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 Managing Partner operating in the FinTech 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.
Frederic Court
Founder and Managing Partner of Felix Capital
Frederic is the Founder and Managing Partner of Felix Capital. He has worked in the technology industry for the past 20 years, prior to Felix as General Partner with Advent Ventures in London, and previously as an entrepreneur. At Felix, Frederic works closely with Farfetch (NYSE:FTCH), goop, Mejuri, Yoobic, The Business of Fashion, Highsnobiety and Mirakl. He led the growth investments in Deliveroo and Peloton. While at Advent, Frederic led investments in Farfetch, Zong (sold to eBay), Vitrue (Oracle), Dailymotion (Orange), Qype (Yelp), Fizzback (Nice Systems) and Ubiquisys (Cisco). Frederic was named “Investor of the Year” in Europe by his peers at the 2012 Investor All Stars event. He was on the Midas List Europe 2017 and 2018. Previously he was an entrepreneur in France, building a VC-backed online marketplace for the textile industry, and before that a technology banker in London and New York with Lazard. A graduate of ESSEC in Paris and Bocconi University in Milan, Frederic is fluent in English, French, Italian and Spanish.
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About Adverity, Deliveroo, Felix Capital, Forter, La Ruche qui dit Oui, Moonbug, Oatly, Peloton: Felix Capital is a venture fund that focuses on digital commerce, digital media, and information technology companies.
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Mark Beeston
Founder & Managing Partner of Illuminate Financial
Mark Beeston founded Illuminate after a 25+ year career in capital markets where he had been both the consumer of capital markets technologies as well as the entrepreneur, operator, and funder of capital markets businesses. Prior to founding Illuminate, Mark was the CEO for the Post Trade Risk and Information business at ICAP (now Nex) where he oversaw the creation of ICAP’s own investment subsidiary. Prior to ICAP Mark launched T-Zero (now ICELink) during his time at Creditex before the company was acquired by ICE in 2008. He started his career with 13 years at Deutsche Bank in derivatives trading and management, including periods as COO for both the Global Rates and Global Credit businesses. Mark has an undergraduate degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Mark was listed on the Institutional Investor Fintech Finance 35 and top 40 Lists, Financial News Fintech 40 Power List, Institutional Investor Trade Technology Top 30 and Top 40 Lists, and Derivatives Intelligence/Derivatives Week Rising Stars.
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About Illuminate Financial: Illuminate Financial is a venture capital firm backing companies that solve problems in financial services.
Stephen Chandler
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Notion Capital
Stephen Chandler is Co-founder and Managing Partner at Notion Capital. An entrepreneur, investor and company builder, with 20 years experience in forming, funding, running, advising and investing in technology businesses, he has been a co-founder of over ten businesses with involvement in dozens more, where he helped a number of leading tech companies develop and execute winning market strategies. He has primary responsibility for the external fundraising activities of the firm and is active in deal origination in SaaS, FinTech and eCommerce enablement in the UK and Nordic region. He is / was the Notion Capital representative on the boards of Tradeshift, Mojn, Selfnet and Star.
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About Notion Capital, SeedCloud: Notion is an early-stage venture fund that focuses on technology and cloud computing markets.
Bhaskar Majumdar
Founder & Managing Partner of Unicorn India Ventures
A seasoned media and technology executive, entrepreneur and early stage investor primarily focused in the UK and India. Passionate about building new businesses especially in the areas of media & technology capitalizing on the opportunities created by globalization and proliferation of technology and its convergence that enable startups to successfully disrupt traditional value chains in these industries. He held a series of positions in the Indian media industry that culminated into being chosen to roll out Zee internationally. In 2000, decided to strike it on his own launched Recreate Solutions – a digital media services company with backing from Insight Partners. Within six years the company grew over 800 people and established itself as a global player with offices around the world leading to his first exit. Recreate was sold to a major US system integrator that delivered a substantial return on shareholders’ investment. That led to adopting the role of an early stage investor/advisor for start ups in the media and technology space both as a primary investor as well as an advisor to private equity firms. Bhaskar serves as an advisor to the UK Government and Start Up Britain – as well as a Tech London Advocate. On the Advisory board of FICCI on Media and Entertainment as well as TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Board of India) on the Digital Addressable System Roll-out in India. He regularly contributes to discourse on media, convergence, and entrepreneurship in the UK and in Asia, in various conferences as well as publications. Also a Founder Charter Member of TIE in the UK and on the board of Total Start’s Mentor and Governance Board.
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About Unicorn India Ventures: Unicorn India Ventures is an early stage investor, we invest both time and money in budding entrepreneurs who are passionate to make a diff.
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.
Alokik Advani
Managing Partner of Fidelity International Strategic Ventures
Alokik leads the Financial Services team which builds, backs and acquires innovative strategic financial services companies and technologies. He joined Eight Roads after ten years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as Head of Principal Strategic Investments, APAC, based in Hong Kong.
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About Eight Roads Ventures, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures: Fidelity International Strategic Ventures invests in fintech businesses and technologies.
Alessandro Hatami
Managing Partner of Pacemakers.io
Alessandro is Managing Partner at Pacemakers. They provide independent advice to executive teams on selecting the right partners in order to convert digital strategies into commercial success. Previously, he was Group Innovation Director & COO Digital Banking at Lloyds Banking Group; MD of PayPoint.net, Director Large Merchant Services at PayPal & European Marketing Director at GE Capital. He is also a Board Advisor at CashPlus. He is a mentor of several FinTech start-ups working with Techstars, Seedcamp and Startupbootcamp. He is also an investor in several early stage companies.
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About Pacemakers.io: Digital Innovation in Financial Services.
David Harrison
Managing Partner of True Potential
David Harrison Managing Partner, True Potential LLP In 1997, David founded financial services firm Positive Solutions and grew the business to the largest in the country, representing 1,900 independent financial advisers (IFAs), with a turnover of £114 million and profits in excess of £1 million a month. In 2007, David became Managing Partner of Newcastle-based financial services group True Potential LLP, which had a turnover of £56.7 million in 2015 and currently employs over 250 staff and Partners. David oversees the strategic and key business decision areas for the Group and is a crusader for technological advances in financial services. His vision is to foster a nation of educated savers who set clear targets for their future and use technology to reach their goals. He also believes in the value of building the right savings habits and accessing investments in a way that suits savers’ lifestyles. This has led to the development of world-first technology such as impulseSave®, which helps savers top-up their investments from anywhere in the world with as little as £1 at a time. David invests in technology, chiefly by hiring the brightest developers from the three world-class universities on his doorstep. He currently has 24, most of whom joined the company while still students. He is a regular commentator on the UK’s savings gap crisis and has featured in coverage by the BBC, The Times and The Guardian.
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About True Potential: True Potential is one of the fastest growing and most innovative financial services groups in the UK.
Nick Adasi
Managing Partner, Head of UK of DealGlobe
Nick was a member of the DealGlobe launch team in 2014. Previously he worked in a leading European hedge fund, based in London and specialising in Venture Capital. Before this he worked at Goldman Sachs in New York as part of the luxury & retail sector team. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland holding a BSc in Finance
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About DealGlobe: DealGlobe offers a full suite of financial advisory services for cross-border deals with China, underpinned by unique proprietary technology
Christian Thun-Hohenstein
Managing Partner of DealGlobe
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About DealGlobe: DealGlobe offers a full suite of financial advisory services for cross-border deals with China, underpinned by unique proprietary technology
Craig Netterfield
Managing Partner of Columbia Lake Partners
CLP’s Founding Partner. Over 13 years’ venture lending experience in North America and Europe. Previously Partner at Wellington Financial. Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and MBA from the Ivey School of Business.
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About Columbia Lake Partners: Columbia Lake Partners is an experienced team of investors providing growth loans to European technology companies.
Mark Pearson
Managing Partner of Fuel Ventures
Mark is an award winning digital entrepreneur having achieved multiple successful exits over the last decade. Mark takes an active role in mentoring the Fund’s portfolio of companies.
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About Fuel Ventures, Groupola.com, HushHush, MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, MyVoucherCodes.co.uk: Fuel Ventures is a technology fund investing in marketplaces, fintech, platforms, and SaaS companies.
James Codling
Managing Partner of Volution
James has 14 years of Private Equity, Investment Banking and startup experience. He started his career at J.P. Morgan and moved to Montagu Private Equity in 2006. He held NED roles in a number of Montagu’s portfolio companies and was also responsible for all of Montagu’s financing activities between 2006 and 2011. James has successfully launched a number of startup businesses, including VentureFounders, and holds a MEng (hons) in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Birmingham.
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About VentureFounders, Volution: Volution backs ambitious Fintech and SaaS businesses, ready to accelerate their growth to Series B and beyond.
Tom McCann
Managing Partner of equityfor
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About equityfor: Re inventing Venture Capital Investment. Providing investment access for institutional and accredited investors.
Jason Nunn
Managing Partner of equityfor
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About equityfor: Re inventing Venture Capital Investment. Providing investment access for institutional and accredited investors.
Jason Nunn
Managing Partner of equityfor
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About equityfor: Re inventing Venture Capital Investment. Providing investment access for institutional and accredited investors.
Roheel Ahmad
Managing Partner of Forsyth Barnes
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About Forsyth Barnes: Executive Search & Senior Interim Specialists within Fintech, Software & Etail industries.
Scott Parsons
Managing Partner of Forsyth Barnes
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About Forsyth Barnes: Executive Search & Senior Interim Specialists within Fintech, Software & Etail industries.
Shaloo Kulkarni
Managing Partner of Syntheo Ventures
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About Syntheo Ventures: The #FinTech Factory. Syntheo Ventures is London’s first FinTech Venture Builder.
