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 CFO’ operating in the Information Technology space. If you think a CFO’ 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.
Paul Smolinski
Chief Financial Officer of Forterro
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About Forterro: Forterro is a federation of ERP product companies serving mid-market companies with local software around the globe.
Moran Laufer
CFO of Kape Technologies
CFO at Crossrider
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About Kape Technologies: Kape Technologies is an online distribution and digital product hub.
Erin Cummins
Chief Financial Officer of Thoughtworks
She is the Chief Financial Officer at Thoughtworks.
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About Thoughtworks: Thoughtworks is a community of passionate individuals whose purpose is to revolutionize software design, creation, and delivery.
James Dawes
Chief Financial Officer of 3i Group
James is Chief Financial Officer for 3i Group’s Infrastructure business and joined in January 2016. He manages all of the operational, financial and reporting requirements for the Infrastructure business line within 3i Group, as well as performing CFO duties for 3i Infrastructure plc. Prior to joining 3i, James was with Legal & General Investment Management where he held a number of senior finance roles, including Finance Director of LGV Capital from 2007 to 2015. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and a Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.
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About 3i Group: 3i is an international investment manager focused on mid-market Private Equity, Infrastructure & Debt Management.
Courtney Grant
CFO of Kalo
Courtney became Kalo’s first angel investor in 2014 before joining the team as CFO in 2016. Before diving into the startup world, he spent his career in finance with a variety of corporate finance roles at leading North American and European investment banks.
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About Kalo: Kalo provides an online platform that enables businesses to manage their external workforces.
Paula Wada
CFO of Baby2Body
Coming from New York to London in 2013, Paula has many years of experience in investment consulting – and her prowess in financials, spreadsheets and keeping us on point is her specialty. Paula is a passionate fan of dynamic Pilates, spinning, Kobe Bryant, and she is possibly the most unusual Millwall supporter.
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About Baby2Body: Baby2Body is a fully automated health, fitness and wellbeing coaching platform for pregnant women and mothers.
Edvar Heylen
CFO of HeyJobs
After spending almost a decade in investment banking covering the media and technology space both at Citigroup and Allen & Company, Edvar now leads ROLI’s finance and business analytics team. While he is not studying business models, new innovative technologies or history, he can be found on his bicycle exploring new roads.
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About HeyJobs: HeyJobs is a talent platform matching the world’s talent to opportunities.
Nick Pointon
Chief Financial Officer of Arqit Limited
Nick Pointon is the Chief Financial Officer at Arqit.
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About Arqit Limited: Arqit develops a quantum encryption platform.
Rochelle Trup
Founder, CFO of Arthur Online
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About Arthur Online: Arthur simplifies property management, anywhere , anytime.
Prakash Shah
CFO of Trafi
CFO – An entrepreneurial ACA/CFA trained management professional, with strong analytical and strategic planning capability. I am experienced in financial management, strategy and fundraising. I am currently the owner and CEO of Fully Financial Ltd (www.fullyfinancial.com), co-owner and CFO/COO of Fun-Keys4Kids (www.fun-keys4kids.com), and CFO of Trafi (www.trafi.com)
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About Pivigo, Trafi: Trafi is a mobility-as-a-service platform for shared transportation solutions, helping cities and corporates to reach their goals.
Dirk Bernhardt
CFO of spaceOS
Dirk Bernhardt is the Chief Financial Officer at spaceOS.
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About spaceOS: SpaceOS is the most beautiful and easy to use tenant experience and management software on the market.
Mike McLaren
Chief Financial Officer of FDM Group
Mike is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and has been Chief Financial Officer at FDM since April 2011. Prior to joining FDM, Mike fulfilled the roles of Group Finance Director and Chief Operating Officer in a premium listed business in the Software and Services sector. In addition Mike has been an Independent non-executive chairman and non-executive director on the boards of a number of other companies. Overall Mike has more than thirty years’ experience of working within the technology sector in a range of senior roles. Mike has no external appointments.
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About FDM Group: FDM Group is a professional services provider with a focus on IT and business recruitment for graduates and veterans.
Stacey Edwards
COO, CFO & Director of Ad-Lib.io
Stacey Edwards is the COO, CFO and Director at Ad-Lib.io.
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About Ad-Lib.io: Powering Creative Effectiveness
Nigel Fairhurst
CFO of Claranet
Nigel Fairhurst has a vast range of experience working as commercial Finance Director for a wide variety of organisations, ranging from partnerships to PLCs. He has over ten years of European experience, working in Paris for 3 years for M&S and as European Financial Director for Donaldsons and DTZ. His experience also includes roles at PwC – Coopers & Lybrand in Audit and Systems – where he qualified as a chartered accountant; and the William Reed Group as Finance Director of the main publishing company, and then as Group IT Director. With his background and experience, Nigel has a solid understanding of IT and systems as well as the issues of operating, controlling and reporting across a range of countries. He has proved a catalyst for change management within the finance arena, and has worked with different senior management teams on successfully moving businesses forward. Nigel joined Claranet in April 2010.
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About Claranet: Claranet is an expert in modernising and running critical applications and infrastructure.
Nathan Runnicles
CFO of QA Ltd
Nathan joined QA from Tes Global where he was CFO, responsible for group finance, legal and corporate development. Before that, he was CFO at Research Now Group Inc., and EMEA Finance Director for WPP Group plc, following the acquisition of Cordiant Communications Group plc, where he led the corporate finance and investor relations from 2001 – 2003. A chartered accountant, Nathan qualified with PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1998. Nathan studied at University of Bristol, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Accounting.
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About QA Ltd: QA is the UK’s leading training company, providing the complete range of training, talent development and learning services.
Jean-Philippe Lecourt
CFO & Co-founder of Datamaran
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About Datamaran: Datamaran is one of the world’s most sophisticated and powerful semantic business intelligence tools.
Callum Jay
CFO & Chief Strategy Officer of Green Man Gaming
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About Green Man Gaming: Green Man Gaming is a global pure play e-commerce and technology business in the video games industry.
David Kenyon
CFO of Kambi
David qualified at KPMG and joined Unibet in 2002 as Group FC where he worked on the Unibet NASDAQ OMX Stockholm listing. He then spent two years at the Capital Pub Company plc as CFO, where he floated the Company on AIM, before moving to Kambi. David has a MA from Oxford University. David Kenyon holds 42,330 shares and 60,000 options in the Company.
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About Kambi: Kambi’s service has the power to quickly transform the financial performance of your business.
Tom Coward
CFO of Cytora
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About Cytora: Cytora is a configurable platform that enables commercial insurers to create digital workflows by digitising, evaluating and routing risks.
Christopher Jenkins
CFO of Lightvert Ltd.
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About Lightvert Ltd.: Digital Outdoor Media Technology
Ted Hailey
CFO of SafeToNet
Ted Hailey adds up and takes away. He is in finance. In 1990 he joined Fibernet as CFO and grew the company into a FTSE 250 listed telecoms company operating in 4 countries. Responsible for the IPO of Fibernet on AIM in 1996 and then the main listing in 1998. He is also quite old and quite grey.
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About SafeToNet: SafeToNet makes the digital world safer for children to explore and enjoy.
Jon Stratford
Chief Financial Officer of Smart Communications
Jon leads the financial and operational functions at Smart Communications, driving the company’s growth strategy and supporting all of its strategic and operational initiatives. Jon brings over 20 years of experience as a qualified chartered accountant, where he has led the financial, commercial, and business operations of global businesses. Before joining Smart Communications, Jon directed strategic and commercial initiatives at Xchanging plc, where he led the company’s IPO and entry into the FTSE 250. In his spare time, Jon is a windsurfer, rugby player, and an avid tri-athlete with a passion for Ironman competitions.
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About Smart Communications: Smart Communications is a privately held company that provides cloud-enabled customer communications management services.
Anand Phanse
CFO of Billon Group
Anand has been a board member and advisor to several fast growing companies. Recently he was a Partner and the Investment Director at Fjord Capital, a venture investment firm and where, among the many other investments, he successfully led the last pre-IPO round of Tesla Motors. Anand was previously selected a Global Leadership Fellow at the World Economic Forum. He is a business innovation coach for the European Commissions Horizon 2020 SME program.
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About Billon Group: Billon Group is a fintech company that provides an enterprise DLT system for accounts and transactions and targets at bank accounts.
Ben Walmsley
CFO of Skurio
Ben Walmsley serves as the Chief Financial Officer at Skurio.
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About Skurio: Skurio is a cybersecurity company that gives every organization the ability to reveal their spectrum of digital risk.
Andrew Fabian
Chief Financial Officer of 1Spatial
Andrew has significant experience in the financial services sector and is a chartered accountant and qualified corporate treasurer.
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About 1Spatial, Association of Corporate Treasurers, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales: 1Spatial provides the software solutions and services that manage the world’s largest spatial big data.
Ralph Coates
Chief Financial Officer of TSB Banking Group
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About TSB Banking Group: TSB Banking Group provides various banking products and services to personal and small business customers in the United Kingdom.
Nadim Sheikh
Chief Financial Officer of Remit One
Nadim focuses on corporate and investment operations and is the company’s CFO, bringing over 25 years Financial Services experience across the UK and Asia. Nadim has led a variety of functions at leading international banks, including financial control, financial analysis, risk management and regulatory compliance. Prior to RemitONE, Nadim’s roles have included Finance Director, Specialist Finance at Octopus Investments and CFO of RBS’s Global Restructuring Group.
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About Remit One: RemitONE is a technology and business services firm.
Steve Robertson
Chief Financial Officer of Asset Control
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About Asset Control: Asset Control provides financial data management solutions to banks, insurers, investment managers and market infrastructure firms
Steve Cunningham
Chief Financial Officer of Digiterre
Steve has over 20 years experience as a senior commercial finance professional across a range of industry sectors, including IT, leisure, motor racing, professional services, and property development in the UK, USA and Australia. Steve has significant practical and advisory experience with early stage private equity backed IT businesses, achieving trade sales to US corporations with three of them.
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About Digiterre: Digiterre is a company which provides Financial Investment Management CRM and Trading Solutions software development services.
Rob Tragen
CFO of Trade Ledger
Rob Tragen is the CFO at Trade Ledger.
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About Trade Ledger: Trade Ledger is a Business lending platform.
Adrian Allen
Chief Financial Officer of Newable
Adrian Allen With a background in design for manufacture, Adrian has been involved in R&D and commercialisation for many years, including IP management, start-ups, incubators, product development services and access to finance. Adrian currently manages a team of Innovation Advisers providing fully-funded innovation support to companies as part of the national Innovate2Succeed programme.
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About Newable: Newable provides finance, consulting, and property services for start-ups, and small and medium-sized businesses in the UK.
Archana Gupta
CFO of TestingXperts
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About TestingXperts: Next Gen QA & Software Testing Company
Archana Gupta
CFO of TestingXperts
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About TestingXperts: Next Gen QA & Software Testing Company
John Butler
Chief Financial Officer of CardEasy
John Butler is the Chief Financial Officer of CardEasy.
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About CardEasy: CardEasy offers a stable, PCI DSS compliance payments system for contact centers for both audio and digital channels.
Peter Bullivant
Chief Financial Officer of Tantalum Corporation
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About Secondmind, Tantalum Corporation: Tantalum Corporation is a company within the Connected Car and Telematics industry.
Richard Hutchinson
CFO of Phoenix Interactive Design
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About Phoenix Interactive Design: Phoenix has pioneered many of the banking industry’s most dramatic innovations,
Richard Hutchinson
CFO of Phoenix Interactive Design
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About Phoenix Interactive Design: Phoenix has pioneered many of the banking industry’s most dramatic innovations,
Bryan Wilsher
CFO of Concrete Media
Bryan Wilsher is CFO & Board Member at Concrete-Media.
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About Concrete Media: Concrete Media is a cross-team planning platform that manages projects, plans, people, and content all from one place in the cloud.
Emmet Byrne
Chief Financial Officer of Access Partnership
Emmet Byrne is the Chief Financial Officer at Access Partnership.
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About Access Partnership: Access Partnership Ltd. provides consulting services in the areas of international ICT trade, regulation, and licensing.
Nick Treston
CFO of Mobysoft
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About Mobysoft: Mobysoft is a Manchester-based company that engages providing in predictive software for social housing providers.
David Wadsworth
Chief Financial Officer & Managing Director, UK of WMC Global
David Wadsworth oversees the WMC Global Group’s strategic financial direction as he plans, manages, and reports on group finances. His more than 40 years in financial management ensure the success of the group’s entrepreneurial endeavors. David brings extensive management and business development experience as a chartered accountant, having specialized in mobile technology, marketing and media, and property companies. His expertise in managing and resourcing business development for venture capital and investment finance groups enables him to evaluate markets and identify financial and business opportunities for the WMC Global Group—supporting its continued growth. In his role as managing director, David leads his team in opening new opportunities in the United Kingdom, as well as pursuing new opportunities and markets in Europe, and manages the effective delivery of products and solutions to clients. David earned his MA in History at the University of Oxford.
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About WMC Global: Worldwide Brand and Customer Protection At Scale
Suzat Fernandes
Chief Financial Officer of Quickdesk Solutions
Experienced algorithmic trader and a digital marketing evangelist. She has myriad experience managing Software as a Service product development including in-depth target market research, competitor and strategic analysis, feature specifications, website design, wireframing and UI/UX, quality assurance. Her project management skills include planning, executing, controlling and closing the work of her development and design team to meet specific goals under strict software project deadlines.
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About MediLiVes, Quickdesk Solutions: Technology Consulting, Digital Marketing, Web & Mobile App Technologies, Blockchain, SaaS,
Adam Simon
Global Managing Director & CFO of CONTEXT
Adam joined CONTEXT in February 2013 to develop the company’s research coverage of ICT and technology. Adam is growing the CONTEXT panel of ICT retailers across Europe and, using the panel data, brings fresh thinking for exploiting new market opportunities. In June 2015 he formed a pan-European Smart Home Research Group including Smart Home Associations, retailers and manufacturers and also pioneered research into the opportunities for retailers selling technology to small businesses (“R2B”). In May 2016 he formed a specialist research group on Virtual Reality. In September 2015 he launched the 1st CONTEXT Smart Home Survey which compares consumer attitudes to Smart Home across UK, France and Germany. In January 2016 he launched the 2nd survey covering in addition Spain and Italy. These surveys have become established as an authoritative source of information and understanding of the emerging smart home market. He is the organiser and speaker at a number of conferences and summits – he chairs the CONTEXT Smart Channels Summit which takes place at DISTREE EMEA in Monaco and APAC in Singapore, the Melco Forum in Valencia and the CONTEXT Retail CEO breakfasts at IFA and CES. In these events he brings together CONTEXT technology vendors, distributors, retailers and other partners around topical issues. He is a Director of the Smart Homes & Building Association (based in the UK) and member of the Fédération Française de Domotique (French Smart Home Association) and the German based Smart Home initiative. Prior to joining CONTEXT, Adam spent his career in professional services, introducing operational best practices in large retailers across multiple market sectors. He has worked with many of the largest retailers in Europe at senior executive level. Adam is a qualified Chartered Accountant, having spent 10 years working at KPMG, and has a degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He is married with 2 daughters and a son.
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About CONTEXT: Leading the company’s efforts to offer its customers unrivalled research coverage of the IT channel landscape in Europe.
Adam Simon
Global Managing Director & CFO of CONTEXT
Adam joined CONTEXT in February 2013 to develop the company’s research coverage of ICT and technology. Adam is growing the CONTEXT panel of ICT retailers across Europe and, using the panel data, brings fresh thinking for exploiting new market opportunities. In June 2015 he formed a pan-European Smart Home Research Group including Smart Home Associations, retailers and manufacturers and also pioneered research into the opportunities for retailers selling technology to small businesses (“R2B”). In May 2016 he formed a specialist research group on Virtual Reality. In September 2015 he launched the 1st CONTEXT Smart Home Survey which compares consumer attitudes to Smart Home across UK, France and Germany. In January 2016 he launched the 2nd survey covering in addition Spain and Italy. These surveys have become established as an authoritative source of information and understanding of the emerging smart home market. He is the organiser and speaker at a number of conferences and summits – he chairs the CONTEXT Smart Channels Summit which takes place at DISTREE EMEA in Monaco and APAC in Singapore, the Melco Forum in Valencia and the CONTEXT Retail CEO breakfasts at IFA and CES. In these events he brings together CONTEXT technology vendors, distributors, retailers and other partners around topical issues. He is a Director of the Smart Homes & Building Association (based in the UK) and member of the Fédération Française de Domotique (French Smart Home Association) and the German based Smart Home initiative. Prior to joining CONTEXT, Adam spent his career in professional services, introducing operational best practices in large retailers across multiple market sectors. He has worked with many of the largest retailers in Europe at senior executive level. Adam is a qualified Chartered Accountant, having spent 10 years working at KPMG, and has a degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He is married with 2 daughters and a son.
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About CONTEXT: Leading the company’s efforts to offer its customers unrivalled research coverage of the IT channel landscape in Europe.
