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 Advisor operating in the Venture Capital space. If you think a Advisor 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.
Jon Kamaluddin
Venture Advisor of Felix Capital
Jon Kamaluddin was international director at online retailer ASOS from 2009 to 2013 after having spent five years as CFO. In his role as international director, Kamaluddin led ASOS global expansion, including the U.S., Russia, China, Germany, and Australia, which helped ASOS grow its overseas sales to almost 60 percent of its overall sales. He also served as a member of ASOS Board of Directors.
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About : Felix Capital is a venture fund that focuses on digital commerce, digital media, and information technology companies.
Peter Burt
Senior Advisors of Apax Partners
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About : Apax Partners is an independent global partnership focused solely on long-term investment in growth companies.
Pascal De Mul
Advisor of Lumia Capital
Pascal de Mul joined Exit Live as Chief Executive Officer in 2020.
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About Exit Live, Tribe of Noise, Tribe of Noise: Expansion-stage VC firm partnering with forward-thinking US and European innovators expanding internationally for breakout growth.
David Grainger
Chief Scientific Advisor of Medicxi Ventures
Prior to co-founding Medicxi Ventures, David was a venture partner with Index Ventures for four years, having joined the life sciences team in 2012.On behalf of Index, David co-founded Epsilon-3 Bio, Methusalah Health, and XO1 (acquired by Janssen Pharmaceuticals) among other companies. Before joining Index, he founded Funxional Therapeutics and the out-sourced drug developers Total Scientific and RxCelerate. Prior to that, David led an internationally-recognised research group in Cambridge University’s Department of Medicine, where he published more than 80 first author papers in leading journals including Nature, Science and Nature Medicine. David is the Chair of the Translation Awards Committee of the British Heart Foundation. He ran a widely-read blog on life sciences-related topics, DrugBaron, before moving his writings to Forbes.com, where he is a Contributor.David has over 150 patents and patent applications in his name, and holds MA and PhD degrees in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge
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About Centessa Pharmaceuticals, Critical Pressure, Forbes, Foundation Institute for 21st Century Medicine, Morphogen-IX, Z Factor: Medicxi is a life sciences-focused investment firm.
Justin Cooke
Advisor of Northzone
I am the Vice Chair of Unicef UK, a Venture Partner at tech VC Northzone, Chairman of The Drum, Deputy Chair of social learning platform FutureLearn and a Non-Executive Director, adviser and investor in numerous fast-growing technology businesses and sit on the British Museum Digital Advisory Board. Prior to Northzone I was the CEO and Founder of POSSIBLE UK, WPP Digital’s largest global agency. I am also the former Chair and now an Ambassador of the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA), the industry body for everyone working in digital Britain. I discovered digital media while studying Quasi-Theatrical Leisure and Computers as Theatre while studying Drama at the University of Manchester. After graduating with honours I worked for the BBC, Universal Music and United News and Media before Co-founding global digital agency Fortune Cookie in 1997. I secured venture capital funding and grew the business across three continents before exiting to WPP in 2012. For two years I served on the Board of EPiServer – the world’s fastest growing content management and community platform until its sale to investment bank, IK Partners. I also served on the board of ActiveStandards until its merger with CrownPeak and raising of $50 Million from venture capital firm K1 to become the world’s leading cloud-based digital experience management company. I have been lucky enough to have been listed in the Wired Top 100; rated the UK’s second most influential person in digital by Econsultancy; inducted into the British Digital Hall of Fame and most recently, Business Insider ranked me as one of the UK’s coolest tech VC’s.
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About : Northzone is an early-stage venture capital fund built on experience spanning multiple economic and disruptive technology cycles.
Simon Greenman
Advisor, formerly Venture Partner of DN Capital
Simon Greenman has over twenty years of leading digital transformations through technology, data science, and AI. He is co-founder and partner in Best Practice AI, a London based AI executive advisory with a leading library of AI use cases and case studies. Earlier in his career, Simon was a co-founder of MapQuest.com, one of the first internet brands. He has over ten years as a chief digital officer leading transformations of media companies for private equity. He has also consulted or worked for HomeAdvisor Europe, AOL, Bowers & Wilkins, and Accenture. Simon is highly active in the AI startup community. He is an AI entrepreneur in Resident at Seedcamp, co-president of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of London, and an advisor and former venture partner at DN Capital. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BA in computing and artificial intelligence from the University of Sussex.
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About Best Practice AI: DN Capital operates as an early-stage venture capital firm.
Jay Stevens
Advisor of DN Capital
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About : DN Capital operates as an early-stage venture capital firm.
Jason Downes
Advisor of Frontier Ventures
Jason Downes is a Consultant of International Finance Corporation. Previously, Jason Downes served as an Senior Investment Officer at International Finance Corporation for seven years. Previously, he co-founded and served as General Director and Chief Investment Officer at ru-Net Holdings for five years. Prior to joining ru-Net, he held senior positions in the investment banking divisions of United Financial Group, Renaissance Capital and Credit Lyonnais. Jason Downes has nearly 20 years of dedicated technology, media and telecom industry experience in venture capital, private equity and capital markets banking, primarily in Russia/CIS, India, and Sub-Saharan Africa. He serves as an Advisory Board Member of Frontier Ventures. He served on the Boards of Yandex, Ozon, and Vested Development Inc. Jason Downes graduated in Actuarial Science from City University, London (1986-1989).
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About : Frontier Ventures invests in early stage internet companies with network effects and connects them with global markets.
Mark Malloch-Brown
Senior Policy Advisor of I Squared Capital
Lord Mark Malloch-Brown is a Senior Policy Advisor of I Squared Capital, an independent multi-billion dollar global infrastructure investment company with over 70 professionals based in New York, Houston, London, Delhi, Singapore and Hong Kong. The company specializes in infrastructure investments with $4 billion of assets under management in the energy, utilities and transport sectors in the U.S., Europe and select high-growth economies including China, India and Latin America. Lord Malloch-Brown is the Chair of the Global Commission on Business and Sustainable Development, a group of senior business and civil society leaders, which recently published a report, “Better Business Better World” on the role of business in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. He served as Deputy Secretary-General and previously Chief of Staff of the UN under Kofi Annan. He spent the previous six years as Administrator of the UNDP, leading the UN’s development efforts around the world including the international efforts in support of the Millennium Development Goals. He was later Minister of State in the Foreign Office, covering Africa and Asia, and a member of Gordon Brown’s cabinet. Other previous positions include Vice-Chairman of the Open Society Institute, a Vice President at the World Bank and Vice-Chairman of the World Economic Forum. He began his career as a journalist at The Economist.
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About I Squared Capital: I Squared Capital is an independent global infrastructure investment manager that focuses on energy, utilities, and transportation.
Clive Hollick
Senior Advisor of GP Bullhound
Lord (Clive) Hollick was appointed a partner of GP Bullhound in 2010. Lord Hollick is currently a director of ProSiebenSat.1, Honeywell International Inc, BMG Music Rights Management ag and senior director at Diageo plc. Previously, he was a partner at KKR where he headed the media industry team in Europe, and prior to that served as Chairman of SBS Broadcasting as well as a director of The Nielsen Company (formerly VNU Group). He was CEO of United Business Media, an international publishing, information, broadcasting and market research group. Lord Hollick began his career as an investment banker with Hambros and then built up a global money and securities broking business that subsequently became ICAP plc. He has also held positions as a director of Logica, Havas, TRW and BAe Systems and was Chairman of the South Bank Centre, Europe’s largest arts centre. He founded the IPPR think-tank in 1986 and became a member of the House of Lords in 1991. Lord Hollick holds a B.A. and Doctorate from Nottingham University.
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About IPPR: GP Bullhound is a technology advisory and investment firm that provides transaction advice and capital to entrepreneurs and founders.
Marshall W. Parke
Advisor of Lexington Partners
Mr. Parke is primarily engaged in the origination and evaluation of secondary purchases of non-U.S. private equity and alternative investments, and non-U.S. equity co-investments.
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About : Lexington Partners is an independent manager of secondary private equity and co-investment funds.
Chad Giussani
Head, Transaction Reporting, FM Compliance Advisory of Standard Chartered Bank
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About Standard Chartered Bank: Standard Chartered Bank is an international banking group.
Annette Wilson
Advisor of Finch Capital
Annette is a Partner. She Joined Orange Growth Capital (now Finch Capital) in 2016, Prior to that she was the founding CFO of Palamon Capital Partners, a European growth investor, and latterly led its Investor Relations and PR activities, taking its funds under management to €1.3 billion. Most recently she was Head of Investor Relations and Public Relations at Silverfleet Capital Partners, an established mid-market buyout investor, which raised Silverfleet II, a €870 million fund. She is also an active participant in the private equity community and served on the BVCA Board. She is currently a member of the BVCA Investor Relations Advisory Group and a member of the Invest Europe Working Group on Accounting Standards, Valuation and Reporting. Prior to joining the private equity industry, Annette worked in the insurance industry at Sedgwick plc, a LSE listed company in various financial roles in the UK, USA and Europe and thereafter was CFO of Windsor PLC, LSE listed company. She started her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Annette holds a B.Com (Hons) from the University of Johannesburg and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
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About : Finch Capital is a series A/B investor in high-growth financial technologies companies run by exceptional entrepreneurs with EUR 2-5m in ARR
Bill Edwards
Executive Advisory Board Member of Kennet Partners
Bill Edwards is Chairman of the Executive Advisory Board and has served on the board, advised and/or invested in several Kennet portfolio companies including Revolution Prep, Intelepeer and Daptiv. Bill was part of the founding executive team at Siebel Systems, serving as vice president of engineering and later as chief technology officer. During his tenure, from 1993 to 2005, Siebel grew rapidly achieving revenues of almost $2 billion in just six years, went public and ultimately was acquired by Oracle for $6 billion. Siebel was one of the most capital efficient high value exits in enterprise software having raised only $8 million prior to its IPO. Prior to Siebel Systems, Bill worked with three other Silicon Valley companies that had successful IPOs during his tenure. He was responsible for graphical authoring systems at Macromedia, was senior vice president of engineering, research and development at Frame Technology, and held engineering management positions at Convergent Technologies and Apple Computer. Bill began his career at Intel. He received an M.S. in Computer Science from Rutgers University.
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About : Kennet Partners is a private equity investment firm that provides growth capital to information technology and business services companies.
Simon Guild
Executive Advisory Board Member of Kennet Partners
Simon works with a wide portfolio of early stage European media and technology businesses which have the ambition to become international market leaders. Simon is the Chairman of: Bigpoint, a German browser video-games company, WAYN, a UK-based travel and lifestyle social network, and Diffusion Media Group, a UK viral marketing business. In addition he is a Director or advisor to: Eyeka, a France-based engagement marketing company; Digicompanion, a French digital promotion business; Freerunner, a UK free WiFi startup; Xing, a Hamburg-based business social network; Horizon Media Group, an African content business; Twig, an online educational project and Spreadshirt, a Leipzig-based Kennet III portfolio company offering personalised apparel. From 1993 to 2007 he was at MTV Networks Europe, latterly as President & CEO. From a single MTV-branded channel in the mid 90’s the network grew to 75 channels, numerous online offerings and a market-leading mobile business, all spanning a variety of music, children and comedy brands. Simon is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Trustee of the MTV Europe Foundation and a member of Pilotlight, the organisation that supplies executive time to charities. He also participates as a mentor at Seedcamp, the annual week-long programme for young entrepreneurs. Simon holds an MBA from Insead and an MA in Modern Languages from Cambridge.
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About : Kennet Partners is a private equity investment firm that provides growth capital to information technology and business services companies.
Mark Whittaker
Corporate Advisor of Parkwalk Advisors
Mark Whittaker joined Parkwalk Advisors as Corporate Advisor in 2012.
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About Royal College of Art: Parkwalk is an investment management firm focused on UK-based technology companies that are spun out of UK university and research centres.
Ramona Liberoff
Advisor of Angel Academe
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About : Angel Academe helps engage female founders and co-founders with their tech startup to a unique pool of, mainly female angel investors.
Dimitris Tsitsiragos
Senior Advisor Emerging Markets of PIMCO
Dimitris Tsitsiragos leads IFC’s investments and advisory services across 52 countries with over 800 staff, and oversees an integrated strategy that aims to create jobs, plug infrastructure gaps, increase access to finance, and tackle climate change. Before taking on his role as Vice President, Dimitris Tsitsiragos was the Director of the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe department in IFC, where he developed a strategy to support the region’s private sector in the wake of the Arab Spring. During his tenure, he oversaw several important initiatives, including the education for employment (e4e) in the Arab World program, which brings together public and private providers of education and private companies to improve the quality of education in the region. Dimitris Tsitsiragos also helped launch the Arab Financing Facility for Infrastructure, which supports much-needed infrastructure projects and kick-started a facility expected to channel over $500 million to smaller businesses in the Middle East and North Africa region. Dimitris Tsitsiragos has extensive experience in several sectors including manufacturing and oil & gas. Prior to joining the Middle East and North Africa region, he directed the Global Manufacturing and Services (GMS) department of IFC which was responsible for IFC’s activities in the areas of tourism, retail and property development; construction materials; the forest products chain; life sciences; and energy-efficient machinery. During his time with GMS, Dimitris Tsitsiragos refined the strategic focus of the department, emphasizing IFC’s global expertise in select sectors, thus helping IFC clients to increase their international competitiveness. In addition to his experience in the Middle East and North Africa, Dimitris Tsitsiragos has worked in South Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe, where he held several leadership positions. He spent two years based in New Delhi as IFC’s Director of the South Asia department, where he doubled commitments for the region in all sectors; doubled IFC’s portfolio in India; and significantly improved regional profitability as a result of decreased non-performing assets and the successful execution of an equity divestiture strategy. Before his South Asia assignment, Dimitris Tsitsiragos served as Manager of New Investments for IFC’s Eastern/Central Europe region and Manager of IFC’s Oil & Gas division.
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About PIMCO: PIMCO, a global investment solutions provider that manages investments for public and private pension and retirement plans and other assets.
Richard Girling
Advisor of Hikma Ventures
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About : Hikma Ventures operates as the corporate venture capital arm of Hikma Pharmaceuticals.
Nick Bliss
Senior Advisor of Oxford Capital Partners
Nick is a senior adviser to our Infrastructure investment team. Until May 2016 Nick was a senior partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He worked at Freshfields for more than 30 years, including 21 years as a partner. Throughout his partnership he was heavily involved in infrastructure markets in the UK, across the EU and further afield, including the Middle East, Asia and North America. He is a well-known figure in the infrastructure market having acted for governments, developers, infrastructure funds and direct investors, banks, arrangers and export credit agencies. He made his name as an innovator in the early days of PFI and has subsequently been involved in the development and globalisation of the PPP and other infrastructure models. By background a project financier, since the rise of infrastructure as a recognised investment class in the early 2000s, Nick has used his understanding of the market and its project structures to facilitate the entry of institutional and other investors into the regulated and unregulated infrastructure and utility markets. Nick is the executive chairmanship of a company owned by three infrastructure funds which holds the concession to build and maintain major developments to two teaching hospitals. He is a trustee of The London School of Architecture, a new architectural school offering an alternative postgraduate route into the profession. Nick is a graduate of Corpus Christi College Cambridge where he read Law.
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About Chatham Partners, Oxford Capital Partners: Oxford Capital is a technology venture capital investor based in London and Oxford.
Alpesh Patel
Strategic Advisor, UK Government of Hafta
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About : Hafta is creating the world’s largest repository of psychometric data.
Dean Johnson
Advisory Board Member of Continuous Ventures
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About Continuous Ventures: Supporting start-ups navigate the journey to become “fund ready” with our team of advisors with our expertise & developmental framework
