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 Manchester based Partner operating in the Venture Capital space. If you think a 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.
James Westra
Managing Partner and Chief Legal Officer of Advent International
James Westra joined Advent in 2011 and serves as the firm’s General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer. Prior to joining Advent, he was a partner with the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where he served on the management committee and was co-head of the global private equity practice. James has represented private equity firms and their portfolio companies for over 30 years, and has worked on many transactions, involving public and private companies, in both the U.S. and numerous other countries. He has also represented the boards of directors of public companies in connection with strategic transactions. James graduated with an AB degree from Harvard College and a JD from Boston University.
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About Advent International: Advent International is a global private equity firm that invests in the business and financial services.
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Tom Kuegler
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Wasabi Ventures
Tom “TK” Kuegler is the co-founder and general partner of Wasabi Ventures. Wasabi Ventures is an venture capital, incubator, and consulting firm that specializes in building and advising early stage technology companies. In the last 10 years, Wasabi Ventures has built, financed, and advised over 200 start-ups including some wildly successful ventures like Right Now Technologies, PBworks, Ustream, and Etherpad. In the 1990s, TK was the co-founder of two successful Internet startups, SNT and SpinBox. TK is the author of all three editions of the highly acclaimed book Web Advertising and Marketing. He has authored dozens of articles about the Internet and been published in leading publications like inc.com and ClickZ. TK spends a great deal of time lecturing at colleges, seminars, companies, and conferences about the corporate benefits of utilizing interactive technologies. He currently sits on the Board of Sponsors of Sellinger School of Business at Loyola University Maryland. He has presented at hundreds of events on a wide array of topics about economics, entrepreneurism, technology, and management.
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About PBworks, Wasabi Ventures: Wasabi Ventures has planned, implemented, and maintained solutions for many early-stage startups.
Hugh Campbell
Founder and Managing Partner of GP Bullhound
Hugh Campbell is a Founder and Managing Partner of GP Bullhound. Hugh is passionate about technology innovation and entrepreneurs with 15 years’ experience advising and investing in Europe’s current and future Unicorns. He has worked with all the leading growth equity funds in Europe and has sold businesses to Real Networks, Tesco, Disney, Accenture and Experian amongst others. Hugh started his career at Citibank in M&A before moving on to Goldman Sachs where he worked in Equity Research. Hugh is from an entrepreneurial publishing family who sold John Murray Publishers to Hachette in 2002 and founded an e-learning business, Pastest Limited, where Hugh is Chairman. In 2000, Hugh left Goldman Sachs and spent most of the year working and living in Beijing, China before going back to his investment banking roots by co-founding GP Bullhound. Hugh opened the Manchester office in 2013, is a Manchester Grammar School alum and graduated from Pembroke College, Oxford.
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About GP Bullhound: GP Bullhound is a technology advisory and investment firm that provides transaction advice and capital to entrepreneurs and founders.
David Whitcombe
Venture Partner of Catapult Ventures
David is a Venture Partner with Catapult’s GM&C Life Sciences Fund, where he assesses investment opportunities and works with the Fund’s smaller investments to help companies successfully grow. David is a well-known consultant and non-executive director/Chairman who co-founded DxS Diagnostics in 2000 to exploit a personalised medicine technology he had invented while with AstraZeneca Diagnostics. DxS was sold to Qiagen in September 2009 for in excess of £100m. Prior to DxS, David was Head of Technology Development at AstraZenica Diagnostics for four years where he led a team of up to 15 scientists working on new genome technologies. David began his career as a Post-Doctoral Fellow with Warwick University Department of Biological Sciences, before joining Cambridge University Department of Medicine as a Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow where he researched the Genetics of Human Disease for six years. David holds a First Class BSc in Genetics from the University of York and PhD in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology from the University of Leicester.
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About Catapult Ventures: Catapult Ventures specialises in providing Equity Capital for businesses requiring between £50k and £2m.
Malcolm Coffin
Partner of Inflexion Private Equity
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About Inflexion Private Equity: Inflexion is a mid-market private equity firm, investing in high growth businesses.
Catherine Richards
Partner of Inflexion Private Equity
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About Inflexion Private Equity: Inflexion is a mid-market private equity firm, investing in high growth businesses.
Tim Smallbone
Partner of Inflexion Private Equity
Tim is a member of the Investment Committee and leads the team that focuses on lower mid-market investments. He opened Inflexion’s Manchester office in 2004. Tim has overseen recent investments in European LifeCare Group, Lintbells, MyPolicy, and British Engineering Services. He was previously involved in the investment and subsequent exits of Ideal Shopping Direct, SMD, Harrington Brooks, Viking Moorings and Marston amongst others. Highly experienced in supporting management teams through the economic cycle, Tim has guided portfolio companies through finding and completing acquisitions, investing for future growth and managing changing market dynamics to create opportunity. Tim started his career at PwC and went on to work with North of England Ventures, Granville Private Equity, KPMG Corporate Finance, Gresham Private Equity and Montagu Capital before joining Inflexion. Tim has a passion for all things Manchester City and a strong dislike of weekend DIY (and Manchester United).
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About Inflexion Private Equity: Inflexion is a mid-market private equity firm, investing in high growth businesses.
Gareth King
Life Science Partner of GM&C Life Sciences Fund
Gareth is a Life Science Partner with Catapult’s GM&C Life Sciences Fund, where he has been leading and managing investments since the Fund launched in late 2015. Gareth was most recently CEO of Critical Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage biotechnology company utilising a proprietary drug delivery technology to develop a pipeline of unique biological drug products, which raised >£4m from investors including Catapult Ventures and the Welcome Trust. Gareth was previously VP Business Development at Pharmaceutical Profiles, which he joined from Manchester-based start-up Cyprotex, where he was Commercial Director. Gareth began his career in Boston, USA as a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. He moved back to the UK and was based at Alderley Park for over 3 years as Bioinformatics Project Manager with AstraZeneca, before joining California-based genomics company Incyte. Gareth holds an BSc in Microbiology from Sheffield University and a PhD in Molecular Genetics from Edinburgh University.
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About GM&C Life Sciences Fund: GM&C Life Sciences Fund is a provider of venture capital funds to entrepreneurs operating in the life sciences area.
