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 CEO’ operating in the EdTech 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.
Bernhard Niesner
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of busuu
Bernhard Niesner is the CEO and Co-Founder of busuu – the world´s largest social network for language learning with more than 35m users. busuu provides language courses in 12 different languages combined with direct interaction with native speakers from the community. The London-based start-up received several awards and was named “Best Education Start-Up in 2011” by TechCrunch. busuu is backed by renown business angels like Martin Varsavsky and received investment from PRO-Founders Capital. Before founding busuu, Bernhard worked at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. In addition to busuu, he is Associated Professor at IE Business School in the area of online marketing. Bernhard graduated summa cum laude in International Business from the University of Vienna and holds an MBA (with honors) from IE Business School. In 2009 he was awarded “Entrepreneur of the year” in Austria.
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About busuu: busuu is a mobile app for language learning with the goal of breaking down language barriers.
Stefan Wisbauer
CEO, President, CFO, and Managing Director of Lecturio
Stefan Wisbauer is the Managing Director of U.K. Preventive Medicine and the Founder and Managing Director of iHealth, a leading UK executive prevention provider. With a decade of experience in healthcare, Stefan previously worked at the World Bank and McKinsey & Co, where he advised health insurance, medical devices and biotech companies. Stefan also worked as a consultant to the National Health Service and with private healthcare operators on Public Private Partnerships and on establishing innovative approaches to care delivery. Previous to founding iHealth, Stefan helped build CircleHealth, which build next generation private hospitals in the U.K. based on a Kaiser Permanente style model, in which clinicians are co-owners in the business. Prior to that, Stefan was Bid Manager for Nations Healthcare, which won the largest share – valued at more than £400 — of the first wave of private day surgery contracts to treat NHS patients issued by the British government under Tony Blair’s leadership. Stefan also serves on the board of the Center for NonViolent Communication, a global charity promoting innovative solutions to trauma, conflict, restorative justice and communication. Stefan holds a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, Diploma in Mathematics from University of Bonn and a ‘Part III’ in Mathematics from Cambridge University.
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About iHealth, Lecturio: The Next Generation Learning Platform for Medicine
Priya Lakhani
Founder & CEO of CENTURY Tech
Former libel barrister, Priya founded FMCG business Masala Masala in 2008 successfully launching its products into nationwide supermarket chains and independent retailers. The company’s charitable arm has provided over 1 million meals and 35,000 vaccinations to the underprivileged in India and Africa. In 2014 Priya founded CENTURY Tech, which is set to disrupt the education sector by utilising big data and data mining techniques to improve students’ learning outcomes. Priya has been a member of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills’ Entrepreneurs’ Forum, an advisory board member to several educational/skills organisations, including a founding entrepreneur of Gazelle Group Colleges. Priya was awarded Business Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009 and Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2014.
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About CENTURY Tech: CENTURY is the award-winning artificial intelligence teaching and learning platform for schools, colleges and universities.
Charles Wiles
Chief Executive Officer of Zzish
Charles is the CEO and Co-Founder of Zzish, one of Europe’s leading new education technology ventures. Zzish is currently raising a new funding round. Zzish was selected as one of the “Future 30” at the Bett show and “EdTech 20” at EdTech Europe. Our own Quizalize app was ranked as the No.1 new app for schools by preeminent US EdTech site, EdSurge, last year. 15,000 teachers from more than 100 countries have signed up to use it so far! Our mission at Zzish is to enable almost anyone to create state-of-the-art education applications that have a real impact on student achievement. We help them do this far faster, better and cheaper than ever before. Our Zzish APIs let developers add important data driven features to their education applications in hours that would take them many months to implement themselves. Our templated app builder lets teachers create rich applications without writing any code at all. More broadly, Charles is an internet and mobile technology entrepreneur and angel investor with a passion for creating and investing in deep technology businesses that have a strong social impact. As part of this Charles is a Venture Partner at Emerge Venture Lab, Europe’s leading accelerator for education technology companies and runs the monthly London based EdTech Developers meetup. As Google’s first Product Manager hired outside the United States, Charles co-led the mobile browser team in London that built the HTML5 APIs for the Android browser. Then as Managing Director at VisualDNA he reinvented the company to focus it on personalised advertising taking revenues from zero to $3m annual in just two years and helping to grow staff from 25 to 100. He’s an expert in mobile platforms, personalisation, big data and edtech. With a PhD in Computer Science and Robotics from Oxford and and an MBA from London Business School, he’s equally at home working on big data algorithms for deep learning or financial spreadsheets and strategy.
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About Zzish: Zzish is a valuable classroom digital teaching tool for teachers that provides real-time feedback on the progress of their students.
Vassili Philippov
Founder & CEO of MEL Science
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About MEL Science: MEL Science develops up to date chemistry kit subscription and VR software for learning chemistry
Euan Blair
Founder & CEO of Multiverse
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About Multiverse: Multiverse is a tech startup that matches talent who have not graduated from college with apprenticeship opportunities.
Marko Vučić
Founder & CEO of Teorem
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About Teorem: An online tutoring platform focused on making high quality education available to anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Joshua Wohle
CEO & Co-Founder of Mindstone
Joshua Wohle is the CEO and Co-Founder of Mindstone. In 2013, when Joshua co-founded SuperAwesome — a digital media ecosystem designed for children.
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About Emerge Education, Mindstone: Organise, share and take notes on web pages, PDFs, videos & podcasts so you can learn faster, remember more and get things done.
David Bainbridge
Founder & CEO of boclips
David has deep experience in marketing and sales within corporates and bringing new media products to market. Prior to Knowledgemotion, David was the CEO of Elvis Communications, the Launch CMO for Intel’s IPTV offering in the US and was responsible for bringing the BBC iPlayer to market in the UK. He has sat on the Executive Boards of Freeview and Digital UK and was part of the original Channel 5 launch team. Knowledgemotion is his second start-up after successfully launching and exiting an interactive TV business in 2005. David has a BA in American Studies from Manchester University.
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About boclips: boclips is an online platform that enables its users to find, watch, and learn through educational video clips.
Diego Fanara
Co-Founder and CEO of Unibuddy
Diego Fanara is the co-founder and CEO of Unibuddy.
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About Unibuddy: Unibuddy helping universities and students to attract, engage and convert prospects through peer interactions.
Rajeeb Dey
Founder & CEO of Learnerbly
Rajeeb Dey joined Learnerbly as Founder & CEO in 2016.
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About Learnerbly: Learnerbly is a Learning Development Platform.
Akif Yaldir
Founder, CEO of Case Future
I have strong experience in developing successful products and managing effective teams. My core strengths are fast-learning and following an output-oriented approach mainly for mobile products.
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About Case Future: Work on what you love! Find what you can learn easily with better efficiency, learn on mobile and grow your future.
Riaz moola
Founder & CEO of CoGrammar
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About CoGrammar, HyperionDev: CoGrammar scales human mentorship and code review 10 times more affordably.
Toby Mather
Co-founder,CEO of Lingumi
Toby is an English teacher and education technologist. He studied languages at Oxford before becoming an English teacher for children abroad.
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About Lingumi: Lingumi is an edtech startup that teaches English to kids aged 2 to 6 using an app and a range of physical products.
Justin Hsu
CEO / Founder of MarcoPolo Learning
Justin Hsu is one of the founders of Marco Polo Learning.
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About MarcoPolo Learning: MarcoPolo Learning is an award-winning digital curriculum developer for early learners.
Xavier Louis
Co-founder & CEO of Peak
Xavier is a former social gaming specialist (Playfish / Electronic Arts) turned into mobile product entrepreneur. Xavier recently started brainbow, building the #1 social mobile knowledge games – helping people to get smarter through games.
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About Peak: Peak’s mission is to help the world spend their time better using tools and technique borrowed from education, neuroscience and gaming.
Jesse Lozano
Co-Founder & CEO of Pi-Top
Jesse Lozano is CEO and co-founder of pi-top. Since launching in 2014, with Ryan Dunwoody, pi-top has grown into a world leading maker platform built for students and teachers across the world. pi-top has now released their 3rd generation device and is used by over 2,000 schools and Code Clubs world wide. pi-top’s purpose is to give every learner the opportunity to be inspired by STEAM education.
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About Pi-Top: Pi-Top is a creative learning company and their mission is to inspire a generation of makers, fixers & problem solvers.
Ben Drury
Co-Founder and CEO of Yoto
Ben began his career in 1996 as a founder of dotmusic.com, an internal venture at United News and Media which attracted over 1.8m unique users per month (in 1999). In 2000 Ben was recruited by BT Group to head up the broadband music efforts at their ISP BT Openworld where he successfully launched a major music channel. Following the partnership between BT and Yahoo! to form BT Yahoo! in 2003, Ben engineered the sale of dotmusic to Yahoo! for approx. £3.3m. Ben then founded 7digital with James Kane in 2004 with the vision of creating a digital media marketplace. 7digital operates services that bring together suppliers and consumers of digital media. In September 2008 7digital.com was the first company in Europe to launch DRM-free MP3 downloads with all four major record labels. In September 2009 HMV Group acquired a 50% equity stake in 7digital with an investment of £7.7m. Ben was named by Growing Business magazine as a Young Gun 2006 – the award for leading entrepreneurs under 35. In 2007, 7digital was awarded the prestigious Red Herring Top 100 Europe Award as one of the most promising technology companies in Europe.
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About Pimoroni, Yoto: Yoto – The screen-free audio platform for kids.
Adetunji Adegbesan
Founder/CEO of Gidi Mobile
Dr Adetunji Adegbesan is the Founder & CEO of Gidi Mobile, creators of gidimo, Africa’s leading curriculum mastery & learning-as-a-service platform. Tunji has a First Class Honours degree in Electronic Engineering, and a PhD in Strategic Management from the IESE Business School. He is globally respected as one of Africa’s top scholars of competitive strategy, as well as one of her leading experts on the mobile telecommunications industry. A recipient of multiple awards, he has been invited to speak at knowledge events in more than 20 countries across four continents. Immediately prior to founding Gidi Mobile, he was Director of the Centre for Competitiveness & Strategy at the Lagos Business School (LBS), where he led sessions on Competitive Strategy, as well as on issues arising out of the intersection of Strategy, Technology, and Innovation. During his 14 years at LBS, his consulting experience spanned the software, telecommunications, banking, oil and gas, publishing, logistics, identity management and electronic payments sectors; while prior to LBS, his work experience spanned software development, consulting, information systems management, and electrical engineering, in both manufacturing and service sectors. Tunji is a member of the Editorial Review Board of the Academy of Management Review, the world’s leading conceptual journal in the field of strategic management. He is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Businessday Newspapers (West Africa’s premier business periodical), and a peer reviewer for several of the world’s top strategy research journals. He is a past member of the Executive Committee of the Strategy Division of the global Academy of Management, as well as a past Global Representative for Africa of the Division. He has also been a Representative-at-Large for the Competitive Strategy Interest Group of the Strategic Management Society, and a member of the Research and Strategic Planning Committee of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. He is a past Visiting Scholar & Associate Researcher at the Center for Globalisation and Strategy at the IESE Business School in Barcelona. An amateur historian, philosopher, and student of culture and geo-political affairs, Tunji has native fluency in English and Spanish, and basic literacy in French, Yoruba and Catalan.
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About Gidi Mobile: Gidi Mobile is the creator of gidimo, the developing world’s leading personal mastery & learning-for-opportunity platform
Brett Shanley
CEO & Founder of Knoma
Brett is the Founder and CEO of Knoma, the Knowledge Market, offering a payment solution and marketplace for lifelong learning. He passionate about equipping people for the future of work and providing sound financial options.
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About Knoma: Knoma offers a payment solution and marketplace for lifelong learning.
Mash Seriki
CEO of Healthcare Learning
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About Healthcare Learning: HLC is an integrated learning provider offering cutting-edge learning solutions predominantly in the dental market.
Steve Dineen
Founder, Chief Storyteller & CEO of Fuse Universal
Founder and President of Fuse Universal.
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About Fuse Universal: The Fuse learning platform connects people with the knowledge and expertise they need to improve their skills and perform.
Naimish Gohil
CEO & Founder of Team Satchel
Naimish Gohil is Founder & CEO at Show my Homework.
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About Team Satchel: Team Satchel develops a range of school software focusing on homework, behavior, classroom management, and teaching resources.
Ahmed Dica
CEO of Examinotes
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About Examinotes: Edtech
Dean Jacobs
CEO & Founder of Wibbu
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About University of East London, Wibbu: Wibbu is an award-winning education-entertainment studio specialising in engaging language-learning tools for the classroom.
Nicholas Rowley
Chief Executive Officer of Drive iQ
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About a2om international, Drive iQ, DriverMetrics: Drive iQ is an online coaching program in the field of driving.
Bethany Koby
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Technology Will Save Us
Bethany is a mom, CEO, designer, educator and art director interested in creating brands, businesses and experiences that help imagining a more positive and collaborative future. Bethany has been selected as one of the Designer’s that Matter by Wired Magazine, one of the Top 50 Creative Leaders by Creative Review and has spoken at TED Kids, Resonate and Maker Faire, to name a few.
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About Technology Will Save Us: Technology Will Save Us is a technology startup that offers DIY gadget kits, activities, and online resources for children.
Christophe Mallet
CEO & Co-Founder of Bodyswaps
Innovation Strategist with 10 years experience across social media, digital and immersive technologies (VR/AR). Chris got his Masters from HEC and started his career as Employee #1 (Head of Strategy) of social consultancy Carve that later got sold to a large advertising group. After co-founding Immersive Tech agency Somewhere Else with Julien and running it for over 3 years, Christophe co-founded BODYSWAPS with one mission: unlock human potential in the workplace with the help of immersive technologies. Christophe is an industry thought leader, international speaker and regular podcaster on VR and learning. He has recently delivered talks for the International Labor Organisation, the European Training Foundation and the European Immersive Computing Summit.
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About Bodyswaps: Bodyswaps is a B2B immersive learning platform (VR SaaS) designed to deliver effective and scalable soft skills training.
Igor Cenar
CEO of JollyDeck
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About JollyDeck: Great e-learning for your people. Better analytics for your business.
Phillip Snalune
CEO & Co-founder of Codio
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About Codio: The evidence-based learning platform for Computer Science & tech skills education.
Norbert Morawetz
CEO of Potential.ly
Norbert is founder and CEO of lifelong learning platform Potential.ly, which is used at 50+ institutions to develop professional competences, employability and career readiness. Potential.ly is supported by the Young Foundation for its social impact on widening participation, diversity and inclusion. Norbert also designed and launched open educational resource team-match.com, which helped create more cognitive diverse learning teams at 100+ universities and was selected and has been awarded by the highly prestigious wayra.org tech accelerator programme. Norbert is als Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Learning at Henley Business School, where he leads flagship modules in entrepreneurship and digital leadership at UG, PG and MBA levels. He has extensive experience in learning and programme design, and is Programme Director for the BA in Entrepreneurship, and BA Entrepreneurship and Management. He is Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), and has been recognized for his innovative work with the UK National Enterprise Educator of the Year Award. Norbert’s research interests are at the intersection of creativity, management and technology – key drivers of entrepreneurship and learning. He has used his expertise in psychometrics to consult with o2 and YSC on situational judgement tests, and is the creator of the pi psychometric Indicator, which has been completed by 60,000+ students in the UK. Prior to joining Henley, Norbert built up and ran the UK’s largest entrepreneurship programme at the University of Hertfordshire, which received the Times Higher Entrepreneurial University of the Year Award. Norbert holds an MA in Business Administration and Economics from the Karl Franzens University Graz (Austria) with distinction, and a PhD in Creative Industries Economics from the University of Hertfordshire. Norbert started his career in radio and film production, winning Filmmaker of the Year from ScreenEast in 2012.
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About Henley Business School, Potential.ly: The smart lifelong learning platform
Lucy Stonehill
Co-Founder and CEO of BridgeU
Lucy grew up in the UK and the USA, and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Dartmouth College, where she studied Literature and Psychology. Upon graduation, Lucy worked for the law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, before leaving to launch her first business, an educational consulting firm tailored to the unique needs of international students and schools. In 2013, Lucy founded BridgeU to focus on the next challenge – fixing the broken transition between secondary and higher education. Lucy has been labelled an ‘Entrepreneur Role Model’ by the European Commission, and won Techpreneur of the Year in a 2015 at a ceremony hosted at the House of Commons celebrating leading female entrepreneurs. In 2016, Lucy was selected by Forbes as a ‘Top 30 under 30” European technology innovator.
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About BridgeU: BridgeU provides a market leading guidance platform that connects universities with international schools in 130 countries.
Douglas Lloyd
CEO & Co-Founder of Macademia
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About Macademia: Macademia is an award-winning global EdTech company providing educational programming and games for children.
Simon Hay
Co Founder & CEO of Firefly Learning
Simon Hay is the Co-founder and CEO at Firefly.
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About Firefly Learning: Firefly Learning is an edtech company that develops a SaaS learning and teaching support platform for schools.
Mark McCourt
Founder & CEO of La Salle Education
Mark McCourt has been at the centre of mathematics education improvement for over a decade. He founded La Salle as a company completely focussed on helping maths teachers to continue to improve.
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About La Salle Education: La Salle Education is a UK based company dedicated to improving mathematics education.
Fadoua Saadi
Founder and CEO of PrivateTuitionOnline.Com
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About PrivateTuitionOnline.Com: PrivateTuitionOnline.Com offers tutoring subscription service that live tutoring affordable and productive through our internet classrooms.
Ben Caulfield
CEO and Co-Founder of Eedi
Ben Caulfield is the CEO and Co-Founder of Eedi.
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About Eedi: Eedi develops digital and physical products that ensure that every learner has access to great teaching and learning.
Georgios Papadakis
Founder and CEO of Filisia
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About Filisia: Filisia is an edtech company that builds accessible IoT devices, iPad applications and machine learning tools for learning and therapy.
