Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top London based Partner operating in the Enterprise Software space. If you think a 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.
Anu Suthakaran
Technology Solution Professional – Enterprise Partner Group of Microsoft
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About Microsoft, Microsoft: Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
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.
Paul McNabb
Venture Partner of Episode 1
Paul has had a highly successful career in high tech as both a senior executive and an entrepreneur. Most recently, he served as the Chief Strategy Officer for Cisco Services, a $12bn division of Cisco, where he led the global strategy and acquisitions team. Previously he had run a series of global businesses for Cisco. As an entrepreneur he founded and exited two businesses in the US, one an innovative consulting firm sold to Cambridge Technology Partners, and the second a B2B Social Network for CIOs sold to Earthweb. His early background was in consulting, working for Accenture and other major international consulting firms, including his own. He has worked in venture capital in the US, and has broad experience in many B2B technologies. He has also worked globally, living in Shanghai, New York, San Francisco and multiple European Countries. With a passion for strategy and marketing, and an extensive network of contacts and experience to draw on, Paul enjoys nothing better than working with entrepreneurs to tease out the goals and priorities they need to operationalize their vision.
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About Episode 1, Opteran: Episode1 Ventures is a venture capital fund set up to invest in early-stage technology companies based in London, UK.
Adrian Lloyd
Partner of Episode 1
Adrian Lloyd is a Partner at Episode 1, an early stage Venture Capital fund focusing on software enabled businesses with the beginnings of customer traction. Adrian has had a career as a management consultant and entrepreneur, with a gap at Stanford Business School in 2008-10 where he earned his MBA. He focuses on customer-centric product and business design as an investor and you can read more of his thoughts at http://www.episode1.com/news-and-blog/blog Adrian has been investing in software businesses since 2008.
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About Episode 1: Episode1 Ventures is a venture capital fund set up to invest in early-stage technology companies based in London, UK.
Damien Lane
Co-Founder & Partner of Episode 1
Damien Lane has spent the last 20 years investing in private companies, both in Private Equity where he was a partner with Electra Partners, then at Octopus Ventures where he was a senior member of the investment team. Having made a number of angel investments, Damien co-founded Episode 1 with Simon and Adrian in 2012. While at Episode 1, Damien has led investments in Carwow, Scurri, Touch Surgery, Attest and Zipcube and loves working with early stage teams of entrepreneurs; helping them develop their early stage startup into a fast growth enterprises capable of raising more funding from later stage investors. When he is not trying to help businesses to implement an optimal approach to growth, Damien can mostly be found running around Hampstead Heath or the Coastal paths of Great Britain. Having trained obsessively to run a 2:52 Marathon in 2015, he is now trying to dip below 2:50, in the spirit of continuous improvement. Damien has an MBA from Cambridge University and a Masters degree in PE from Oxford University.
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About Adludio, Episode 1, Scurri: Episode1 Ventures is a venture capital fund set up to invest in early-stage technology companies based in London, UK.
Kristin Waeterloos
Head of Partner Eco-System of Privitar
As Head of Partner Eco-System, Kristin is responsible for the development and management of global and local partnerships to support Privitar’s growth strategy. A major focus is on joint go-to-market with consultancies, platform providers and complementary software vendors. Kristin has over 25 years experience in the Financial Services Technology sector, including SAP Financial Services, Sopra Group and Finastra, where she held senior management and business development positions and has built up a successful track record in Alliance and Channel management over the last 7 years. She has an extensive network of executive relations across global and European consultancies and technology players.
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About Privitar: Privitar offers a data privacy platform that protect their customers’ sensitive personal data and to deliver comprehensive data privacy.
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.
Alexander Ross
Partner of Illuminate Financial
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About Illuminate Financial: Illuminate Financial is a venture capital firm backing companies that solve problems in financial services.
Mark Whitcroft
Partner of Illuminate Financial
Mark Whitcroft is one of the Founding Partners at Illuminate Financial. He is also part of the Advisory Panel for IA Engine, the UK’s Investment Association fintech accelerator. Prior to Illuminate, he was an EIR at StartUpBootCamp FinTech London, on the Industry Advisory Board of ValueStream Labs and part of the Deutsche Bank team involved in the Accenture FinTech Innovation Lab in New York. Mark spent twelve years in various fixed income capital market roles at Deutsche Bank and HSBC based in New York, Singapore, Hong Kong and London. He has been an early stage fintech investor since 2010 and sits on the Boards of a number of portfolio companies. Mark has a BSc in Human Sciences from University College London and is Harvard Business School alumni via the Program for Leadership Development.
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About Illuminate Financial: Illuminate Financial is a venture capital firm backing companies that solve problems in financial services.
Rezso Szabo
Partner of Illuminate Financial
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About Illuminate Financial: Illuminate Financial is a venture capital firm backing companies that solve problems in financial services.
Jon Carter
UK Innovation Scouting Lead, , Group Partnering & Devices of Deutsche Telekom
Jon leads Business Development for Deutsche Telekom’s white label and open connected home platform, with a specific focus on the UK market. Successfully launched in Germany in late 2013, Deutsche Telekom’s open platform is now available internationally, with a principle focus on Europe. Deutsche Telekom’s platform has been designed to move the industry beyond simple control of connected devices, to create a foundation for new revenue generating services. In the UK, Jon’s focus is on establishing partnerships with telcos, utilities, insurers and retailers, as well as third party platform providers and OEMs to enable the realization of innovative new models and revenue generating services. Jon has worked in and around the connected home space since the early 2000s, and has a deep knowledge of the UK and European market, and in particular what will finally drive growth in this market. He has previously consulted for both E.ON Group and RWE UK on their connected home strategies, including the latter’s partnership with Google’s Nest. Prior to joining Deutsche Telekom, Jon worked several years for a boutique innovation consultancy, and before that was 12 years at Orange, where amongst other things he led Orange UK’s R&D initiative on the connected home, as well as being Head of Strategy and subsequently Head of Propositions.
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About Deutsche Telekom: Deutsche Telekom is a telecommunications company that offers a range of fixed-network services.
Stephen King
Partner of Omidyar Network
As a partner at Omidyar Network, Stephen brings exceptional experience in applying media and technology to create positive social impact. Stephen leads the global Governance & Citizen Engagement initiative and a portfolio that includes a broad range of national and global organizations. Many are innovators in the use of technology to help make governments more responsive and aid citizens in holding their governments to account. The portfolio includes: Sunlight Foundation, Global Voices, Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente, mySociety, New Citizen, Janaagraha and Ushahidi, among others. Prior to Omidyar Network, Stephen served as the chief executive of BBC Media Action, where he led a period of sustained growth that included building programs in more than 40 countries in the developing world. Stephen helped establish the organization’s international reputation as one of the largest and most successful organizations using media and communications to improve the lives of the world’s poor and promote better governance and transparency worldwide. Prior to the BBC, Stephen held executive positions at several non-profit organizations based in the United Kingdom and the developing world. Stephen is based in London and is a board member of Ushahidi, Global Voices, and mySociety. He holds an MA in Oriental and African studies from the University of London.
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About Omidyar Network: Omidyar Network is an investment firm.
Tom Singell
Partnerships Manager of Showpad
Tom Singell is the Partnerships Manager at Showpad.
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About Showpad: The best thing to ever happen to your sales team
Ekaterina Almasque
General Partner of OpenOcean
Ekaterina (Katya) Almasque is a Venture Partner at OpenOcean and she leads the London Team and Operations. Before joining OpenOcean, Katya was a Managing Director of the Samsung Catalyst Fund in Europe, Samsung’s Electronics $500M venture capital multistage investment fund focused on core technology areas including robotics, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, digital health, data infrastructure and device level technologies. She led investments across Europe in leading companies such as GraphCore, Mapillary, AIMotive, Sentiance and Quobyte, as well as several venture funds. For over ten years prior to that, Katya was part of several corporate and independent venture capital funds in Silicon Valley and Europe, including EMC and Siemens Venture Capital. Additionally she was a founding partner of a global private equity advisory firm specializing in high-tech growth companies with $1B+ markets in the technology and environmental sectors, where she led investments in the US, Brazil, and Europe.
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), OpenOcean, Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center: OpenOcean is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in B2B software across Europe.
Rupesh Chatwani
Venture Partner of RLC Ventures
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About RLC Ventures: RLC Ventures is an award-winning VC which continues to back founders building global tech companies, from idea to exit.
Sebastian Ribbentrop
Managing Partner of Join Capital
Sebastian Ribbentrop has over 22 years of experience in private equity, real estate and venture capital. He founded WunderHouse in 2015 a specialist investor and operator in the hospitality sector providing flexible community-enhancing co-living opportunities for young professionals and students. Most recently he was the Director of platforms Nido Student Housing and DB Deutschland Property Partners. Nido Student Housing Ltd was the largest student residential direct-let platform in London. Previously, Sebastian spent 11 years in Private Equity in London and Frankfurt. His last position was Managing Director of West LB’s €3bn venture capital & private equity practice in London where he chaired the Investment Committee for global direct and indirect investments. Prior to his position at WestLB, he focused on private equity & venture capital in Europe and was a principal at Steadfast Capital from 2001 to 2007 and Schroders from 1995 to 2001.
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About Join Capital: Join Capital is a Berlin-based early stage venture capital firm investing in enterprise technology and industry 4.0 startups.
Mark Loader
Director of Product Management, Marketing & Partnerships of ITRS Group
Mark joined ITRS in June 2012 as Managing Director Asia and brings more than 20 years of international experience in the field of fintech and data. Mark is responsible for all of ITRS’ product, marketing and partnership strategy covering both Geneos and Insights & Valo. He’s regularly on the road evangelizing our business and platform strategy with customers, partners and colleagues. Prior to joining ITRS, he was Global Head of Quantitative Analytics and Datafeeds at Thomson Reuters with general management responsibility for over US$230 million in annual revenue from more than 1500 clients globally, spanning traditional asset managers, sell-side research, hedge funds and proprietary trading desks.
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About ITRS Group: ITRS Group is the leading provider of risk mitigation solutions to global financial institutions.
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.
Xavier Llerena
Senior Director DSP Partnerships of FreeWheel
Xavier Llerena is Sr Director DSP Partnerships at [FreeWheel](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/freewheel#/entity), a provider of comprehensive ad platforms for publishers, advertisers, and media buyers. Powered by premium video content, robust data, and advanced technology, the company is revolutionizing the way publishers and marketers transact across all screens, data types, and sales channels. Xavier holds a master’s degree a from Imperial College London as well as a master’s degree from Universität Mozarteum Salzburg.
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About FreeWheel: FreeWheel provides enterprise level solutions to enable the premium video industry to thrive in an increasingly complex ecosystem.
Alex Deane
Senior Managing Director (Partner) Strategic Communications, Head of Public Affairs UK of FTI Consulting
Alex Deane is a Senior Managing Director (Partner) Strategic Communications, Head of Public Affairs UK at FTI Consulting.
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About FTI Consulting: FTI Consulting is a global business advisory firm.
Vincent Bonnet
Chief Commercial Officer, SVP, International Sales & Strategic Partnership of Octo Telematics
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About Octo Telematics: Octo Telematics researches, develops, and manages telematics applications and systems for the insurance and automotive markets.
Pavel Dolezal
Partner of Keboola
Pavel has been building companies since 1999, starting with the largest portal network, CEE, under the group name Atlas Portal. After the group was sold, he built Ataxo, one of the EU’s largest digital agencies in the performing media space. Ataxo serviced 15,000 customers and had almost 200 agents in Customer Support. In addition, Pavel actively invests in early-stage tech companies in the EU, Brazil and the USA. In 2014, Pavel became a partner at Keboola.com and is responsible for its international expansion and business development, currently focusing on UK and Singapore operations.
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About Keboola: Keboola is a cloud platform helping clients combine, enhance & publish crucial information for internal analytics & data products.
Dr Rana Ghosh-Roy
IBM Partner, Business Analytics of illumr
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About : illumr helps organizations to better understand and predict patterns of behavior that affect them.
Ranzie Anthony
Partner – Executive Creative Director of Athlon
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About Athlon: Athlon helps global brands create products and services that build meaningful human connections and drive business success.
