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 Founder operating in the Incubators 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.
Matt Hagger
Founder & CEO of E-Man Venture Labs
English born entrepreneur and investor in the technology space. He is widely regarded as one of the country’s most influential product directors with a focus on customer behaviour, user experience and logic, winning many awards for his work, as a founder or consultant/advisor to major global consumer brands and high paced start ups. At only 21, Matt created Net Sorcerer; the first real-time desktop news alerts platform in the UK, winning a patent & innovation award from the UK’s DTI, raising investment in excess of $500,000. The platform was later adopted by Sky News/Sports to deliver breaking content in real-time. Matt creates and incubates technology out of his startup studio e-Man labs whom he Founded after graduating from business school aged 21. The company now boasts 7 figure turnovers with a small but dedicated team of 26. E-Man is incubating AR game Snatch and doctors on demand service, Zoomdoc. Both set to launch out of beta in Early 2017. Matt is in the Co-Founding team and was an initial shareholder, in both. Matt is an investor and Co-Founder of Bizk.it a business tools platform for start ups and small business owners. He also has an investment in Redeemia, which launched in September 2012 and followed this with investments in Pocket High Street, Juxtafeed, Burn This (acquired by BodyBoard), 123 Friday and Octane Inc in 2014. In 2016 Matt invested in ANA, Wise Amigo, Zoomdoc, 123 Friday and Snatch. Matt was the Founder and CEO of Samsung Ventures funded, Zkatter, in San Francisco until 2013 and now he spends his time based London with offices in Los Angeles as he works on the launch and scale of a start up called Doppels, based in Venice Beach. Matt remains the company’s Co-Founder and CEO.
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About E-Man Venture Labs, Snatch: e-Man is a start up studio and launches 3-5 companies per year
Eugene Kouumdjieff
Co-Founder of E-Man Venture Labs
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About E-Man Venture Labs, Redeemia: e-Man is a start up studio and launches 3-5 companies per year
Robert Lumley
Director and Co-Founder of Insurtech Gateway
Robert joined Hambro Perks in 2016 to build and lead the InsurTech Gateway, the Hambro Perks InsurTech incubator. He has worked in the insurance sector since 1984 concentrating on niche products, in particular designing engagement strategies through the application of innovative ideas to help insurers build long term productive relationships with their customers. Robert started with the development of a Film and Television Insurance Unit out of Edward Lumley & Sons’ Colchester Office before moving to London to launch the first Rent and Legal protection and property insurance offering for let properties. After a 3-year visit to Lumley Life in Australia, Robert returned to establish Richmunds Insurance which specialised in the Letting Sector. Premium income grew to £30m by the time the business was sold in 1991. Robert grew up in an insurance family and has experience in many product areas including Specialist Motor, Classic Car, Let Property, Life Insurance and Bloodstock. Robert is Chairman of Lumley Jacobs and continues his work with niche insurance businesses through the Lumleys.net investments.
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About FloodFlash, Insurtech Gateway: The only FCA authorised independent incubator + fund, the Insurtech Gateway is the fastest place to build and launch an insurtech idea.
Stephen Brittain
Director and Co-Founder of Insurtech Gateway
Stephen is an experienced innovation consultant with a deep understanding of startups, design, strategic innovation and translating this to investors. As Hambro Perks first Creative Director, he supported their growing portfolio (including Sipsmiths, Laundrapp, Takumi, TheDots) through early stage development and testing. He is now applying his experience to disruptive InsurTech businesses, getting to market – fast!
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About Insurtech Gateway: The only FCA authorised independent incubator + fund, the Insurtech Gateway is the fastest place to build and launch an insurtech idea.
Prakash Pilley
Co-Founder of Innovify
Founder at Innovify
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About CodeMonk.ai, Innovify: Innovify is a digital venture studio enabling startups and corporates to convert their ideas in to Most Lovable Products
Ruchit Jani
Co-Founder of Innovify
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About Innovify, Matangi Industries LLP: Innovify is a digital venture studio enabling startups and corporates to convert their ideas in to Most Lovable Products
Simon Squibb
Co-Founder of Nest
Simon is a prominent member of the Hong Kong startup ecosystem and one of Asia’s leading public speakers in entrepreneurship, business and innovation. Simon has strong startup credentials and a broad experience as an entrepreneur. He started his first company at 15 in Cambridge, U.K., where he grew up, and has been creating and growing original businesses ever since. He has personally started 12 companies over the last 25 years and as an angel investor has backed more than 35 startups from around the world. Prior to working at Nest he was the co-founder and CEO of creative agency Fluid based in Hong Kong and in 2016 he sold it to PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 2010 Simon founded Nest. His personal vision was to build a series of platforms to help other entrepreneurs in areas such as funding, resources, marketing and network. He took inspiration from his own needs over the last two and half decades.
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About Investable, Nest, OCBC Accelerator: Nest operates corporate accelerator programmes, invests in startups and runs a global entrepreneurial community called Mettā.
Julia Black
Co-Founder of Zinc.VC
Julia is the Pro Director for Research at the LSE, and from 2016-17 served as LSE’s Interim Director. She is on the board of UK Research and Innovation. At the LSE she is a member of the Law Department, with a primary research interest in regulation of Financial Services and Biotechnology. She holds a PhD from Oxford and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2015. She chairs the ASPECT Consortium of LSE, Oxford, Manchester, Sheffield, Sussex universities which is working with Zinc to drive entrepreneurship and commercialisation in the social sciences.
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About Zinc.VC: Zinc.VC is a London-based business builder that runs 9 month mission-led programmes to build scalable commercial impact-led businesses.
Liam Ray
Founder of We Are Ventures
With over 11 years experience in setting up and leading successful startups, Liam is co-founder and director at FutureFuel Tech, and founder at We Are Ventures. He is passionate about start-ups. Blockchain Enthusiast!
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About FutureFuel Technology, We Are Ventures: We Are Ventures are Ventures Brand Incubator which supports, inspires, educates, partners and invests in UK.
Chris Howard
Founder of The Rattle
Chris is a serial technology entrepreneur from MIT specialising in creating companies that blend deep tech with phsychology. Formerly an entrepreneur in residence for Techstars, UCL, and the Digital Catapult, Chris is currently the founding CEO of The Rattle – a tech enabled incubator for the music industry.
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About The Rattle, University College London (UCL): The Rattle is a venture studio and incubator for provocative artists, hackers, inventors, and startups.
Jon Eades
Director and Co-Founder of The Rattle
Jon heads up Abbey Road’s new technology and innovation department, Abbey Road Red, managing the music tech start-up incubation program and partnering with researchers to investigate emerging technologies for music.
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About Abbey Road Red, Abbey Road Studios, The Rattle: The Rattle is a venture studio and incubator for provocative artists, hackers, inventors, and startups.
Bobby Bloomfield
Founder of The Rattle
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About The Rattle: The Rattle is a venture studio and incubator for provocative artists, hackers, inventors, and startups.
James Roberts
CEO/Founder of mOm Incubators
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About mOm Incubators, Royal Academy of Engineering, The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA): mOm is an inexpensive, electronically controlled, inflatable incubator constructed to decrease the number of premature child deaths.
Mike Thompson
Director and Co-Founder, London of Impact Hub
Mike is Director of Goodbrand and has been with them since it began. Mike is responsible for the stewardship of the Goodbrand community and its resources. He is also chairman of AddVenture, a Romanian social enterprise and another GoodBrand Idea and co-founder of Good Leaders Online (www.glo-china.com). Mike is currently based at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, from where he writes, travels and speaks on sustainable enterprise and responsible leadership. Mike’s passions are adventuring and the poetry and song of the Welsh landscape.
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About Impact Hub: Impact Hub provides a workspace that connects entrepreneurs for environmental and sustainability initiatives.
David Lester
Founder of Startups.co.uk
Serial entrepreneur David Lester has founded and run a number of successful businesses and uses his start-up experience to ensure their site offers you the advice you need to know to succeed.
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About citrusHR Ltd., Startups.co.uk: Startups.co.uk is an online platform that features small business advice and business ideas for startups in the U.K.
Josiah Eyison
Founder & CEO of iSpace
Josiah Kwesi Eyison is a Co-Founder/BDM of iSpace Foundation, bringing more than 15 years of experience and expertise in management. Josiah Eyison holds a HND in New Technology, Media and Communication from University of East London and a Business Management degree with the Open University.
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About iSpace: iSpace is a Ghanaian incubator that nurtures tech entrepreneurs, providing space for them to work, meet, collaborate, learn, and more.
Elio Assuncao
Founder of Venture Capital World Summit
Serial entrepreneur with over 15+ years experience in technology analysis, artificial intelligence development and venture capital investment events. Passionate about Innovation with an open mind to What is Next, with a reputation for knowledge and where others look for inspiration and ideas. Pioneer in creating a personal vast online international network of key global players, which has enabled the vision to create the Venture Capital World Summit Series of events. Has been organizing events since 2012 (including Hero Business Club) and thus helped many businesses and entrepreneurs to develop and grow at all levels. Also a director at Startup Grind.
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About Venture Capital World Summit, Venture Capital World Summit: Venture Capital World Summit, World Series Seasons of Investment Conferences. Global community for Investors and Investees. .
Thomas Oppong
Founder and Editor of Alltopstartups
Thomas Oppong is a technology blogger, startups analyst and a social marketing consultant. He is a Startup consultant focused on on blogging, strategy and business development. He is the Founder and Editor is Alltopstartups.com (web and mobile technology news blog). In 2010 Thomas co-founded Dryve Technologies to build enterprise mobile and web applications for businesses and institutions in Ghana. He has worked with Meltwater Group as an entrepreneur in training in software development. Thomas is very passionate about web and mobile technology and intends to be an angel investor in Africa to help internet entrepreneurs kick start their startups.
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About Alltopstartups: Founded in February 2010, Alltopstartups is gaining attention for news about top internet start-ups and tech companies across the world.
E Stunner
CEO and Founder of Estunner.com
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About Estunner.com: A startup aiming to disrupt the cosmetic market industry. The company was founded when we realized that Cosmetic industry’s business mode
E Stunner
CEO and Founder of Estunner.com
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About Estunner.com: A startup aiming to disrupt the cosmetic market industry. The company was founded when we realized that Cosmetic industry’s business mode
