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 Founder operating in the Automotive space. If you think a Founder 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.
Alexander Edward Chesterman
Founder & CEO of Cazoo
Alex Chesterman is the founder and CEO of Cazoo. He was the Founder & CEO of ZPG Plc, a FTSE-250 listed company. Previously Alex co-founded Lovefilm, Europe’s leading digital movie rental business, which was successfully sold to Amazon. Alex is also one of the UK’s most active tech angel investors having backed dozens of early stage digital startups and was awarded an OBE for services to services to digital entrepreneurship in 2016.
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About Cazoo, Zoopla Property Group Plc (ZPG): Cazoo is an online used car marketplace designed to transform the way people buy, finance, or rent used cars.
Erik Fairbairn
Founder & CEO of Pod Point
Erik founded POD Point in 2009, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. he saw the potential of electric vehicles as the next major mode of transportation and set himself the goal of wiring up the UK with charge points to facilitate the switch to EV from internal combustion engines. Fairbairn is also a member of the UK Automotive Council Technology Group and YPO (Young President’s Organisation) and featured on the 35th episode of their podcast.
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About Pod Point: We’re building the infrastructure needed for the mass adoption of electric vehicles in the UK & Europe.
Alex Buttle
Co-Founder, Marketing Director of Motorway
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About Motorway: Motorway is an online used-car marketplace for professional car dealers that sells their cars using their smartphones.
Harry Jones
Co-Founder & CPO of Motorway
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About Motorway: Motorway is an online used-car marketplace for professional car dealers that sells their cars using their smartphones.
Tom Leathes
Co-Founder & CEO of Motorway
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About Motorway: Motorway is an online used-car marketplace for professional car dealers that sells their cars using their smartphones.
James Hind
Founder & CEO of Carwow
James is the big boss of carwow, so it’s hardly a surprise that cars are one of his biggest passions.He studied Finance but was put off a city career after just 2 months of trying one. He’s very competitive, especially when it comes to ping pong at the office. He invented the rule that if anyone loses a game 11-0 they have to buy donuts for the entire team!
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About Carwow: Carwow is a company that helps efficiently connect car buyers to car dealers.
Alexandra Margolis
Co-Founder/Creative Director of Carwow
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About Carwow: Carwow is a company that helps efficiently connect car buyers to car dealers.
David Santoro
CTO / Co-Founder of Carwow
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About Carwow: Carwow is a company that helps efficiently connect car buyers to car dealers.
Dan Hubert
CEO & Founder of AppyWay
Dan initially founded AppyParking after experiencing first-hand the pain of parking caused by a fragmented and broken market when trying to park near the Royal Albert Hall for a concert. From this was born the AppyParking mobile app, but more questions quickly arose… What if we could digitise parking spaces? And not just spaces – but all of the UK’s kerbs? What opportunities would that unlock? How could a digitised, dynamic kerb not only meet the ever-growing demands of urban transport today – but shape that of tomorrow? From that lightbulb moment onwards, Dan was hooked and with AppyWay, he’s leading the charge to help cities thrive, from the kerb up.
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About AppyWay: AppyWay is a kerbside management & technology firm enabling intelligent mobility for cities.
Romain Saint Guilhem
Co-Founder and COO of Zebra Fuel
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About Altacasa, Zebra Fuel: Zebra Fuel is a mobile fuel delivery service that delivers fuel into a vehicle directly at a preferred delivery time.
Reda Bennis
Co-Founder and CEO of Zebra Fuel
Reda Bennis (@reda_zebra) is the CEO & Co-Founder @ Zebra Fuel
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About Inside Capital, Zebra Fuel: Zebra Fuel is a mobile fuel delivery service that delivers fuel into a vehicle directly at a preferred delivery time.
Cassandra Harris
Founder of Venturespring
Founder at Venturespring
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About Venturespring: A digital transformation firm and early growth venture capital fund that match makes corporates with game changing startups.
Pasi William Sachiti
Founder & CEO of Academy of Robotics
William Sachiti is a UK based serial entrepreneur best known for creating a UK driverless car manufacture company competing with multinational incumbents such as Google, Uber and Tesla. The company designs and builds the autonomous vehicles in their UK warehouse. William has started and exited three previous tech start-ups in row, the latest MyCityVenue, an A.I. driven experiences platform serving 1.6 million users was acquired in 2015 by Secret Escapes. Before MyCityVenue, William was the the BBC Investment program Dragons Den, where he pitched a start-up, digital outdoor advertising on bins. The Dragons famously said he needs to be wheeled out of the bin. The company he pitched subsequently was licensed in several countries before being acquired. One of William’s first start-ups he started at 19, was called 123-registration. This company was also acquired for an undisclosed amount.
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About Academy of Robotics: The Academy of Robotics is a technology institute with an extraordinary technical team of engineers, scientists, and researchers.
Antton Peña
Founder and CPO of Flock Ltd.
Antton Pena is the Founder of Flock, a London-based drone insurtech company which has partnered with Allianz to pioneer the future of Big-Data driven insurance.
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About Flock Ltd.: London-based insurtech building the world’s first fully digital insurance company for connected and autonomous commercial vehicles
Alistair Preston
Co-Founder of Who Can Fix My Car
Alistair Preston is Co-Founder at Who Can Fix My Car.
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About Who Can Fix My Car: Who Can Fix My Car is an online car repair and servicing marketplace enabling users to obtain quotations from garages.
Bola Adegbulu
Co-Founder and CEO of Predina Tech
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About Predina Tech: Building the Location Risk Intelligence platform for the future of Auto Insurance and Mobility
Philip Ellis
Co-Founder ,CEO & COO of Beryl
Phil is here to make sure that it happens. Phil approaches cycling with the same ripped down simplicity he does most outdoor pursuits, look good and go fast. In his case one or the other is usually achieved but rarely both. With a law degree, accountancy qualifications and consulting experience, Phil brings a triple threat of legal, financial and operational experience to Blaze.
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About Beryl: The UK’s leading micromobility company
Emily Brooke
Founder of Beryl
Emily is the Founder of Beryl, the UK’s leading micromobility company. Beryl sell their micromobilty operating system to leading transport operators (Eg. London’s Santander Cycles) and operate their own bike, e-bike and e-scooter systems. Currently in 6 UK cities, with an exclusive contract for New York, they typically operate under exclusive, funded and long-term contracts. Beryl designed and built their micromobility system in-house (on-bike IoT, proprietary backend operating technology stack, on-street operations etc) which allows them to tailor their offering to a city’s needs and become their fully-integrated, long-term, micromobility partner, as well as partnering with other technology operators to sell their technology and platform in markets they are not yet in. Beryl began as Emily’s final year university project in 2011, she founded the business a year later with the sole purpose; ‘to build a better world by getting more people in cities on bikes.’ Beryl started with a range of consumer cycling products and were first known for their Laserlight safety innovation; a front bike light with a green laser projecting the symbol of a cyclist ahead of the bike. This was later adopted by all of the 12,000 Santander Cycles in London, and Beryl then went on to provide the London Bike Share Scheme with all on-bike technology and supporting asset tracking software. Beryl are the only micromobility company that is a certified BCorp. Emily has won numerous awards, including the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman New Gen Award and the Everywoman Woman of the Year, Bloomberg Innovator and in 2017 she was awarded an MBE from the Queen for her contributions to Transport and the Economy.
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About Beryl: The UK’s leading micromobility company
Ming Kong
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TG0
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About TG0: TG0 is an R&D start-up creating novel 3D controls.
Khizarr K
Co-Founder of ONLICAR
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About ONLICAR: They use Formula1 techniques to deliver scalable solutions that create actionable value for our customers.
Eliott Wertheimer
Founder of FuroSystems
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About FuroSystems: We are the direct to consumer brand for elegant, practical and high performance electric vehicles.
Albert Nassar
Founder of FuroSystems
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About FuroSystems: We are the direct to consumer brand for elegant, practical and high performance electric vehicles.
David Brebner
Co-Founder, CFO of Mobials
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About 519 Growth Fund, Cyber Legends, Mobials: Mobials is a customer service software company located in London.
Andrius Balkunas
CEO & Founder of ParcelABC
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About ParcelABC: ParcelABC is a logistics company that unites thousands of local and international delivery companies.
Yodit Stanton
Founder and CEO of OpenSensors
Software and Data engineer working to helping people understand their physical space. Currently growing OpenSensors. OpenSensors aggregates data from a variety of sensors for the next generation of smart Building Management Systems. Our dashboards help you make the most effective use of your office space. With experience in helping more than 100 companies to combine data from new workplace sensors seamlessly, interoperating it with existing and familiar mobile and desktop systems, we aim to give you a fully comprehensive overview.
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About OpenSensors: OpenSensors is an internet of things company that builds a connected world that puts people first.
Raunaq Bose
CTO, Co-Founder of Humanising Autonomy
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About Humanising Autonomy: Humanising Autonomy is building the global standard for human machine interactions.
Maya Pindeus
Co-Founder, CEO of Humanising Autonomy
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About Humanising Autonomy: Humanising Autonomy is building the global standard for human machine interactions.
Leslie Nooteboom
Chief Product Officer, Co-Founder of Humanising Autonomy
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About Humanising Autonomy: Humanising Autonomy is building the global standard for human machine interactions.
Limor Schweitzer
Founder and CTO of MOV.AI
Born in the UK, lived in Italy, USA, Israel and currently in Portugal, loves all things technical, has been granted some 15 patents, accumulated 25 years experience in IT, Telecom, web and robotics, and rarely ever worked for a company he didn’t own. Seasoned technologist entrepreneur with a passion to create startups that engage talented teams in transforming ideas into products and mind share. Born in the UK, lived in Italy, USA, Israel and currently in Portugal. Israeli Army-Intelligence, studied Physics, filed lots of patents and raised quite a bit of venture capital. Specialties Creating startups. Software development and distribution, IT services, Telecom software marketing, Internet Security, Computer Networks. Internet of Things, E-Commerce and making humanoid robots run.
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About BIND 4.0 Open Innovation and Acceleration Program, MOV.AI, RoboSavvy: We provide robotic developers with enterprise grade ROS development & run time environment (Robotics engine platform).
Guillem Singla Buxarrais
Co-Founder and CEO of Neurofenix
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About MedTech Innovator, Neurofenix: Neurofenix is aiming to make rehabilitation more autonomous, enjoyable and accessible to stroke victims.
Dimitris Athanasiou
Co-Founder and CTO of Neurofenix
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About Neurofenix: Neurofenix is aiming to make rehabilitation more autonomous, enjoyable and accessible to stroke victims.
Jonathon Valentine
Founder and CTO of ThingCo
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About ThingCo: Telematics, Cars, IoT, SaaS, Insurance, ADAS, Intelligent voice,Automotive
Arshia Gratiot
Founder and CEO of Third Space Auto
I am an innovator, strategist, product marketer, intrapreneur and advertising professional with 15+ years of multidisciplinary experience in design strategy, digital experience planning, product marketing, marketing communications and advertising in the FMCG and telecoms industry. With a career that’s spanned 5 countries, I’ve had the opportunity to work across markets and on a myriad number of products and brands. My passion lies in technology and the power it has to transform businesses and people’s lives. This is where I’ve focused the last 8 years of my professional life. I’ve launched products and services across the globe, provided strategic support for future focused innovation projects and acted as a change agent in demonstrating a more user-centered and collaborative way of working in heavily matrixed organisations. My focus has been on evangelising the customer inside the corporate environment. In the last 4 years I’ve had the opportunity to work with one of the best design teams in the technology space. I’ve gained a strong understanding of design thinking as a discipline and its application in the creation of innovative products, user experiences and value propositions. On a personal level I am passionate about developments in the digital world because it has the power to improve the quality of the physical world and help create a greener planet for our children. I started Third Space Auto because I can see the parallels between the mobile industry when the iphone dropped in 2007 and sent shock waves all around. Today next to none of the behemoths of that time have survived. The same will happen to the auto industry if there isn’t a mindset change. I want to help create it and help them navigate it too.
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About Drone Space AI., Third Space Auto: Head-quartered in London, UK with development teams in Finland and India.
Ash Ali
Co-Founder of Fare Exchange Network
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About Fare Exchange Network, Uhubs: Fare Exchange generates phone & booking leads for UK’s minicab & taxi companies
Andy Hibbert
CEO and Founder of Car & Away
An experienced senior executive of the travel sector who has led, grown and sold travel-related businesses that were private equity backed. Most recently led Reed & Mackay through 9 years of EBITDA growth +20% CAGR. Led the sale of the business from Living Bridge to ECI Partners returning 4.8x returns. Grew the business for 4 further years resulting in the sale of the business from ECI to Inflexion at 3.4x returns. Previous experience as Head of Ancillary for easyJet, Online / Commercial Director for STA Travel and a combination of Management, Commercial, Pricing, and Aircraft trading roles at British Airways.
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About Car & Away, Karshare: Car & Away offers peer-to-peer car lending and renting.
Aldo Monteforte
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of The Floow
As CEO Aldo leads the sales and business development efforts and is responsible for growing The Floow into the world leading provider of analytical insights at the service of the global automotive ecosystem. He conceived and founded The Floow in 2012, with the vision of making vehicles safer and cheaper for all. In particular Aldo saw the potential to transform the telematics industry from the convergence of mobile technologies, large scale data mining and psychology applied to driver behaviour. After a career in investment banking, in 2000 Aldo became an entrepreneur and investor in high growth telematics companies.
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About The Floow: The Floow designs the world’s most advanced and lowest-cost telematic systems to make vehicles safer and cheaper for all.
Ben Kingsbury
Founder and CTO of MicroTech Ceramics Ltd.
Ben has 8 years of experience in the fabrication of ceramic membranes and substrates for a wide range of applications and has published and presented extensively in these fields. He has been a research consultant to several major industrial partners to develop and commercialise novel ceramic products for automotive catalysis. This expertise matches perfectly with the product development stage that SSL is at, by bringing on board a unique set of skills and the analytical perspective of a PhD Engineering degree. Ben is advising mainly on membrane manufacturing methods and membrane microstructure expertise, for added value in the different application settings of the technology.
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About MicroTech Ceramics Ltd.: MicroTech Ceramics Ltd. develops novel ceramic substrates for the automotive emissions control market.
Maximillion Cooper
Founder & CEO of Gumball 3000
Maximillion Cooper is a Founder & CEO at Gumball 3000.
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About Gumball 3000: The Gumball 3000 is an annual British 3,000-mile international motor rally which takes place on public roads.
James Beddows
Founder of RideTo
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About Founders of the Future, RideTo: RideTo is the platform for learner motorcyclists.
Felix Kenton
Co-Founder of ClickMechanic
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About ClickMechanic: ClickMechanic is an online marketplace for users to find mechanics.
Andrew Jervis
Co-Founder and CEO of ClickMechanic
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About ClickMechanic: ClickMechanic is an online marketplace for users to find mechanics.
Robin North
Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Lead Technologist of Immense
Building tools to support fleets and mobility. Development, implementation, field test and evaluation of complex transport systems across multiple modes. Environmental monitoring and modelling methodologies for the appraisal of transport systems and projects. Identification and development of innovation opportunities for multiple stakeholders.
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About Immense: A global decision-support platform for new mobility
Dídac Busquets i Font
Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Immense
I am a Computer Scientist (BSc 1999, PhD 2003) specialised in Artificial Intelligence, and more concretely on agent-based simulation, task and resource allocation and self-organisation. I have worked in a wide range of domains, from robotics, to economics and justice, to transportation and logistics. I am co-founder and Chief Scientist of Immense Simulations, a software company that develops city-scale, predictive simulations to provide enhanced decision making capabilities in the mobility ecosystem. I have 15+ years of experience in research in Computer Science, specialized in Artificial Intelligence, and my main goal is to design and develop intelligent systems and infrastructures to allow people to use their resources more efficiently and in a sustainable way. I’m also interested in incorporating concepts of justice and fairness in ICT systems and infrastructures. I like to think outside the box and provide creative solutions to challenging problems. In the recent years I’ve been working on Smart Grids and Intelligent Transportation Systems, and how ICT can help people interact with them. I also co-founded Newronia (2011-present), a spinoff from Universitat de Girona, that develops software for intelligently and efficiently manage logistics resources. I’m currently acting as a board member and scientific advisor. Broadly, my main research areas are: – Intelligent Transportation Systems – Multi-agent systems – Self-adaptive and self-organising systems – Resource allocation – Computational justice – Market-mechanisms (auctions) – Robotics
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About Immense: A global decision-support platform for new mobility
Torquil Norman
Founder of OX
Torquil Norman studied law and economics at Cambridge and Harvard. He went on to work as a banker from 1957-1967), at J.P. Morgan and Company in New York and at Philip Hill, Higginson Erlanger’s in London, followed by a further five years as general manager of industrial holding company Mineral Separation Ltd. with particular responsibility for their smaller companies. From 1973, he became the chief executive of toy manufacturing company, Berwick Timpo Ltd. and, between 1980 and 1996, was executive chairman of Bluebird Toys plc, which during the years from 1980 to 1995 grew from zero to sales of almost £100m. After retiring from Bluebird Toys plc in 1996, he bought the old railway engine shed in Camden, the Roundhouse, through the Norman Trust. Over the following 11 years, in addition to its own contribution of over £7million, the Trust raised over £30 million to buy the building and its adjacent car park and refurbish the entire complex as a centre for young people from all backgrounds to work in a wide range of the arts from music and theatre to all modern media, including radio, TV production, and other skills. The Roundhouse Studios have since worked with around 40,000 young people and the Roundhouse main space has become one of London’s most popular centers for entertainment and education. After retiring from the Roundhouse, he devoted two years to writing the book “Kick the Tyres Light the Fires” about the way Britain was being governed, and should be governed. Since then he has devoted his time to the OX project with Gordon Murray.
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About OX: We deliver clean, affordable transport in emerging markets, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of economic growth and social impact.
Dave Stone
Co-Founder of Dashlabs
Dave Stone is a Co-Founder at Dashlabs.
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About Dashlabs: Dashlabs is a think tank and holding company based in London, United Kingdom.
Tauri Karson
Founder of Autolevi
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About Autolevi, Patchstack: Autolevi is a Peer to Peer car sharing platform.
Matt Lewis
Founder, CEO of Synaptiv
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About Synaptiv: Synaptiv is a connected car platform helping fleets and car makers monetise the data generated by their connected vehicles.
Adam Grist
Founder of 3Dom Wraps
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About 3Dom Wraps: 3Dom Wraps is an online platform that allows its customers to obtain quotes and book automotive aftermarket services.
Shaine Ismail
Founder of Carsift
Founder at Carsift
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About Carsift: Carsift builds advanced tools that enables the car industry to go online.
Rashide Carvalho
Founder and CEO of Whipgo
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About Whipgo: Whipgo.com is a platform where you can rent vehicles in seconds without the hassle of rental agreements and documents.
Marcin Piatkowski
Founder & CEO of JIVR
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About JIVR: JIVR is a hassle-free commuting bike, allowing you to enjoy the benefits of cycling, without any lifestyle compromises.
Ivo Dimitrov
Founder & MD of Reputize
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About Reputize: Reputize is a leading end-to-end Online Hotel Reputation Management platform.
Oliver Morgan
Founder & Managing Director of Universal Fuels
Oliver Morgan is a Founder & Managing Director at Universal Fuels.
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About Universal Fuels: Universal Fuels supplies heating oil, gas oil, marine gas oil, kerosene, DERV, diesel, and red diesel in the U.K.
Oliver Morgan
Founder & Managing Director of Universal Fuels
Oliver Morgan is a Founder & Managing Director at Universal Fuels.
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About Universal Fuels: Universal Fuels supplies heating oil, gas oil, marine gas oil, kerosene, DERV, diesel, and red diesel in the U.K.
Ali Samizadeh
Co-Founder of Carcodeal
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About Carcodeal: Carcodeal delivers instant and free national online valuation service for your vehicle.
