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 Principal operating in the FinTech space. If you think a Principal 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.
Susan Lin
Principal of Felix Capital
Over the past 10+ years, Susan has advised, invested and worked in a range of consumer and technology companies in their journeys to grow and scale. Susan joined Felix Capital from HgCapital, a London based private equity fund where she focused on software investments and portfolio companies. Prior to HgCapital, Susan was a management consultant at Bain & Company in San Francisco, Singapore and London, advising private equity and growth capital funds on potential investments and CPG and e-commerce companies on go-to-market, M&A and growth strategies. Susan has worked in 2 start-ups in San Francisco and New York along the way. She was Director of Partner Strategy at AppDirect, a leading cloud app marketplace, and worked in business development at Plated, a meal kit delivery service acquired by Albertsons. Susan graduated with honours from the University of Pennsylvania and received her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese (and attempting German).
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About Felix Capital: Felix Capital is a venture fund that focuses on digital commerce, digital media, and information technology companies.
Edward Keelan
Investment Principal of Octopus Ventures
Edward Keelan is an Investment Director in Octopus Development Capital Team.
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About Octopus Ventures: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Malcolm Ferguson
Principal of Octopus Ventures
Malcolm joined Octopus Ventures in 2013. Octopus Ventures is a London and New York based venture capital firm focused on identifying unusually talented entrepreneurs intent on building businesses that can scale to create, transform or dominate an industry. Prior to joining Octopus, Malcolm spent a number of years in the investment banking industry, firstly within the TMT team of Bank America Merrill Lynch in London and then subsequently at GP Bullhound, a leading boutique investment bank, focussing exclusively on technology businesses. Malcolm splits his time on the assessment of investment opportunities, deal origination for investments between £250,000 to £25 million and ongoing portfolio management. Malcolm is a Non-Executive Director of various portfolio companies including; Antidote, BoughtbyMany, Metrasens, Segura, Sofar Sounds and Stratajet. Malcolm holds a first class degree in BBA Management from Lancaster University.
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About Octopus Ventures: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Simon King
Principal in Ventures Group of Octopus Ventures
Simon joined the team at the beginning of 2012 and focuses on early stage deal flow, screening investment opportunities and performing preliminary due diligence. Within the portfolio, Simon works closely with T4 Media, UltraSoC Technologies, Surrey NanoSystems and IOVOX. Before joining Octopus, Simon was a research scientist investigating novel materials for photovoltaic applications at Imperial College in London. Simon holds an MA and MSc in Physics and a Ph.D. in Molecular Electronics.
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About Octopus Ventures: Octopus is a multi stage European venture capital investor specializing in health, money, deep tech, and consumer.
Christopher Steinau
Principal of Northzone
Christopher Steinau is the Principal of Northzone.
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About Disperse.io, Distribusion Technologies, Einride, Flink, Forto, Infogrid, Northzone, Personio, TIER Mobility, Wagestream: Northzone is an early-stage venture capital fund built on experience spanning multiple economic and disruptive technology cycles.
Steven Poulter
Head of Principal Structuring & Investments of Barclays
Steven Poulter graduated from Queens College, Cambridge University, and worked for Arthur Andersen as a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser. Steven Poulter is the Head of Principal Structuring & Investments at Barclays, which includes Principal Investments, Principal Structuring, and Capital Markets Execution. He also serves on the Treasury Management Team and chairs the Treasury Environmental Action Group.
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About Barclays: Barclays is a global financial services company that provides various financial products and services worldwide.
Helene Moran
Design Research Principal of Barclays
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About Barclays: Barclays is a global financial services company that provides various financial products and services worldwide.
Alexander Mann
Principal of Concentric
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About Concentric: Concentric invests in software technology business in the financial services, mobility, real estate, industrial, and logistics sectors.
Sam Tidswell-Norrish
Principal of Motive Partners
Sam Tidswell-Norrish is a Principal based in London, leading the Business Development function at Motive Partners. Sam was part of the founding team, joining with a broad range of financial services experience, from payments to investment banking and government initiatives to industry trade organizations. Early in his career, Sam was with Barclays in Payments Reengineering and subsequently moved to Barclays Capital’s Equity Finance Group. In 2013 Sam was selected as a young leader of the future by the New Entrepreneurs Foundation and joined Monitise Plc becoming a VP and subsequently, the Group Chief of Staff focused on Operations and Strategic Projects. Sam has been a personal investor in a number of early-stage businesses and was heavily involved in the establishment and governance of Innovate Finance, the FinTech industry body, acting as a Board Observer until early 2017. Sam continues to work closely with the Department of International Trade (DIT), HM Treasury and the City of London Corporation in supporting the UK Government’s FinTech agenda. Sam also runs the Motive Labs: The Future of Finance podcast series, interviewing leading international business and political figures. Sam received a MSc. in International Business at Leeds University Business School and graduated with honors with a degree in Social Policy. In 2017, Sam participated in the VC & PE executive education course at Harvard Business School.
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About Motive Partners: Motive Partners is an investment firm focused on technology-enabled companies that power the financial services industry.
Sam Tidswell-Norrish
Principal of Motive Partners
Sam Tidswell-Norrish is a Principal based in London, leading the Business Development function at Motive Partners. Sam was part of the founding team, joining with a broad range of financial services experience, from payments to investment banking and government initiatives to industry trade organizations. Early in his career, Sam was with Barclays in Payments Reengineering and subsequently moved to Barclays Capital’s Equity Finance Group. In 2013 Sam was selected as a young leader of the future by the New Entrepreneurs Foundation and joined Monitise Plc becoming a VP and subsequently, the Group Chief of Staff focused on Operations and Strategic Projects. Sam has been a personal investor in a number of early-stage businesses and was heavily involved in the establishment and governance of Innovate Finance, the FinTech industry body, acting as a Board Observer until early 2017. Sam continues to work closely with the Department of International Trade (DIT), HM Treasury and the City of London Corporation in supporting the UK Government’s FinTech agenda. Sam also runs the Motive Labs: The Future of Finance podcast series, interviewing leading international business and political figures. Sam received a MSc. in International Business at Leeds University Business School and graduated with honors with a degree in Social Policy. In 2017, Sam participated in the VC & PE executive education course at Harvard Business School.
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About Motive Partners: Motive Partners is an investment firm focused on technology-enabled companies that power the financial services industry.
Matt Heath
Principal Engineer of Monzo
Matt Heath is an engineer at Monzo, a new kind of digital bank. Having previously worked as the Technical Lead of Hailo’s global platform, Matt has an unhealthy obsession for scaling fault tolerant, high volume, distributed systems, and spends his spare time working on open source projects such as Phosphor, a distributed tracing system.
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About Monzo: Monzo is a digital-only bank platform and marketplace that allows customers to access a range of products and services.
Mina Mutafchieva
Principal of Dawn Capital
Mina Mutafchieva is an Associate Principal and joined Palamon from McKinsey & Company where she was an Engagement Manager in the firm’s Belgium office. She was with McKinsey for five years and latterly she specialised in leading strategy development and commercial transformation projects on behalf of companies in the financial services sector. Ms Mutafchieva graduated from the London School of Economics with a First Class Honours in International Relations and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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About Dawn Capital: Dawn Capital is an early-stage venture fund that focuses on investing in the enterprise software and FinTech sectors.
Henry Mason
Principal of Dawn Capital
Henry is a Principal at Dawn. Henry focuses on B2B software throughout Europe, with a particular leaning towards data and security. Previously, Henry worked in consultancy for clients in financial services and the public sector, where he was particularly involved in digitalising insurance and in the transformation of government towards user-centric, digital-first services. Henry holds a PhD in Classics from Oxford, where he concentrated on Greek literature.
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About Dawn Capital: Dawn Capital is an early-stage venture fund that focuses on investing in the enterprise software and FinTech sectors.
Deepak Colluru
Principal Product Manager of GoCardless
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About GoCardless: GoCardless is a payment company that makes collecting payments by direct debit easy for everyone.
Daniel Schoneveld
Principal of Hamilton Lane
Daniel Schoneveld is a Principal in Hamilton Lane’s Business Development Group, based in the firm’s London office. Prior to joining Hamilton Lane in 2007, Daniel was a Senior Vice President in charge of asset owners and investment consultants in Europe and Africa at Morgan Stanley Capital International in London. Previously, he worked as an institutional advisor at the German bank, Metzler, and prior to that, he spent more than eight years at the advisory and brokerage firm, Hall International Partners in the Netherlands. Daniel began his career as a research analyst at the Dutch bank ABN Amro in Amsterdam. Daniel received an M.B.A. from Henley Management College in London and a B.S. in finance from Roosevelt University in Chicago.
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About Hamilton Lane: Hamilton Lane is a firm that provides private equity investment management services.
Carolin Blank
Principal of Hamilton Lane
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About Hamilton Lane: Hamilton Lane is a firm that provides private equity investment management services.
Mitesh Pabari
Principal of Hamilton Lane
Mitesh is a Principal on Hamilton Lane’s Secondary Investment Team, based in London office where he is responsible for due diligence of the firm’s secondary investment opportunities. Prior, Mitesh was an Associate in the investment team of Coller Capital, a global investor in the private equity secondaries market. Previously, he was an Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan Cazenove focused on the UK small-mid cap sector, and an Associate in the Valuation Services team of KPMG Corporate Finance in London. Mitesh received a Bachelor of Science degree in International Management with American Business Studies from University of Manchester, England.
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About Hamilton Lane: Hamilton Lane is a firm that provides private equity investment management services.
David Planvig
Principal, Business Development of Hamilton Lane
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About Hamilton Lane: Hamilton Lane is a firm that provides private equity investment management services.
Ian Dowson
Founder and Principal of William Garrity Associates
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About William Garrity Associates: A focus on project delivery and transaction closure with sustainable results
Ian Dowson
Founder and Principal of William Garrity Associates
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About William Garrity Associates: A focus on project delivery and transaction closure with sustainable results
