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 Managing Partner operating in the E-Commerce space. If you think a Managing Partner 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.
Alan Vaksman
Founder and Managing Partner of Digital Horizon
Alan is the Managing Partner and co-founder of VC and Venture Builder, Digital Horizon. He is also Director at a number of fintech startups including YesGrowth, SteadyPay and ANNA Money UK.
Alan has over 20 years’ experience in the financial sector, having held senior roles at international banks and leading consulting companies in South Africa and Europe including PWC, KPMG, Goldman Sachs and First National Bank. He has lived and worked in numerous countries around the world, and this experience has made Alan a passionate advocate for immigrant-led businesses.
Alan is also a successful startup co-founder. Since founding Digital Horizon, Alan has built and exited Factorin, a blockchain trade finance platform digitizing processes across buyers, sellers, and banks and Aximetria, a Swiss crypto financial services provider. His experience also includes investing in Monday (IPO), Lemonade (IPO), Market Kurly, Carta, Relativity Space and others.
Alan has an economics and psychology bachelor’s degree, a postgraduate law degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and an MBA degree from NYU Stern School of business (USA), LSE (UK), HSE (France) under TRIUM eMBA program.
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About Digital Horizon: Digital Horizon is a next generation venture capital firm headquartered in London.
Digital Horizon has substituted the traditional approach to venture capital investment for its ‘new age’ methodology, which accelerates return on investment at every stage, minimizes risk and maximizes profitability. Digital Horizon supports and empowers passionate founders, especially migratory and diverse talents, who are creating enduring and meaningful start-ups.
Digital Horizon manages two multistage funds, a growth fund and a venture builder, and predominantly focuses on the fintech and enterprise software sectors. Its funds have invested in a portfolio of successful start-ups including Klarna, Lemonade, Monday.com, Ably, and Bolt.
Digital Horizon was founded in 2018 by Alan Vaksman, a venture capitalist and banker with over 20 years of experience in UK, Europe, and Africa. It now employs almost 100 specialists with expertise in VC, IT and product development.
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Spyro Korsanos
Founder & Managing Partner of Fuse Venture Partners
An award-winning corporate advisor, investor and dealmaker, Spyro Korsanos is the founder and Managing Partner of Global Venture Partners. Global Venture Partners invests in the consumer internet sector and provides strategic advice and corporate finance for technology ventures. Since 2014, Spyro has led over 40 e-commerce transactions, valued at $2bn, which have created more than €1bn in capital gain. As a global development advisor, Spyro has been instrumental in the impressive growth of Delivery Hero, foodpanda and various Rocket Internet-backed businesses. Global Venture Partners has recently invested in Kurly, the Korean online grocer, and pet tech platform Felcana, based in the UK. Spyro was awarded TMT Rising Star in 2017. Previously, he held corporate strategy and investment roles with Sky, Liberty Global and Cable & Wireless. Spyro started his career as a corporate lawyer at Gilbert & Tobin and holds an MBA from INSEAD.
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About Fuse Venture Partners: FUSE VENTURE PARTNERS Investors in, and advisors to, investors and ventures in the high-growth internet space
Ali Beklen
Founder and Managing Partner of HotelRunner
After working for several financial institutions and IBM, Ali Beklen co-founded HotelRunner with Arden Agopyan, with the ambition of converting the long-tail accommodation sales and distribution management from offline to online at global scale. For the last 10 years, he has been advising many organizations and initiatives focusing on digital transformation of the travel industry globally. He has publications in international refereed journals and conferences about service and cloud computing. He is Advisory Chair for Software Service Computation at the International Academy, Research and Industry Association. Beklen holds an M.Sc. in Computer Engineering and a B.A. in Economics. He is also a PhD candidate in computer engineering.
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About HotelRunner: SaaS enabled B2B network for accommodations and travel agencies to find, contract, connect, and transact with each other online.
Arden Agopyan
Founder and Managing Partner of HotelRunner
Arden Agopyan is an experienced entrepreneur and business development executive with a proven track record. Prior to founding HotelRunner, he led IBM’s Cloud Computing Software technical sales and market creation activities across Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Middle East and Africa. His areas of expertise also include international team management, business execution, strategic marketing and financial management. As a talented hacker coming from software development background, along twenty years of business experience in technology, Arden is a Ph.D. candidate in Finance, holds a BSc in Computer Engineering degree and an MBA. Arden speaks five languages and is also Advisory Chair for Cloud Computing at International Academy, Research and Industry Association and co-author of a book, academic journals and articles.
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About HotelRunner: SaaS enabled B2B network for accommodations and travel agencies to find, contract, connect, and transact with each other online.
Ruth Mortimer
Managing Partner of Econsultancy
Ruth Mortimer is Managing Partner for Econsultancy, which provides digital transformation services through content, research, training, capability work and data. She was formerly the director of the award-winning Festival of Marketing and content director for Centaur Marketing, which comprises Marketing Week, Econsultancy, Festival of Marketing, Creative Review, Design Week, Celebrity Intelligence, Fashion/Beauty Monitor, Year Ahead and Foresight News. She is a PPA award-winning writer and author of five books on marketing. She is regularly asked to host events for brands such as Google and remains on the advisory board for the Festival of Marketing, which under her tenure, featured high profile figures such as Apple founder Steve Wozniak, 13 simultaneous stages, an awards scheme, a gig and a partner fringe programme.
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About Econsultancy: Econsultancy publishes research, analysis and advice on digital marketing, social media, e-commerce, SEO, mobile and tech for businesses.
Roheel Ahmad
Managing Partner of Forsyth Barnes
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About Forsyth Barnes: Executive Search & Senior Interim Specialists within Fintech, Software & Etail industries.
