Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top London based Chairman operating in the Venture Capital space. If you think a Chairman is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Sir David Michels
Chairman of Miroma Ventures
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About : Miroma Ventures is the investment arm of The Miroma Group, predominantly investing in growth stage consumer brands and media platforms.
Neil England
Chairman of Augmentum Fintech
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About Augmentum Fintech, Mandata (Management & Data Services): Augmentum Fintech is a FinTech fund that invests in early and later-stage FinTech companies.
Martin Halusa
Chairman of Apax Partners
Martin, a graduate of Georgetown University, received his MBA from the Harvard Business School and his PhD in Economics from the Leopold-Franzens University in Innsbruck. He began his career at The Boston Consulting Group (“BCG”) in Germany and left as a Partner and Vice President of BCG world-wide in 1986. He joined Daniel Swarovski Corporation, Austria’s largest private industrial company, first as President of Swarovski Inc (USA) and later as the Director of International Holding in Zurich. In 1990, he co-founded Apax Partners in Germany as Managing Director. His investment experience has been primarily in telecommunications and service industries. Martin has held his position of Chief Executive Officer of Apax Partners since 2003.
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About Apax Partners: Apax Partners is an independent global partnership focused solely on long-term investment in growth companies.
Andrew Banks
Chairman and Co-Founder of ABRY Partners
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About ABRY Partners, Bain & Company: ABRY Partners is an equity firm focused on investments in media.
Federico Pirzio-Biroli
Founder & Chairman of Playfair Capital
Fede started out as an angel investor in 2010. His portfolio quickly grew, so he built a team around him and thus Playfair Capital was born. We have since gone on to become one of Europe’s most active and well-known early-stage VC funds. Before becoming a technology investor Fede worked for several NGOs in Africa, with a particular focus on aid transparency. He recently renewed his focus on Africa by relocating to Kenya and becoming an angel investor in East Africa’s burgeoning startup ecosystem. He maintains an active role at Playfair and continues to lead our investment team.
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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.
Alex Macpherson
Chairman of Octopus Ventures
Alex has been in the same position as many entrepreneurs having started, built and sold his own business. He founded Katalyst Ventures with his colleagues in 2000, creating the private angel network which would later be known as the Octopus Venture Partners. Over seven years, Alex led the business as CEO until its sale to Octopus in August 2007, providing succession plans for the executive team as a series of VCTs were raised to invest into 42 companies alongside the newly branded Octopus Venture Partners. Since 2007, the amount of assets that the Ventures team manages has risen from circa £20 million to in excess of £200 million at a time when the economy has seen the worst financial crisis in a generation. Alex is firmly of the belief that it is people that make the difference to businesses, whether within his own team, the Octopus Venture Partners, or most importantly, the entrepreneurs that are building the great businesses of tomorrow. Focusing on people rather than specific industry sectors has enabled the Ventures team to build a diverse portfolio of investments, including: Secret Escapes; Calastone; Zoopla; Graze; and SwiftKey. Alex is Chairman of the Octopus Ventures Investment Committee, remaining actively involved in new deal transactions, portfolio management, exits and new fund creation. Under Alex’s leadership, the Ventures team at Octopus has established itself as one of the leading UK venture capital houses.
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About Octopus Ventures: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Michael Jackson
Chairman of Elderstreet Investments
Michael Jackson MA FCA (Chairman of the Manager) founded Elderstreet Investments Limited in 1990 and is its executive chairman. For the past 24 years, he has specialised in raising finance and investing in the smaller companies quoted and unquoted sector. From 1983 until 1987 he was a director and from 1987 until 2006 was chairman of FTSE 100 company The Sage Group plc. He was also chairman of PartyGaming plc, another FTSE 100 company. He is a director of Elderstreet portfolio companies Uvenco UK plc, Fords Packaging Systems Limited, Baldwin & Francis Holdings Limited, AngloInfo Limited, Macranet Limited and Access Intelligence plc. Michael studied law at Cambridge University, and qualified as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand before spending five years in marketing for various US multinational technology companies.
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About Elderstreet Investments: Elderstreet Investments is a U.K.-based venture fund manager that provides development and growth capital funds for early stage companies.
Massimo Prelz
Chairman Investment Committee of DN Capital
Massimo Prelz Oltramonti started in management consulting with Boston Consulting Group in Paris, followed by a long period at Olivetti where he worked in the corporate development function (on acquisition and venture capital) both in the US and Europe and then as managing director of their financial information services division (Radiocor). He returned to venture capital in London with Alta Berkley Associates and then private equity investment initially with Advent International and now with GMT Communication Partners. He has been Chairman of the Board of Jazztel Plc, Vice-Chairman of Primacom AG and member of the board of a number of listed companies including ESAT Telecom, SBS SA, Edap-Technomed SA, Esaote SpA, Cityfibre Holding Plc. He is also chairman of the investment committee of DN Capital, a VC fund.
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About DN Capital, Electro Power Systems: DN Capital operates as an early-stage venture capital firm.
Charles Cecil
Chairman of Samos Investments
charles cecil works as chairman of Samos Investments.
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About Samos Investments: Samos invests across a range of sectors including consumer internet, digital media, e-commerce, retail, and financial services/technology.
Thomas Teichman
Chairman and Executive Director of Spark Ventures
Tom is the Chairman of SPARK Venture Management and has a long track record in backing, chairing and developing some of Europe’s most successful internet, technology, music, games and software businesses. Additionally, he has 20 years’ prior investment banking experience acquired at Credit Suisse, Bank of Montreal Nesbitt and Mitsubishi Bank, where he held various positions including Head of Corporate Finance, Trading and Syndicate. Tom was Executive Chairman of SPARK Ventures plc for 10 years until 2011 and now chairs SPARK Venture Management, which manages the SPARK Ventures plc portfolio and other significant technology and life sciences portfolios including funds from major institutions and 27 Oxford University colleges and the UK Government. Tom has operated hands-on after his City days in many small and fast growing businesses from start up to IPO or trade sale. Thus, unusually, he combines awareness of the capital markets and the M&A environments with that of entrepreneurial, rapid growth companies with mould-breaking ideas.
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About Simba Sleep, The Garage Soho: SPARK Venture is an early-stage venture capital investor in Europe.
Jeff Lynn
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Seedrs
Jeff Lynn is Executive Chairman and co-founder of Seedrs, the leading pan-European equity crowdfunding platform. Seedrs lets investors invest as much or as little as they like in startups they choose, and it lets startups raise capital from friends, family, angels, institutions and the crowds, all through a simple, online process. In addition to running Seedrs, Jeff serves as founding Chairman of The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec), a non-profit advocacy group for digital startups and SMEs.
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About Seedrs: Seedrs is a UK-based investment and crowdfunding platform.
Michael Liebreich
Chairman & CEO of BloombergNEF
Michael Liebreich is Founder and Chair of the Advisory Board of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the world’s leading provider of research on clean energy, energy technology and advanced transportation. Michael founded New Energy Finance in 2004 and acted as Chair and Chief Executive before selling it to Bloomberg LP in 2009. Bloomberg New Energy Finance is headquartered in London and now has over 200 staff in 13 offices around the world.
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About BloombergNEF, Imperial College London: BloombergNEF provides industry information, analytics, and research services for the clean energy and carbon markets.
Laurent Laffy
Founder and Executive Chairman of SeedLegals
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About Prepay Technologies, SeedLegals: The simple way for companies to complete the legals needed to raise investment and distribute equity
Alan Morgan
Chairman, Co-Founder of MMC Ventures
Alan co-founded MMC Ventures in 2000. As an active business angel investor he saw the opportunity for a more structured strategic and due diligence approach to venture investing. Alan is a member of the Investment Committee and leads MMC’s financial services focus. He has lead responsibility for Small World.
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About MMC Ventures, Small World Financial Services Group: MMC Ventures is an investment firm that invests in technology companies at Seed and Series A.
Faisal Butt
Founder, CEO & Chairman of Pi Labs
Faisal is CEO, Founder and Chairman of Pi Labs Ltd. Faisal founded Pi Labs Ltd in 2015, after leading the first round of investments in PropTech start-ups Hubble and Trussle as an individual investor. Faisal and his team have built a portfolio of 50 PropTech companies across UK and Europe, making Pi Labs one of the most active investors in PropTech start-ups globally.
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About Pi Labs, Spire Ventures: Europe’s first and most active VC firm investing in early-stage proptech entrepreneurs.
Gordon Lawson
Chairman of Parkwalk Advisors
Gordon has 30 years City experience, latterly as head of equity proprietary trading and EMEA equity, derivatives and convertible bond risk at Salomon/Citigroup and then as the founder of Pendragon Capital, the event-driven hedge fund. Gordon is an adviser to several hedge funds and sits on the Advisory Board of Bridges Ventures, the sustainable impact investment fund.
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About Parkwalk Advisors: Parkwalk is an investment management firm focused on UK-based technology companies that are spun out of UK university and research centres.
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.
Chris Masterson
Chief Executive & Chairman of Montagu Private Equity
Chris Masterson joined Montagu in 1991 and has over 30 years experience of investing in unquoted companies. He read Psychology at University College, London and has an MBA from Manchester Business School. He was appointed Chief Executive in 2000 and Chairman in 2010. As Chairman he is responsible for chairing the Investment Committee and Remuneration Committee.
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About Montagu Private Equity: Montagu Private Equity is a financial company investing in other businesses.
Peter Englander
Chairman of Bridges Fund Management
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About Bridges Fund Management: Bridges Fund Management is a specialist fund manager dedicated to sustainable and impact investment.
Bernard Fairman
Chairman of Foresight Group
Bernard Fairman co-founded Foresight Group in 1984 to raise a new fund for investment in unquoted technology companies based in the UK, the US and France. He has over 45 years of experience and acts as the Group’s Chairman. Bernard is responsible for strategic direction and management of Foresight through organic growth and acquisition to leading positions in the VCT and UK environmental infrastructure markets. Prior to joining Foresight Bernard worked at 3i Ventures as an Investment Manager where he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating and negotiating investments. Bernard holds a BA in Applied Economics from the University of Nottingham.
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About Foresight Group: Foresight is an infrastructure and private equity investment manager that manages funds on behalf of institutions and retail clients.
Phil Hollingdale
Executive Chairman of Cushon
Phil Hollingdale is co-founder of digital wealth company Smarterly who aim to turn the UK’s workforce into a nation of investors. Employers promote Smarterly as an employee benefit, to help people build healthy saving habits with the convenience of saving directly from their pay, often with a contribution boost from the employer as a more accessible complement to pensions. Smarterly use sophisticated algorithms to analyse over 1,000 funds, build ready-made portfolios and comparison tables and then automatically monitor each customer’s individual portfolio on a daily basis. This is Phil’s sixth start-up tech venture. He’s also an active investor and advisor in several businesses across different sectors including Fintech, Healthtech and the Gig Economy.
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About Cushon: Cushon is a fintech company that provides investment, pension, financial wellbeing and workplace savings.
Mungo Park
Chairman of Innovator Capital Ltd
Mungo Park, Chairman of Innovator Capital, has been an investment banker, on both sides of the Atlantic, for 30 years focussing exclusively on emerging technologies. He was previously at Cowen & Co., Alex. Brown and Head of Corporate Finance at Nomura International.
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About : London based specialist investment bank advising sustainable, resource efficiency, ICT and life science companies from around the world
Douglas Hansen-Luke
Executive Chairman of Future Planet Capital
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About Future Planet Capital: Future Planet is a venture capital firm that seeks investment in potentially high-growth companies from research centers.
David Norwood
Chairman of Oxford Sciences Innovation
David Norwood founder of IP Group plc
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About Oxford Sciences Innovation: The world’s largest university-partnered venture firm, investing in early-stage life science, AI & software, healthcare, and deep tech.
Richard Hall
Chairman of DC Thomson Ventures
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About DC Thomson Ventures: DC Thomson Ventures is the corporate venture arm of D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
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.
Susan McDonald
Chairman and Co-Founder of Calculus Capital
Susan McDonald, a former senior investment banker, has broad experience of company financing around the world, including 13 years of equity fund raising in the Asian capital markets. Susan co-founded Calculus Capital in 1998, a year later she co-launched the UK’s first Inland Revenue Approved Enterprise Investment Scheme Fund. Susan is one of the UK’s leading experts on smaller company private equity investment and has been a frequent contributor to CNN and other business programmes.
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About Calculus Capital: Calculus Capital creates and manages tax efficient private equity funds for individuals.
Mark Florman
Chairman of Flat World Partners
Mark is a Senior Advisor to Verdane in the UK, based in London. He has deep expertise and networks in private equity and industry, and he was formerly CEO of the British Venture Capital Association. Mark founded Maizels Westerberg & Co., one of the first independent merchant banks, and has since founded a number of businesses in the technology, advisory, financial services and investment sectors. He was Managing Director of the private equity firm Doughty Hanson, Chair of LM Glasfiber (the global renewable energy group) and started the African venture capital firm 8 Miles LLP with Bob Geldof. Mark has been active in policy ideas and campaigns related to social mobility and poverty fighting in the UK and across the world. He is now CEO of Time Partners, advising venture capital firms and governments on growth, markets and regulation.
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About : Flat World Partners is a next generation investment advisory firm, solely focused on impact investments.
Kamil Kuthubdeen
Executive Chairman of Lemon Holdings Limited
Kamil Kuthubdeen is the founder and chairman of Lemon Holdings. Lemon Holdings a Venture Capital firm based in London, UK. Lemon Holdings UK invests in early stage technology startup companies, offering base level support and partnership opportunities.
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About : Venture Capital Firm based in London, UK
