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 CEO’ operating in the Small and Medium Businesses space. If you think a CEO’ 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.
Andrew Xeni
CEO, Co-Founder of Fabacus
A highly driven and experienced CEO with a diverse portfolio of business interests. Andrew’s primary focus has till recently been in the family garment manufacturing business, Europride Ltd., founded with his brother. Having supplied most of the UKs largest fashion retailers for over a decade, Andrew understands their supply chain needs. The businesses boast a combined annual turnover in excess of $150m, with over 2,000 employees globally and including vested interests in the full supply chain: Factories in the UK, Eastern Europe, Morocco and Sri Lanka, a UK dye house, a UK knitting plant, fabric import business, and UK printing facilities. Andrew also has two ecommerce brands, Baaclothing.Com and NobodysChild.Com, that compliment his fully integrated vertical manufacturing service. Fabacus is the brainchild of all this supply chain, retail and ecommerce experience. Understanding exactly what is needed to improve each process and make businesses faster and more cost efficient, Andrew alongside his co-founder Ray Noppé, were able to build a suite of solutions. Fabacus delivers optimal efficiency for greater profit through customisable software for business intelligence, data management, relationship management and e-commerce marketing optimisation. To date Fabacus has successfully integrated its solution with the likes of Charlotte Tilbury, Salesforce and Revel. In addition to Fabacus and Europride Ltd, Andrew continues to invest in technology alongside New Look founder, Tom Singh, as well as property development and music interests: Launching his own music label, supporting and developing new talents.
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About Fabacus: Fabacus is a technology business that transforms brand licensing through the power of data.
Gerard Grech
CEO of Tech Nation
Gerard is CEO of TechCity UK in London.Prior, he headed up global marketing for Blackberry World (e-commerce store for apps music & film), in New York. Before that, he was with Nokia, where, in New York and London, he led the app store’s marketing operations, ran the app strategy and portfolio development team and, most recently, identified and assessed equity investment opportunities for Nokia Growth Partners, Nokia’s venture arm, with $600M under management in the mobile space. At Orange in Paris and London, Gerard was the content division’s group director of strategy and business development, and group head of music and video, launching multiple pioneering content services with Facebook, Universal Music and Sony Pictures, among others. He was EMEA chapter founder and chair of the Mobile Entertainment Forum and board director of DDEX, the Digital Data Exchange consortium. Before his MBA, Gerard’s career began as a new-media correspondent, covering the digital revolution in the music industry for Music Week and New Media Age, among others. He also co-founded a music label. He read Acoustics Engineering as his first degree.
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About Tech Nation: Tech Nation is focused on accelerating the growth of digital businesses across the UK.
Ola Oyetayo
Co-Founder & CEO of Verto
Ola Oyetayo is the Co-Founder & CEO of VertoFX.
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About Verto: We power cross‑border payments for the world’s fastest‑growing startups and enterprises.
Christoph Rieche
CEO & Co-founder of iwoca
Christoph Rieche is the CEO and Co-Founder of Iwoca. As CEO, he oversees the day-to-day operations, finance and strategy for iwoca, always with an eye on the long-term vision. After bagging a degree in Management from HEC Lausanne and the London School of Economics, Chris went on to become a VP at Goldman Sachs where he advised corporate and institutional investors on risk management.
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About iwoca: Iwoca offers credit financing services for small businesses.
Federico Travella
Founder & CEO of Novicap
Federico Travella is the CEO and co-founder of [Novicap](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/novicap), an online invoice marketplace. He also acts as an advisor to the European Commission. Early in his career, Travella took up project manager roles at both Zanui.com.au and The Iconic before moving on to be the managing director of Rocket Internet in 2012. After leaving Lazada as its EVP, he founded the company Kaymu. Travella holds a master’s degree in marine geology from Ghent University, while he also studied business at the University of Navarra.
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About Novicap: NoviCap is an online platform that allows businesses to receive early payments for outstanding invoices.
Nick East
Co-Founder & CEO of Zynstra
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About Zynstra: Zynstra is transforming edge computing at the retail edge.
Nicolae Buldumac
CEO of Global Database
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About Global Database: Company Intelligence on Global Markets
Patrick Petitti
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Catalant
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About Catalant: Catalant is a software company that provides global enterprises with software solutions to access business expertise on demand.
Chris McCullough
Co-Founder & CEO of Rotageek
Chris used to be an A&E doctor for 16 years, and that’s what inspired him to improve scheduling. He’s a relentless problem solver, who believes passionately in the power of great teams and experimenting. Chris has previously co-founded two other ventures, one of which is now Europe’s largest social network for health. He loves Formula 1 (and has kissed a few racetracks).
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About Rotageek: Using data-driven technology to meet demand, engage teams, and drive efficiency.
Tim Fouracre
Founder & CEO of Countingup
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About Countingup: The one that does your books. Countingup is the UK’s #1 banking & accounting app. Dead easy. Super fast. Self sorting.
Adrian Blair
CEO of Dext
Adrian Blair is the group CEO at Receipt Bank.
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About Dext: Empowering accountants and bookkeepers with the smart and forward-thinking solutions needed to make businesses better.
Simon Haslam
President and Chief Executive Officer of Elavon
As President and Chief Executive Officer at Elavon, Simon Haslam is responsible for the overall vision, strategy, and execution of Elavon’s worldwide mission of enabling global commerce. Before taking on his current position, Simon was President of International Markets at Elavon where he worked to expand Elavon’s presence to new markets in Europe, Mexico and Brazil. Simon joined Elavon with the addition of the Citigroup portfolio in 2005. At Citigroup, Simon served as Head of Credit and Risk with responsibility for all credit and fraud related activities impacting Citigroup’s Pan-European Merchant Acquiring Business. In 1995, Simon was elected as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers. He serves as chairman of the board for Santander Elavon Merchant Services – Elavon’s newly created joint venture in Spain. He is also chairman of the board of Elavon do Brasil – Elavon’s joint venture in Brazil and Elavon Mexico. Additionally, Simon is a board member of Visa UK and UK Cards.
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About Elavon, Network International: Elavon helps businesses, small and large, accept all payment types.
Sinead McHale
CEO of Satago
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About Satago: Cover cashflow gaps, manage debtors and predict credit risks all in one easy-to-use product. Start your 14-day free trial today.
Louis Schena
Co-Founder & CEO of Swipii
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About Swipii: Customer loyalty, card-linking, automated marketing, open banking, digital, SMB, local businesses
Richard Wagner
CEO of Cashplus
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About Cashplus: Cashplus is a digital challenger to UK banks and has served more than 1.6m customers since launching in 2005
David Foskett
CEO of DSSC Digital Software Solutions Ltd.
David is CEO at DSSC, a B2B fintech software company specialising in platforms for financial services companies, banks, and government agencies working on financial ecosystem aggregation and improvement programmes. The platform provides aggregation and switching functions with powerful compliance and reporting features. It is easily customised to handle the smallest movement of funds for remittance, all the way through to the aggregation of country-wide financial switch infrastructure. The technology is developed and matured by a team that has more than 40 years of experience between them. They possess deep knowledge across mobile financial services, remittance, payments, compliance and regulatory sectors. Previously, David was COO/CFO at Moni. He has worked as Chief Financial Officer in several private equity backed firms as well as holding senior leadership roles at Western Union where he served as Chief Financial Officer Western Union Payments Services (EMEA), Finance Director Retail Network Europe-CIS and Finance Director Western Europe.
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About DSSC Digital Software Solutions Ltd.: DSSC is a B2B fintech software company specialising in platforms for financial ecosystem aggregation and improvement programmes.
Rob Straathof
CEO of Liberis
CEO at Liberis.
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About Liberis: Liberis provides access to simple, flexible, and fair finance for small businesses.
Siim Maivel
Founder & CEO of Investly
CEO, co-founder at Investly.CIO at €0.5M hedge fund investing into P2P loans, previously BA/Product Developer @ UBS WM Fixed Income
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About Investly: Investly is provide an invoice finance platform that lets you easily upload invoices.
Antoine Baschiera
CEO and Co-Founder of Early Metrics
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About Early Metrics: Early Metrics is the first startup rating agency.
Matthew Beatty
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Spacehop
Founder of Spacehop
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About Spacehop: An online platform for people to list and book cheap, flexible office space at the days and hours of their choosing in London and the UK.
Sandeep Dhillon
CEO of Talmix
Sandeep Dhillon is the CEO at Talmix, having joined the business when it was MBA & Company as Director of Finance and Strategy at MBA & Company. Most recently he has fulfilled the role of Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Previously he was the Head of the Technology, Media and Telecoms EMEA Practice of GLG, a primary research firm that operates a network of senior industry executives who provide consulting services to venture capital, private equity and hedge fund clients. Prior to this he worked on a number of technology, media and telecoms M&A transactions whilst at Jefferies in the London TMT Investment Banking team and during his time at PwC both in London and San Francisco where he worked closely with Private Equity and Blue Chip Technology clients.
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About Talmix: Talmix has built a Business Talent Marketplace to allow companies to unlock the power of the extended workforce.
Thomas Palmer
Co-Founder & CEO of Zenstores
Thomas R. Palmer is Executive Chairman and co-founder of iModules Software. Tom’s experience includes being a Managing Director and General Partner with two venture capital firms, AH Ventures and Kansas City Equity Partners. In these capacities, he led investments in the areas of information technology and communications, serving on company boards and through to successful exits including IPO and acquistions. Tom was also a Kauffman Fellow with the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, with KCEP as his resident firm. He also served as a Manager of Business Analysis at Trans National Group, where he performed strategic planning, international expansion, investments, and divestitures. As a Lecturer at the University of Missouri, Tom taught Venture Capital Finance for six years. He holds a MBA in Entrepreneurial Finance and Marketing from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern University and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Computer Science from Dartmouth College.
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About AH Ventures, iModules Software, Zenstores: Zenstores is a platform to propel online sellers to ecommerce greatness.
Charlie de Rusett
CEO & Founder of Idea Drop
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About Idea Drop, Yellowball: Idea Drop helps organisations capture, curate and action the best ideas from their people.
David Tymm
CEO of I-Movo Limited
David Tymm is CEO and Owner/Founder at i-movo Limited.
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About I-Movo Limited: I-Movo Limited enables businesses to issue vouchers to their customers, which can then be redeemed securely at over 50,000 stores.
Rose Luckin
Founder and CEO of EDUCATE Ventures Research
Rose is Professor of Learner Centred Design at UCL Knowledge Lab. Rose’s research involves the design and evaluation of educational technology using theories from the learning sciences and techniques from artificial intelligence. She works closely with the education technology industry, in particular Start-ups and SMEs, to enable them to integrate research evidence and methods into their products. Rose has advised research councils in various countries and has written widely about educational technologies. She has taught in schools, FE and HE, and she is a Governor and Trustee at St Paul’s school in London and the Self Managed Learning College in Brighton.
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About EDUCATE Ventures Research, UCL Institute of Education: Educate serves as a catalyst for the development of EdTech products and services that are supported by facts.
Pier Paolo Mucelli
CEO and Founder of eOffice
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About eOffice: eOffice is provides workspace and meeting facilities for businesses and professionals.
Leah Hutcheon
Founder & CEO of Appointedd
Leah Hutcheon is the founder and CEO of Appointedd, an Edinburgh-based startup revolutionising the way small businesses sell their timeslot appointments online. From personal trainers to massage therapists, serviced offices to large corporations, Appointedd enables online booking on any device in any timezone. Appointedd offers businesses access to CRM, marketing and business management tools, and fits seamlessly with 25+ two-way integrations. Appointedd has launched the world’s first truly multi-timezone online booking system, enabling people to take bookings across different timezones seamlessly. Leah is a proud Ambassador for Women’s Enterprise Scotland, Director of Future Leaders for Entrepreneurial Scotland and #ScotEDGE Award winner. An Entrepreneurial Spark supported company, Appointedd was featured in BBC documentary, The Entrepreneurs. – See more at: https://leah.appointedd.com/#sthash.9u1vWztJ.dpuf
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About Appointedd: Appointedd is a cutting-edge online booking and scheduling solution that makes it easier for you to connect with your customers.
Martin Baker
CEO & Founder of Commissionly
Martin has 25 years experience running business’s and advising SME’s. He has experience in building successful startups and as a senior manager in bluechip organisations. He holds an MBA from the Open Business School.
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About Commissionly: Commissionly is the cloud based sales commission software focused solely on the small to medium business sector.
Kosta Mavroulakis
Founder and CEO of Empact Ventures
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About Empact Ventures: Empact Ventures co-designs some of the leading startup, tech and non-profit initiatives for large private or public sector organisations
Denis Cucek
CEO of Shuttle Planet
Entrepreneur, founder @ Shuttle Planet. Love to Travel and solve transportation and software issues.
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About Shuttle Planet: A 2 sided marketplace for long distance shared road transportation, where the traveller can join an existing ride or crowdsource a new trip.
Guy Shelton
Founder, CEO of MAILPROFILER Technology Solutions UK
Entrepreneur & Investor. 20yrs tech & digital. Growing SaaS companies in EMEA, APAC & NA building start-ups & establishing companies overseas expansion often as their 1st man on the ground.
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About MAILPROFILER Technology Solutions UK: Consultancy
Nigel Botterill
Owner, CEO of Entrepreneurs Circle
Nigel Botterill is a straight-talking UK entrepreneur and bestselling author who has built eight separate £million+ businesses from scratch. Nigel is passionate about business/marketing; he now devotes a big chunk of his time to helping other entrepreneurs.
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About Entrepreneurs Circle: Entrepreneurs Circle exist to educate, motivate, help and inspire business owners to achieve more than they ever thought possible.
Nicola Horlick
CEO of Money&Co.
Nicola is the CEO of Money&Co, a person-to-business lending platform, which connects people looking for a better rate of interest on their cash with businesses seeking finance to grow. Money&Co. is experiencing rapid growth as many companies are still finding it difficult to borrow money from banks. In 2010, Nicola set up Derby Street Films and there are now three Derby Street vehicles, which fund the development of feature films. Nicola is also the Chairman of Glentham Capital Limited, which is currently raising a film finance fund. Nicola read Jurisprudence at Balliol College, Oxford.
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About Money&Co.: Money&Co. is at the forefront of the P2B (Person to Business) world.
Richard Mann
CEO of QuarterOne
Richard Mann is a CEO at Dragonfly AI.
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About Dragonfly AI, QuarterOne: QuarterOne is a sales forecasting application for small to medium businesses.
Seb Lyall
CEO / Founder of Locappy
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About Locappy: Locappy helps small local businesses reach out to their local community.
Kasia Michalska
CEO of Ralloo
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About Ralloo: Ralloo is a micro-sposnorship platform and a marketplace that matches brands with small, local, fundraising projects.
Kasia Michalska
CEO of Ralloo
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About Ralloo: Ralloo is a micro-sposnorship platform and a marketplace that matches brands with small, local, fundraising projects.
