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 United Kingdom based CEO’ operating in the Marketplace 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.
Chaz Englander
Co-Founder & CEO of Fat Llama
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About Fat Llama: Fat Llama is a peer-to-peer rental marketplace which allows people to rent spare items to others nearby, fully insured.
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Nejc Kodric
Co-Founder & CEO of Bitstamp
Nejc Kodric Since starting out in 2011 with little more than some basic computer equipment, €1,000 and a love of technology, Nejc has been instrumental in developing Bitstamp into one of the most trusted and highest volume bitcoin exchanges in the world. With offices in Luxembourg, London and New York, Bitstamp continues to grow from strength to strength, serving its customers’ bitcoin trading requirements. Among his many achievements as chief executive officer, Nejc spearheaded the approach to become the first fully licensed virtual currency exchange in EU, which was granted in 2016, setting the benchmark for the Bitcoin industry’s continued consolidation and strength. With a keen interest in promoting economic empowerment and technology, Nejc has spoken at several conferences including Techcrunch, Bitcoin Foundation, MoneyConf, Deloitte Conference: Future Challenges, ICT Spring Europe and FundForum International, and was awarded Best Virtual Currency Start-up at The Europas in June 2014. Nejc was born in Slovenia, where he studied Organization and Management of Information Systems and Economics, and currently splits his time between his home country and Luxembourg. Specialities: Bitcoin, blockchain, trading, virtual currencies, economic empowerment, education, science and technology
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About Bitstamp: Bitstamp allows companies and individuals from all around the world to buy and sell bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum, ripple, and bitcoin cash.
Cem Savas
CEO & Co-Founder of Plentific
Cem Savas is the chief executive officer & co-founder of Plentific.
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About Plentific: Plentific is a SaaS platform that provides smart property management solutions for landlords and property managers.
Martin Bysh
CEO of Huboo
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About Enthuse, Huboo: Huboo helps businesses grow by taking care of all their logistics and eCommerce order fulfillment needs.
Alex Loizou
Co-Founder, CEO of Trouva
Alex co-founded StreetHub after graduating from the 2012 Cohort of Entrepreneur First. He is an experienced iOS, Javascript and PHP developer, and studied at the London School of Economics and the University of Cologne.
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About Trouva: Trouva, the online destination for unique products from the best curators around the world
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.
Callum Negus-Fancey
CEO & Founder of Pollen
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About Pollen: Pollen builds, curates, and delivers the best travel experiences.
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.
Babek Ismayil
Founder & CEO of OneDome
Babek has over 10 years of experience working as credit derivatives, high yield and distressed debt trader at JP Morgan and 7 years as an angel investor and entrepreneur. He is an experienced investor and has been actively involved in investing in high growth companies, high yielding debt and restructuring distressed companies. Babek has a BSc and MSc in Financial Engineering and MSc in Management from the University of Paris Dauphine. Babek also studied Economics and Finance in the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne and London School of Economics.
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About Bi Capital, OneDome: OneDome is the World’s First HomeBuying Platform
Chris Gibbons
CEO & Founder of Laced
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About Laced: Laced is a marketplace for the buying and selling of authentic sneakers, connecting thousands of buyers and sellers worldwide.
Sam Browne
CEO & Co-Founder of Let’s Do This
Sam Browne mainly work on hiring and developing relationships with distributors. If you’re a Javascript engineer I will definitely buy you dinner! I love races in the wild from ultras to adventure races and I used to be a race director at an expedition race series.
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About Let’s Do This: Let’s Do This is an online marketplace that features almost every endurance event on the planet.
Michael Ferguson
CEO and Co-founder of Rainmakers
Third time founder with an exit. Michael previously co-founded and lead product development for Geomium, a top-25 social-location app. He has been featured on the BBC and in the Guardian newspapers and regularly gives talks on how the mobile space is impacting business and commerce globally. Michael holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and an MBA from the Saïd Business School, Oxford University.
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About Rainmakers: The career marketplace for top salespeople
Maria Raga
Chief Executive Officer of Depop
Maria Raga is the CEO of Depop. Since being promoted to the position in 2016 from VP of Operations, she has presided over every element of the business from finance and engineering to marketing and product. An open and collaborative CEO, Maria is dedicated to her team, which has grown to 150+ employees in 5 offices worldwide in the last three years alone. Perhaps most importantly, since she took over as CEO, she has raised close to $100M in funding, which has helped to grow and nurture the community on Depop – now 13 million users. Prior to Depop, Maria held successively roles at Groupon and Privalia. Having graduated from Insead MBA, Maria joined Bain & Company as a consultant. Born in Valencia, Spain, Maria now resides in London with her husband and 2 children. In her spare time, Maria enjoys connecting with Depop’s entrepreneurial Gen-Z constituency and promoting women in the workplace
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About Depop: Depop provides a mobile application that allows users to buy, sell, discover, and explore various things.
Edward Griffith
Founder and CEO of LoveCrafts
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About LoveCrafts: LoveCrafts is a start-up that builds social marketplaces for the crafts sector.
Jean-Christophe Chopin
Founder and CEO of BORN
A creator and innovator by nature, JC is an entrepreneur who has had a strong presence in online financial services, digital insurance and stock brokerage. He has a wealth of international experience with expertise in the US as well as vast European digital and brand management knowledge. JC pioneered E*Trade Europe and Verisign in the early days of the Internet, and later went on to invest in real estate, time pieces and luxury fashion. His passion for skiing and extreme sports also led him to launch the ‘Carre Neige’ ski insurance within the Savoie region. Most recently, he has married his online finance expertise with his experience in design and luxury brands to create BORN, a B2B global market-network that connects design-led brands with retailers.
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About BORN: BORN is the world’s first private B2B platform that connects a global network of design-led lifestyle brands and retail buyers.
Thibault Launay
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Exclusible
Thibault Launay is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder at Exclusible.
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About Exclusible: Exclusible is creating an NFT marketplace for luxury brands.
May Al-Karooni
Founder & CEO of Globechain
May Al-Karooni is the founder of Globechain – an award winning British reuse marketplace that connects corporates to charities and smes to redistribute free unwanted items, creating social impact data to its members. May previously worked within the investment banking and asset management industry, fundraising monies for venture capital, property and hedge funds for the last 10 years totaling over £120 million in funds raised. In 2013 May set up Globechain after seeing a demand for a new online circular economy within the waste management industry after her own employer expressed a need to reuse items in a more collaborative way. Globechain has gained huge momentum growing to 10,000 members with eBay as its mentors and securing contracts with some of the world’s largest brands as well as growing a large network of charities nationally and internationally. Globechain works within the retail, commercial and construction industry and last year diverted 5,100,000 kilos from landfill with items being re distributed within the UK as well as abroad as far as Sierra Leone, Guinea, Kenya, Libya and the Ukraine providing savings of over £1,500,000 to charitable causes.
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About Globechain: Globechain is a B2B reuse marketplace connecting businesses to charities, creating social impact data.
Russell Gould
CEO & Co-founder of Vesta Property
Russell has held leadership, director, operating board, advisory and senior level positions across the FinTech, digital, technology, travel retail, holiday tour operating and cruise, financial services, insurance and banking sectors. He also started and ran two new ventures in consulting and digital business finance (selling one of them). He has extensive experience across the full e-commerce model including – new product development, omni-channel marketing and branding, including customer acquisition, retention (CRM & eCM), customer conversion (look to book / user experience) and performance optimisation (decision science / analytics). He has managed large online businesses (+£500m sales), built start-ups and worked in major FTSE companies, built large high performance teams, lead the redesign and launch of many websites including the full rebuild and implementation of over seven completely new e-commerce platforms (including a full multi-million pound ATG implementation). Russell has over 30 caps representing England and achieved a Bronze Medal at the 2015 Touch World Cup in Coffs Harbour, Australia, a Gold Medal at the 2013 Touch Home Nations in Dublin, a Gold Medal at the European Touch Championships 2012 in Italy, a Bronze Medal at the 2011 Touch World Cup in Edinburgh and a Silver Medal in the 2010 European Touch Championships in Bristol. For more information visit http://www.englandtouch.org.uk/
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About Vesta Property: Vesta (www.vestaproperty.com) is a data-driven marketplace for buying and selling residential investment property.
Justin Floyd
Founder and CEO of RedCloud Technologies
Justin Floyd Recognised as a leading Entrepreneur for almost 3 decades Justin Floyd has founded and invested in a number of innovative businesses. Since 1987 he has been involved in companies that have included Vecta Software Corporation, a leading Cloud Business Intelligence company and the world’s first leasing exchange that generated over $2 billion in transactions over two years. Mr. Floyd is a trusted adviser to a number of Entrepreneurs who’s products and services are changing markets. He is the Founding Partner of RedCloud VC, an investment company that backs entrepreneurs in emerging and developing markets focusing on mobile, cloud and disruptive technologies.
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About RedCloud Technologies: RedCloud believe technology will universally change the way in which services are distributed & accessed by people in new digital economy.
Zack Sabban
Co-Founder and CEO of Festicket
While he was a student and later a banker in NYC and London, Zacharie traveled the world to fulfill his passion for live music. He attended countless festivals and concerts around the world where he realized the need for better access to information. His creativity, social network, and his amazing experience of music festivals are a competitive advantage for the growth of Festicket. Zacharie supervises all the operations and development of the company.
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About Festicket: Festicket is a marketplace to discover and book music festival tickets, accommodation, transfers and extras.
Nadeem Siam
CEO & Founder of Fund Ourselves
Nadeem Siam is the Founder & CEO of Fund Ourselves. The first fully automated short-term credit marketplace. Nadeem graduated from Canfield University in the UK and Lulea University in Sweden with two masters of science degrees in Astronautics and Space Engineering and Space Technology; respectively.
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About Fund Ourselves, PTP Funding: Short-term credit from the people to the people.
Askar Bulegenov
Founder & CEO of Grocemania
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About Grocemania: On-demand grocery delivery platform. Find and shop from any local grocery store and get your order in minutes!
Amer Hasan
CEO of minicabit
Amer Hasan is Founder & CEO at minicabit.
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About minicabit: Smart marketplace to connect customers & business with all types of cab service providers of today and those in the mobility future
Adam Edgell-Bush
Co-Founder & CEO of Homyze
Adam Edgell-Bush is Co-Founder & CEO at Homyze.
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About Homyze: Homyze is a marketplace and develops a mobile app for home service professionals such as electricians and plumbers.
Paroma Indilo
Co-Founder and CEO of Datacy
Paroma Indilo is the Co-Founder and CEO at Datacy.
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About Datacy: datacy is an online marketplace for collecting and exchanging datasets directly to businesses.
Rushd Averroes
CEO, Founder of BABB
Rushd is founder and CEO of BABB, leading a diverse team of industry veterans to make his vision a reality. He is a financial inclusion specialist and has an MA from University of Greenwich in Microfinance and Financial Inclusion. Before that, he attended the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne and was awarded an IT Science Degree in 2006. Rushd has managed a highly successful Authorised Payment Institution (API) in the UK – Wowpaymobi.
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About BABB: BABB is a world bank for the micro-economy: a global marketplace for human innovation, financial autonomy and wealth creation.
Philipp Mintchin
Co-Founder & CEO of Splyt
CEO & Founder of Splyt
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About Splyt: Splyt is a B2B mobility marketplace that connects institutional supply and demand for ground-based transport.
Alexander Eid
Founder and CEO of homie.rent
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About homie.rent, Yela: Homie is a tech startup that helps Londoners find great homes to rent.
Tejen Barbezat
Founder & CEO of Gignify
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About FIT.live, Gignify: Gignify aims to become the largest centralised talent marketplace in the world
Aidan Cramer
Co-founder / CEO of Stride
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About Stride: Deep jobs marketplace connecting sales talent with jobs at tech companies.
Henri Winand
Co-Founder and CEO of AkinovA
Shorter bio: Entrepreneur, insurtech/fintech, new energy, angel investors Dr Henri Winand Co-founder & CEO AkinovA Short biography • Grew technology firm globally from 40 people to USD 1bn IPO • USD 200m+ capital raised • Intelligent Energy, CEO • Rolls-Royce plc, Vice President New Ventures (M&A) • PhD Materals Science (Cantab), MBA Full biography I am a growth and change oriented CEO with a passion for scaling up a broad set of technologies globally using different business models and team-based delivery. I now serve as CEO for AKINOVA Ltd. AKINOVA is an insurance technology company I co-founded with a specialist ILS (insurance linked securities and related insurance products) London based City fund manager. Prior to this, I served as CEO of a British tech company listed on the London Stock Exchange Main Market (Intelligent Energy, a $1bn tech IPO) with in excess of $250m raised from a broad range of sources, leading to strong top line growth, largely from internationally-based customers. I served on several Boards in the UK, Singapore, India, Japan and the US in the energy, software services, film contents publishing and automotive sectors. I also served on the Board of an EU funded €1bn+ public private tech partnership (PPP). I served on several advisory bodies to Ministers, Secretaries of State and Officials in the new energy, automotive and materials science sectors in the UK as well as on the Alumni Advisory Board of the Warwick Business School and of the University of Cambridge. I have more than a dozen patents granted and pending. I have several papers published in well-known, peer reviewed, scientific journals, topics including composite materials, neutron diffraction and processes to improve industrial product development cycles. I am regularly invited to speak at international conferences and spoke in the US Senate and French Sénat. I provide advice to selected major global institutional, venture capital and private equity funds. In addition to meeting several Heads of State including that of France, India and the UK over the last few years, I have made several appearances on live and recorded TV and Radio programmes (e.g. Live CNBC TV, Live Bloomberg TV, Live BBC Radio 4 “The Today Programme”, recorded BBC and other programmes, provided thought leadership and quoted articles in broadsheets, e-newspapers and The Huffington Post). I am married to Anne and we have one child, Alexander.
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About AkinovA: AkinovA: an electronic marketplace for the transfer and trading of (re)insurance risks.
Paul Toon
CEO of Liqquid
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About Elevate Investments, Liqquid: Liqquid is a real estate liquid marketplace that makes purchasing and selling property simple.
Kasper Kjaerbye Larsen
CEO of Evendo
Serial entrepreneur since 2001, where he co-founded the growth phenomenon Sitecore, acquired by EQT in excess of €1 billion. Since then, he has founded or co-founded a series of successful companies, typically tech-oriented – and all with global scaling potential. Kaspers focus is primarily on the earlier stages of a company, bringing them from zero to international and/or global presence.Originally started his career at AP Møller, then switched to the IT industry in 1995.
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About Evendo: Evendo is the worlds biggest marketplace for Event-related products, experiences and services.
Simon Hill
CEO & Founder of Wazoku
Simon Hill is the CEO of Wazoku.
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About InnoCentive, INSEAD, The Future Shaping Media Company Limited, Wazoku: An Enterprise Innovation Platform comprising: Idea Management, Open Innovation Marketplace, Innovation Consulting, Portfolio Management
Rebecca Kelly
Founder & CEO of VenueScanner
Combined experience across economics (1st class MA Edinburgh), investment management (CFA level 1), digital marketing (M&S, Naked Wines, Majestic Wines). Passionate about using data and analytics to drive business growth, obsessed with customer insight, understanding big problems and trying to solve them. Launched VenueScanner in 2016 after experiencing so many problems in trying to book event spaces for team offsites, parties, meetings etc at M&S. Now relentlessly trying to address the problem of matching under-utilised supply to demand in the venue and events industry. In the spare time that I used to have before I launched a company I loved travelling adventures (Richshaw Run…), micro-finance projects (Grameen Bank) and outdoor sports (mainly extreme or including at least a mild risk of life!)
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About VenueScanner: VenueScanner is a self-serve marketplace platform for event organisers to discover and book venues online.
Digby Vollrath
CEO & Co-Founder of Feast It
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About Feast It, Lick, Sellar, Smithsonian Institution: Feast It is an online marketplace that allows its customers to book independent caterers for their work or social events.
Andrew Skipwith
Founder and CEO of Rated People
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About Rated People: Rated People is an online recommendation service that connects homeowners with local, recommended tradespeople.
Paul Warshaw
Founder and CEO of Greenrush
Founder at GreenRush Group.
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About Greenrush: Greenrush facilitates an online marketplace that enables consumers to connect with cannabis dispensary retailers.
Lana Elie
Founder and CEO of Floom
Lana Elie is the Founder & CEO of Floom.
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About Floom: Floom is a tech-enabled marketplace for florists to sell their creations direct to customers.
David Mercer
CEO of LMAX Group
David Mercer is the Chief Executive of LMAX Exchange, the leading MTF for FX, authorised and regulated by the FCA. A former banking executive and currency specialist, David Mercer joined as chief executive in 2011 and has transformed LMAX Exchange into one of the UK’s fastest growing technology companies (2016, 2015 Winner – Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50, Tech Track 100 Sunday Times: 2015, 2014, 2013). Driving change in the FX industry to completely transparent and precise execution, LMAX Exchange delivers firm liquidity, anonymous exchange quality execution and a secure level playing field to funds, banks, brokerages and asset managers. LMAX Exchange operates a global FX exchange infrastructure with matching engines in London, New York and Tokyo.
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About LMAX Group: LMAX Group: Delivering a transparent, neutral, global marketplace for all participants
Andrew Needham
CEO & Founder of HeadBox
n the last 20 years Andrew Needham has successfully set up and managed companies across the fields of publishing, consumer research and social technology working as both an entrepreneur and a corporate leader within blue chip business environments. He is currently the CEO and Founder of HeadBox (www.headbox.com), the UK’s first on-line marketplace for inspiring, creative and off-site spaces allowing guests to search, book and pay for amazing spaces, all in one place. With over 1,500 venues on the platform already, HeadBox has one of the largest collection of venues in London, unlocking value from their under-utilised space as well as providing many spaces with an extra revenue stream. His mission is “to bring people and spaces together to make brilliant things happen” not just in the UK but all over the world and to do for under-utilised business space what Airbnb and Uber have done to other parts of the collaborative and sharing economy. In December 2015 HeadBox was one of Startups.co.uk’s 12 new businesses to watch in 2016.
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About HeadBox: HeadBox is an online marketplace for inspiring meeting, offsite and event spaces.
James McAulay
Co-Founder & CEO of Encore Technologies
Our resident Cellist and CEO, James dreams of a future where live music is everywhere.
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About Encore Technologies: Encore is an online network of musicians that enables them to access many performance opportunities in the music community around them.
Björn Lindvall
CEO / Founder of CreditSquare
Björn founded CreditSquare in 2013. The inspiration came from his experience working closely with entrepreneurs and family offices in running their investment portfolios. Björn has 8 years of investment experience from the Private Banking arms of Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley. He left Morgan Stanley in 2013 to start CreditSquare.
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About CreditSquare: CreditSquare is an advisory- and marketplace lending platform focused on providing SMEs with credit solutions.
Brett Shanley
CEO & Founder of Knoma
Brett is the Founder and CEO of Knoma, the Knowledge Market, offering a payment solution and marketplace for lifelong learning. He passionate about equipping people for the future of work and providing sound financial options.
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About Knoma: Knoma offers a payment solution and marketplace for lifelong learning.
Christopher Moon
CEO & CTO of Tribe Travel
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About Tribe Travel: Tribe Travel is a marketplace and club for youth travelers.
Daniel van Binsbergen
CEO and Co-Founder of Lexoo
Daniel van Binsbergen Before founding Lexoo, Daniel worked for over 5 years as a lawyer at an international law firm (De Brauw), first in Amsterdam, then in London. He’s always up for a game of squash, and is easily excited.
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About Lexoo: Lexoo is a lawyer comparison marketplace that helps businesses choose a lawyer with confidence.
Evangelos Pappas
CEO of Ocyan
CEO/Founder of Ocyan. Tech & Blockchain Advisor. More than 10 years of experience in Startups. Strong Technical Background in Software & Platforms Engineering.
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About Ocyan: Financial marketplace for European Expats
Ross Bailey
CEO of Appear Here
Ross Bailey is the Founder and CEO of Appear Here. Appear Here is a short-term retail space marketplace used by thousands of brands and landlords every month. Based on the concept that renting commercial property should be as easy as booking a hotel room, Appear Here’s mission is to make retail space accessible to everyone. Hailed a “Digital game changer for the high street” by The Guardian, Appear Here, has received investment from the previous backers of Hailo, Pinterest, Spotify and Trivago.
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About Appear Here: Appear Here is an online marketplace for retail space.
Alexandre Fitussi
Co-Founder and CEO of Beanstock
Alexandre Fitussi is the Co-founder and CEO at Beanstock.
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About Beanstock: Beanstock is an online real estate marketplace for buying, managing and selling rental investment properties in Europe.
Sanchit Saraf
Co-Founder and CEO of Bidsvilla
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About Bidsvilla: Bidsvilla operates in the field of online auctions for art and collectibles. Working on trading algorithms and auction/trading engine.
Xenios Thrasyvoulou
Founder & CEO of PeoplePerHour
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About PeoplePerHour: PeoplePerHour is a marketplace connecting small businesses and freelancers.
Jean Z. Poh
Founder & CEO of Swoonery
Founder, CEO at Swoonery.
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About Rapaport Group, Swoonery: Recommendation-driven e-commerce marketplace for fine jewelry.
Ahmed Dica
CEO of Examinotes
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About Examinotes: Edtech
Nick Lukic
CEO & Co-Founder of Digital Vega
Nick has 20+ years in FX, derivatives, ecommerce, technology and consulting. Nick was a founding member of Atriax, the first FX ECN where he was responsible for product development and bank relationships. He went on to form worldflow, an e-commerce specialist software and consulting firm where he worked on setting up new ecommerce businesses for banks including several FX and retail CFD businesses. Nick was global head of FX and Interest Rate Derivatives technology at Chemical/Chase Manhattan Bank where he ran the quant analytics and risk management teams. He was also global head of FX and FX options IT at Citibank where he helped start the Citi FX e-commerce business.
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About Digital Vega: Digital Vega is a privately held company operating the Medusa FX Option trading platform.
Mathew Prior
CEO of TrustedHousesitters
Mathew is a successful and highly respected global travel and leisure leader with significant experience across multiple industry sectors, business models and geographies. He has led and grown some of the most iconic experiential leisure brands across the globe, ranging from Crystal Ski, the UK’s largest ski tour operator, to Le Boat, the European leader in self-drive boating vacations based in France, to Sunsail & The Moorings, the worldwide leader in yacht charter vacations based in the USA. He is currently CEO of TrustedHousesitters, the leading online marketplace for in-home vacation pet care. He has a reputation as a capable and popular leader, balancing clear strategic thinking and decision-making with a robust approach to strategy execution in international organisations, harnessing the power of digital technology to deliver new and innovative customer experiences along the way. He has led both high growth businesses and those requiring the strong leadership of a performance turnaround, and his experience has led him to gain a strong understanding of doing business in the UK, continental Europe and the USA. Mathew lives in Brighton with his family and enjoys skiing, sailing, and all sports that are based upon a moving ball.
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About Travelopia, TrustedHousesitters: The world’s largest sharing economy marketplace for vacation pet care
Oliver Woolley
CEO & Co-founder of Envestors
Oliver is CEO and Co-Founder of ENVESTORS Private Investor Network. Oliver sits on the Board of the UK Crowdfunding Association (UKCFA) and sat on the Board of the UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) from 2006 to 2014. He is also a Member of Court at Imperial College (London). After completing a degree in Finance, Oliver decided not to become an accountant but instead raised equity and bank debt to start Woolleys Healthfoods. The business comprised three retail catering outlets in central London, three organic sausage shops and a factory in the south-east of England, which wholesaled to 200 establishments including Harrods. In 1997 he sold the business to Northern Foods and moved into early-stage investing. Oliver is a keen Chelsea supporter, an enthusiastic cyclist and enjoys cooking for his family (with varying levels of success).
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About Braveheart Investment Group, Envestors: Envestors digital platform connects entrepreneurs and investors
Faisal Laljee
Co-Founder and CEO of KidSitter
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About Blow, KidSitter: Online marketplace for finding trusted, reliable and thoroughly vetted childcare
Tommy Williams
Co-Founder & CEO of All Shades Covered
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About All Shades Covered: A health and beauty marketplace for Afro-Caribbean consumers.
Alan Yau
Founder & CEO of Softchow
Alan Yau (OBE) is a seasoned entrepreneur who has created ventures such as Wagamama (2018 valuation $800 Million), Hakkasan (2018 valuation $1.1 Bn & Michelin Star 2002, Exited in 2008), Busaba Eathai (Exited in 2008), Yauatcha (Michelin Star 2005).
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About Softchow, Wagamama: Softchow is a qualitative taste aggregation and discovery marketplace that is community driven.
Bouchra Ezzahraoui
Founder & Co-CEO of AURATE
Bouchra Ezzahraoui is the Founder and Co-CEO of AUrate New York.
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About AURATE: AUrate is an online marketplace that offers its clients a variety of jewelries through direct selling and online.
Manuela Seve
CEO & Founder of Alpha’a
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About Alpha’a: B2B Marketplace, connecting companies to the visual arts, we license artwork and dropship limited edition prints
Anthony Paine
Co-Founder and CEO of Stashbee
Anthony Paine is the co-founder and CEO of Stashbee. Prior to co-founding Stashbee, Anthony also served as a manager at Elixirr. He also worked at Career Journey International, Accenture, and Diageo Portugal.
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About Stashbee: Stashbee helps people looking for extra space by connecting them with trusted local people who have it to spare.
Michael Pan
CEO and Founder of China Ventures
CEO and Founder, a China Specialist, has been working extensively in public/private placement, private equity, technology, and energy sectors, etc. Michael’s project experience includes supporting clients on strategy development (corporate, growth, market entry), alliance development, full potential transformation program, as well as acquisition evaluation and integration. Michael holds a Master degree in Global Business Strategy from London Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom.
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About China Ventures: China’s global deal marketplace and a leading China-centric investment community on the globe.
Richard Woolley
Founder & CEO of Paperclip
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About Paperclip: Changing the way people think about the things that they own.
Michal Szczesny
CEO of Artfinder
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About Artfinder: Artfinder is the art marketplace.
Abul Rob
Founder & CEO of HalalEat
Abul Rob is the Founder and CEO of halaleat.com, a marketplace platform listing local halal verified restaurants and takeaways. He has worked for both of the UK’s leading takeaway food platforms and his career has always been at a Sales and Management level. Being a Muslim himself and having witnessed the lack of verified Halal choice for the growing Muslim population in the UK, he is now aiming to be the first Muslim entrepreneur to ignite the Halal revolution and pioneer the development of the Halal Eco-System beyond food that will touch and benefit the lives of every Muslim. His startup, HalalEat is now a finalist of MassChallenge (UK), the most startup-friendly accelerator on the planet.Through MassChallenge resource pool, Abul and his team are mapping out the blueprint to conquer the Halal Economy.
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About HalalEat: HalalEat is an on demand marketplace platform allowing consumers to order Halal verified takeaway food from local restaurant and takeaways.
Ritz Steytler
CEO of Axora
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About Axora: B2B digital solutions marketplace and community for industrial innovators.
Ram Krishnna Rao
Founder & CEO of MarketOrders
Founder & CEO Market Orders. 20 years + experience trading FX & Commodities within capital markets
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About MarketOrders: MarketOrders is a B2B tech-enabled marketplace connecting retailers directly to manufacturers to source gold & diamond jewellery products
Filip Karadaghi
Co-founder and CEO of LandlordInvest
Filip holds a MSc. in Business and Economics from Uppsala University (Sweden). He initially worked for various roles at Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking and Bloomberg. At his last permanent role at Hunnewell Partners, a London based private investment company, he was responsible for managing substantial residential and commercial real estate assets in the US and Europe.
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About LandlordInvest: LandlordInvest is an online marketplace which matches professional landlords.
Mev-Rael
Founder & CEO and CTO of Bunny AI
Product Manager, Software Engineer, Designer, Leader, Martial Artist, Philanthropist, Buddhist, Teacher, Philosopher.
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About Bunny AI: Bunny AI is social search engine and marketplace for local on-demand services.
Karin Nielsen
Co-founder, CEO of fluently
Co-founder, CEO at fluently.
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About fluently, fluently: Translation Infrastructure On Demand
Patrick Short
CEO & Co-Founder of Sano Genetics
Co-Founder and CEO of Heterogeneous, a genetic data sharing platform dedicated to providing researchers with access to high-quality and dynamic genetic and medical data while empowering users to own and control their own data. https://www.heterogeneous.co.uk/
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About Sano Genetics: Sano Genetics is a personalised medicine research platform with data privacy and transparency at its core.
Dominic Mills
Co-Founder & CEO of Yuup
After starting his career as a consultant with global system integrator Unisys, Dominic founded Auros, a digital agency specialising in tech build, in 2001. Auros built a reputation for delivering large-scale, technically complex digital projects for clients such as the NHS, Swinton Insurance and Virgin Media. Auros was acquired by Zone in 2013 with Dominic joining the Zone board. As CTO he played a key role in the team that led the combined business through a period of significant growth, following a minority investment from BGF in 2015 to fund further acquisition. Zone was acquired by NASDAQ listed Cognizant in 2017 and Dominic stayed with the business until September 2019 to oversee the transition. He was a non-exec director of community interest company Bristol Media from 2017 to 2020. In January 2020 Dominic conceived and co-founded Yuup – a startup inspired by his vision of what experiences could be and driven by a desire to help local people and enterprises identify new opportunities to thrive.
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About Yuup: Online marketplace for local experiences
Matthew Beatty
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Spacehop
Founder of Spacehop
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About Spacehop: An online platform for people to list and book cheap, flexible office space at the days and hours of their choosing in London and the UK.
Sandeep Dhillon
CEO of Talmix
Sandeep Dhillon is the CEO at Talmix, having joined the business when it was MBA & Company as Director of Finance and Strategy at MBA & Company. Most recently he has fulfilled the role of Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Previously he was the Head of the Technology, Media and Telecoms EMEA Practice of GLG, a primary research firm that operates a network of senior industry executives who provide consulting services to venture capital, private equity and hedge fund clients. Prior to this he worked on a number of technology, media and telecoms M&A transactions whilst at Jefferies in the London TMT Investment Banking team and during his time at PwC both in London and San Francisco where he worked closely with Private Equity and Blue Chip Technology clients.
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About Talmix: Talmix has built a Business Talent Marketplace to allow companies to unlock the power of the extended workforce.
Anna Frankowska
CEO & Co-Founder of Nightset
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About Nightset: Nightset is a nightlife marketplace that connects people, venues, and brands on one platform globally.
Aidan Neill
Co Founder & CEO of BitPoster
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About BitPoster, BNP Paribas CIB: BitPoster is a marketplace for programmatic trading of outdoor media.
Raja Palaniappan
CEO & Co-Founder of Origin
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About Origin: Origin is the primary marketplace for fixed income borrowers and dealers.
Duncan Scott
Founder & CEO of Supper
Before starting Supper, Duncan worked in Wealth Management in Mayfair, London. Over the previous 6 years Duncan had worked his way up from starting in financial sales, to Heading up sales and marketing and later being in charge of corporate strategy and business performance. Duncan has a degree in Economics and a Masters in Finance and Wealth Management as well as qualifications in tax and accounting.
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About Supper: Supper is an online marketplace for home-cooked food, bringing cookery enthusiasts and hungry Londoners together in a takeaway service
Alex Econs
Chief Executive Officer of Everpress
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About Everpress: A global marketplace enabling creators to monetise their brand. No risk. No waste.
Rob Hall
Founder & CEO of Wriggle
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About Wriggle: A web and app marketplace helping people discover and transact at handpicked local food & drink establishments.
Matt Rantell
CEO & Founder of The Square
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About The Square: The Square is an award winning workforce management platform & hiring marketplace for construction businesses.
Ben Chatfield
CEO & Co-Founder of Tempo
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About Tempo: Tempo is a recruitment platform that connects business support professionals with the best employers.
Saf Nazeer
Co-Founder and CEO of Helpfulpeeps
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About Helpfulpeeps: Helpfulpeeps is a social marketplace for local help
Kiran Bhagotra
CEO and Founder of ProtectBox
Kiran Bhagotra raised £30m for (East) London food village as COO, government chose to do themselves. As consultant helped raise inaugural 3i Indian Infrastructure Fund & Big Issue Social Investment Fund, both on 2nd funds of £20m+. Commercialisation of Nyrstar, securing 3x investment & Top20 country status. In the UK government’s National Archives she worked on machine learning & digital sensitivity review. For the Cabinet Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office in cyber-crime, operational engagement (public/private) and strategic bi-/multi-lateral partnerships. This included the #WeProtect (Children Online) Summit in which 50+ countries attended, committed to a Statement of Action, new legislation and a new fund led by Unicef were launched. As well as a Ministerial (Letwin) Review of critical infrastructure’s resilience to coastal flooding.
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About ProtectBox: NetZero cybersecurity marketplace
Lewis Phillips
Founder & CEO of The Pommier
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About The Pommier: Not All Accessories Are Created Equal
Lynn Kingelin
Co-founder & CEO of Brand Concierge
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About Brand Concierge: Brand Concierge is a business services marketplace to hire a top agency in marketing, advertising, PR, and branding.
Will Handley
Founding Partner & CEO of HomeRenter
Our CEO Will has over twenty years experience in advertising and marketing roles across service and content businesses. He’s been a private landlord since 2008.
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About Explovia, HomeRenter: HomeRenter is a marketplace for private rentals, connecting tenants and private landlords.
Greg Barden
Founder and CEO of Pixie
Greg Barden is the Founder and CEO at Pixie.
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About Pixie: Pixie is a community marketplace for people to discover, pay and earn loyalty across independent businesses
Thomas Ableman
Founder & CEO of Snap
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About Freewheeling, Snap: Snap is a technology marketplace that aggregates and fulfils travel demand
Benji Lanyado
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Picfair
Benji Lanyado live in London, and have a great sense of humour. I studied Modern Middle Eastern History at university before landing the jammiest job of my life – traveling the world writing for the Guardian and the New York Times. Then I ended up in house at the Guardian, writing and web producing on the Travel desk. I also made Twitter mapping service kerouapp.com and news aggregators RedditEdit and top5news.co.uk (US version here). At the moment I’m working on my first startup, while building interactive stories. I’ve recetly started coding, and built this site from scratch using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Do have a look around – at my travel writing, features, and digital dabbling.
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About Picfair: Picfair is an open-to-all image licensing marketplace.
Tom Stapleton
Co-Founder and CEO of TravelLocal
Tom is originally from Kent, in England and loves real ale and trains. In hindsight, TravelLocal wouldn’t have worked without this unique combination – he and Huw talked strategy on long train journeys and got creative at the local pub, all in the service of this travel revolution. Tom does many things for TravelLocal, but spends much of his day choosing and communicating with the amazing local travel companies with whom we work. He has worked in the travel industry since 2005 so knows where to look and what questions to ask. Tom’s favourite travel memory took place on the Trans-Asia express between Istanbul and Tehran where he shared a compartment and a bottle of wine with an Iranian couple. The scenery in Eastern Turkey was spectacular, and the train crossed Lake Van by ferry(!), but it was the mix of people on board that really made this journey special.
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About TravelLocal: Global managed marketplace for tailor-made holidays.
Jamie Wilson
Founder and CEO of hometouch
Jamie Wilson is a UK doctor and founder of HomeTouch. His company offers an online marketplace for finding experienced care professionals locally for elderly and personal care. The carers have an app that allows them to respond to job enquiries, monitors their care activities and manages their contracts. HomeTouch is supported by organisations like the Nominet Trust and Technology Strategy Board.
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About hometouch: hometouch is a home-care marketplace connecting families looking for home care to professional carers.
Emeka Ogbonnaya
Founder and CEO of Zoique
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About Zoique: A marketplace to discover and book wellness-themed team-building activities, connecting corporate teams to a variety of fitness experiences.
Areseny Zarechnev
Co-Founder & CEO of Mothership
Arseny Zarechnev Prior to founding Mothership, Arseny co-founded Sabaka, a DevOps, mobile and web consultancy. He is a full stack developer, entrepreneur and solution architect and has worked at leading technology companies including Atlassian, Enki, and Ostrovok. He is a digital nomad, Estonian e-Resident and remote advocate. Arseny studied Business Administration at the Russian University of Economics.
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About Mothership: Mothership A state-of-the-art digital asset exchange, EU token marketplace and wallet with powerful security features.
Salman Ahmed
Founder & CEO of Vidpost
In 2016 at the age of 22, I co-founded one of the biggest e-commerce websites for selling in-game digital currency with over 1.3m turnover in its first year. Since then we have monopolized the market by launching 6 additional websites. Today, there is nothing more valuable than an audience, which is why I have sponsored and built relationships with various Youtube creators and Instagram pages like @Hoodclips which has over 10 million followers and @NoChill with 4 million followers. We have leveraged our connections and created Fanluv.co. A platform where influencers can create meaningful and authentic products that fans will love. ‘Victory comes from finding opportunity in problems’ – I’ve been an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember. When I was young I would buy various items from websites like Gumtree & eBay, add value then resell for a profit. The problem came when I bought an item which was falsely advertised in the pictures. That experience had lead me to create the first video only marketplace app called Vidpost.
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About Vidpost: Video only marketplace app to buy and sell nearby using video
Bharat Lad
Chief Executive Officer (Founder) of DadShed
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About Aaron Mani, DadShed, RoomAgree: DadShed is enabling the data within buildings to be ‘easily’ accessible for marketplace opportunities.
Yann Murciano
CEO of Blend Network
Yann was previously an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, working in London as Global Head of Base Metals Trading. Prior to the decade he spent there, Yann was part of the ABN Amro team where he worked as an FX Option Trader. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Economics and a Master of Sciences in Banking – Finance & Insurance from Paris Dauphine, and a Master of Arts in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University. His pioneering spirit enabled the establishment of high-value P2P lending to aid UK SMEs and key investment vehicles for independent lenders and institutions.
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About Blend Network: Blend Network is a peer-to-peer property lending marketplace that connects lenders directly with borrowers.
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.
Charlie Pool
Founder & CEO of Stowga
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About Stowga: Stowga is the on-demand marketplace for buying and selling warehousing and logistics services.
