestLB & Panmure Growth Fund, including Wolfson Microelectronics, a £200m IPO in 2003. Before WestLB Panmure, he spent over 15 years in investment banking, first at BZW and then at WestLB Group. His initial experience was in accountancy and management consultancy with Deloitte & Co. David is a Chartered Accountant and was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, University College in London, and has completed the AMP at INSEAD.
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About TempoCap: TempoCap is a growth and secondary direct venture investment firm.
Samer Salty
Managing Partner of Zouk Capital
Samer Salty is the Founder and CEO of Zouk Capital. He has 27 years experience in private equity, investment banking and technology. Samer oversees both the strategic direction of the firm and the investment process. Zouk’s distinctive dual track strategy, consisting of cleantech growth capital and renewable energy infrastructure, was designed and implemented by Samer. His vision for sustainability started with his investment in The Carbon Neutral Company in 2000 and his philosophy is to make investments that both create economic value and build on sustainable principals. Prior to Zouk, Samer was at JP Morgan where he led many private equity and advisory transactions in the technology and telecom sector. Samer began his career designing and managing the development of air traffic control computer and telecom systems for a number of Fortune 500 clients and government aviation authorities in the US. Samer holds a B.S. in Electronic Engineering from California Polytechnic and a M.S. in Management and Finance from MIT. He also sits on the International Council of the Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Centre, and the Advisory Board of the MIT Sloan School of Management.
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About Zouk Capital: Zouk Capital is an independent private equity fund manager investing in companies that advance resource efficiency.
Dominic Buch
Managing Partner of Caple BV
Dominic is co-founder and Managing Partner of Caple and jointly responsible for leading the business on a day to day basis. Dominic started his career as a sell-side equity analyst for Numis Securities in London where he was a Director within a highly rated team. More recently he founded and led the IPO of a NEX listed investment vehicle.
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About Caple BV: Caple is a provider of alternative credit for small to medium-sized companies.
Christian Tirabassi
Senior Managing Partner of Ficom Leisure
Christian Tirabassi is the forunder of Ficom Leisure, an M&A advisory and consultancy company specialized in the offline and online betting & gaming industry since 1996. Christian has more than 20 years of experience and expertise in all segments of the B2B and B2C international gambling industry: Betting, Casino, Lottery, Live Casino, Bingo, Poker and Skill Games for land-based and online, mobile, social gaming and e-sports. He provides strategic and corporate advisory, business consultancy and sell-side and buy-side investment related services from locations in London, Rome, Madrid, Malta and Miami.
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About Ficom Leisure: Ficom Leisure is an M&A advisory and consultancy company.
Antony Northrop
Co-founder / Managing Partner of NOR Capital
Antony Northrop led many high-profile Capital Raising and M&A transactions in the TMT sector (both Public and Private). He previously founded M&A boutique Touchstone Securities (acquired by GP Bullhound). He was also a Partner at Lazard Brothers, and Executive Committee Member at SBCI / UBS, having originally trained at J.P. Morgan.
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About NOR Capital: NOR Capital is a Pan-European Corporate Finance advisory firm focused on the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) sectors
Will Fraser-Allen
Managing Partner of Albion Capital Group
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About Albion Capital Group, AlbionVC: Albion Capital Group is an independent investment manager with a long-term record of backing change and growth.
Patrick Reeve
Founder, Chairman and Managing Partner of Albion Capital Group
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About Albion Capital Group: Albion Capital Group is an independent investment manager with a long-term record of backing change and growth.
Guy Gillon
Co-Founder and joint Managing Partner of Tenzing
Guy is one of the Founders at Tenzing and leads on relationships with management teams. Tenzing invests in profitable, high growth, UK and Northern European-based SMEs valued between £10m and £200m.
The firm loves to back highly ambitious management teams with which they have a shared vision, and to support their growth through their founder-led growth team.
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About Tenzing: Tenzing invests in high-growth UK and Northern European SMEs valued between £10m and £200m – we work with niche market leaders.
Christian Hamilton
Co-Founder and joint Managing Partner of Tenzing
Christian is Co-Founder and joint Managing Partner at Tenzing. He leads on investment strategies and investor relations.
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About Tenzing: Tenzing invests in high-growth UK and Northern European SMEs valued between £10m and £200m – we work with niche market leaders.
Carlo Pirzio Biroli
Managing Partner & CEO of Glendower Capital
Carlo Pirzio-Biroli Based in London, Carlo is the Managing Partner & CEO of Glendower Capital, an independent secondary private equity firm founded by its Partners after working for fifteen years at Deutsche Bank where they raised and invested three secondary funds with over US$ 3 billion in size. Headquartered in London with offices in New York, Glendower has a 14-strong investment team and it has been contracted by Deutsche Asset Management to manage the secondary funds for their remaining life. Prior to Glendower, Carlo spent 15 years at Deutsche Bank where he co-founded and led the DB SOF business since 2006 and for the last 5 years he was the Global Head of DB Private Equity with $13 billion AUM in primary fund of funds, secondary funds and co-investments. Before then, Carlo was the CEO of a publicly listed venture fund of funds; an Executive at General Electric in the US; and a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group in New York. Carlo holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and an MSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Rome, Italy.
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About Glendower Capital: Glendower Capital is a privately held investment firm focusing on secondary private markets.
Stephen Geddes
Managing Partner of The Fund Incubator Limited
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About The Fund Incubator Limited: We aim to help first time fund managers raise and quickly start investing private equity funds without the need for direct FCA regulation
Barry Lawson
Managing Partner of The Fund Incubator Limited
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About Invest Europe – formerly EVCA, Passion Capital, Pi Capital, The Fund Incubator Limited, The Private Equity Consultancy LLP: We aim to help first time fund managers raise and quickly start investing private equity funds without the need for direct FCA regulation
Hasham Ullah
Managing Partner & Founder of White Lion
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About GymCraft, White Lion: White Lion provides consultation services and solutions for the investment industry.
Greg Miller
Managing Partner and CEO of Holborn Assets
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About Holborn Assets: Holborn Assets is an independently owned global financial advisory group based in the UAE.
Thierry Pepin
Managing Partner – Canada Practice of Clairfield International
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About Clairfield International: Clairfield is an international corporate finance firm that provides advisory services.
