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 CEO’ operating in the E-Learning 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.
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
Alex Klein
Co-Founder and CEO of Kano
Alex Kleinis Co-Founder and CEO at Kano Computing.
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About Kano: Kano provides a system of kits and coding platform that enables users to develop apps, games, and music.
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.
Tom Hooper
Founder and CEO of Third Space Learning
Matr is Tom’s second venture in education technology. In 2009 he founded BrightSpark, an online teaching business he sold to TES in 2012. He graduated with an MA in Philosophy and Politics from the University of Edinburgh, then worked in investment from 2003-9, when his start-up career began.
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About Third Space Learning: Third Space aims to help every student access great quality online tuition to help them succeed in, and love, their learning
Bertie Hubbard
Co-Founder and CEO of MyTutor
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About MyTutor: MyTutor offers affordable 1-to-1 tutorials online by connecting tutors from the UK’s best unis with pupils at home and in schools
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.
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.
Sokratis Papafloratos
CEO of Numan
Sokratis Papafloratos works as a Founder and CEO at Togethera. Previously CEO & co-founder of TrustedPlaces, acquired by Yell Group in 2010. Engineering degree from York University.
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About Numan, TrustedPlaces: Numan: Helping Your Health Wherever We Can
Dave Sherwood
Co-Founder & CEO of BibliU
Dave Sherwood co-founder and CEO of Bibliotech, a core etextbooks platform that provides academic libraries and students with unlimited access. He is the co-founder and Chairman of Teach Learn Grow Inc. Dave earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Western Straya, coming to Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship shortly afterwards. Dave dropped out to found Bibliotech.
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About BibliU: An EdTech innovator, BibliU’s platform enables colleges and universities with digital content management, automation, and analytics.
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.
Leon Mueller
Co-Founder & CEO of PLAYBOOK
Leon Mueller is the Co-Founder and CEO at Bloom.
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About PLAYBOOK: Mobile Video Micro-Learning for professional education
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.
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.
Damian Kimmelman
Founder and CEO of Batelle
Founder of Batelle, Co-founder of Founders Pledge, Rho.co and DueDil
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About Batelle, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL): Batelle is a modern childcare company that uses high-tech solutions to support mental, emotional, and physical development.
John Yeo
Co-Founder & CEO of Codebashing
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About Codebashing: Codebashing | Train, Refresh and Validate your development teams’ Application Security knowledge using our cloud-based e-learning platform.
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
Nelson Sivalingam
Founder and CEO of HowNow
Nelson Sivalingam is the Founder and CEO of One Minute City and the co-founder of award-winning production company Barking Mad.
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About HowNow, Wonderush: HowNow is a London-based EdTech startup that connects experts and learners by offering interactive video lessons.
Duncan Cheatle
Founder/CEO of Learn Amp
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About Founders Pledge, Learn Amp, Rise To, Supper Club: Learn Amp is an online learning and performance management platform.
Guy Riese
Founder & CEO of Up Learn
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About Up Learn: Up Learn is an online education platform.
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.
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.
Joachim Horn
Founder & CEO of SAM Labs
Joachim Horn is a Founder at Sam Labs.
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About SAM Labs: SAM Labs is an edtech company that empowers teachers with the most engaging STEAM solution.
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.
Ivy Cavendish
CEO & Co-Founder of The Science Writing Revolution
Ivy Cavendish is the CEO and co-founder of The Science Writing Revolution.
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About The Science Writing Revolution: The Science Writing Revolution is an academic-led initiative to revolutionize scientific writing.
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.
Sophie Rochester
CEO and Founder of Yodomo | Making Made Easy
Founder of Yodomo, the creative experience platform. Improving wellbeing and supporting sustainability through making. Sophie is a digital content specialist with over 20 years experience across the digital and publishing sectors. She has worked at Random House. 4th Estate and Good Technology, and consulted for Pan Macmillan, Hachette, Penguin Random House, Nesta, British Council and Royal Society of Literature. Listed as one of the Top 10 Creative Entrepreneurs in the UK by the British Council and in the UK’s Top 100 ‘most influential and innovative’ in the Guardian Professional’s hClub 100 list, Sophie has global contacts across publishing and technology and has also consulted on a large number of digital publishing start-ups through her award-winning company The Literary Platform. In 2015, The Literary Platform was listed as #10 on the Fortuna 50 list of the UK’s fastest-growing women-led small businesses. Sophie has successfully raised funding through Arts Council England, National Lottery, Bath Spa University, Queensland University of Technology and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation for a number of digital content initiatives. She has spoken about the future of digital content at UNESCO Paris, Editech Milan, MIX Conference (Opening Keynote), Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, O’Reilly’s Tools of Change New York, London Book Fair, Bologna Book Fair and UKTI / British Council ‘Crossing the River’ digital conferences across Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. A keen maker herself, she lives in the heart of London’s designer maker community and understands the community that is Yodomo’s marketplace. Her professional network gives her access to the right tutors, businesses, brands – and staff – to bring to the Yodomo platform.
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About Meaningful Business, Yodomo | Making Made Easy: The Marketplace for Making. Discover online courses, live workshops and kits from our artists and makers.
Ivan Kavalerov
CEO of Neo AI
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About Neo AI: Neo AI develops a technology that makes using machine learning cheaper and faster, enabling new applications around different industries.
Ben Muzzell
Co-founder and CEO of Looop Online Limited
Ben Muzzell is the Co-Founder and CEO at Looop Online Limited.
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About Looop Online Limited: Looop LMS — guaranteed performance at the speed, scale, and quality your business needs.
Jon Smith
Co-Founder & CEO of Pobble
Jon Smith is a Co-Founder & CEO at LendMeYourLiteracy.
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About Pobble: Pobble is the platform to find the best teaching resources, give pupils a global audience for their work, and to assess writing.
Ameen Jan
CEO, Founder of EDeQUAL
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About EDeQUAL: Focused on providing students and schools with international standard education in a blended learning classroom.
Ritchie Mehta
CEO of School of Marketing
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About School of Marketing, The Marketing Academy: School of Marketing offers digital courses in marketing that inspire and educates marketing leaders.
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.
Kathryn Knight
CEO of Tido Music
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About Tido Music: Creator of the Tido Music app, an inspirational resource and learning tool for pianists and singers of all abilities.
Kathryn Knight
CEO of Tido Music
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About Tido Music: Creator of the Tido Music app, an inspirational resource and learning tool for pianists and singers of all abilities.
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.
