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 Director operating in the Retail Technology space. If you think a Director 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.
Orhan Hasanov
Director of SwiftGift
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About GiftMagic, SwiftGift: SwiftGift is the world’s first Instant Gift Messenger App which allows you to send real gifts to anyone in your phone’s contact book.
Parminder Basran
Co-founder and Managing Director of Velos Partners
Parminder Basran is the Founder & Managing Partner at VGC Partners.
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About Iconic Images, Kick Game, Round World Entertainment, Twenty Ten Capital, Velos Partners, VGC Partners, WIT Fitness: Velos Partners is a consumer growth capital firm investing in retail innovation, health & wellness, and luxury & entertainment.
Alistair Barclay
Director of YOPA
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About YOPA: YOPA provides real estate agency services that assist clients in selling their properties.
Tim Muir
Chief Operating Officer and Director Field Engagement of YOPA
Tim Muir is Chief Operating Officer and Product Director at YOPA. Prior to this, he was a freelance product management consultant. Tim bears a degree in Marketing.
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About YOPA: YOPA provides real estate agency services that assist clients in selling their properties.
Damian McGloughlin
Managing Director of HomeBase
Damian McGloughlin is CEO at Homebase UK &Ireland.
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About HomeBase: HomeBase is a home improvement and garden retailer.
Pierre Sapin
Managing Director of BORN
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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.
Oliver Holmes
Group Financial Director of Brightpearl
Oliver heads up the Finance team, with particular focus on fundraising, business planning and our SaaS performance metrics. Oliver began his career in the audit practice at PwC, before specialising in VC-backed SaaS businesses. He guided clean-tech startup Sefaira to a successful exit and developed Dojo Media’s monetisation strategy before joining Brightpearl in 2017. Since joining, Oliver has overseen two growth investment rounds, restructured Brightpearl’s systems and processes and established a robust forecasting and reporting framework.
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About Brightpearl: Brightpearl is the omnichannel retail management system that puts your orders, inventory, financials, POS and CRM in one place.
Angus Neil
Group Finance Director of Zynstra
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About Technology Venture Partners, Zynstra: Zynstra is transforming edge computing at the retail edge.
Xavier Bellouard
Co-Founder, Managing Director & Board Member of ActiveViam
Xavier Bellouard is Managing Director of ActiveViam and one of its founders. Based in London, Xavier manages the UK operations and oversees the commercial efforts of the company across EMEA and Asia/Pacific. Before founding ActiveViam, Xavier was a key contributor to the development of Summit Systems, a software vendor of applications for front-office operations and trading desks. Xavier is passionate about the contribution that ActiveViam’s technology can make to the bottom-line of companies operating in highly demanding and complex markets. “Their bottom-up, experience-driven approach to innovation is a fundamental component of the company’s DNA. Since ActiveViam was created in 2005, they have valued it as a prerequisite to delivering cutting-edge technology to their clients”.
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About ActiveViam: ActiveViam provides operational analytics solutions to business users in need of timely decision-making.
Steve Webster
Co-Founder & Director of Technology of Tails.com
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About Tails.com: Tails.com is an online pet nutrition service that provides tailor-made food designed to deliver perfectly optimised nutrition for dogs.
Mark Sheen
Head Of Retail Experience & Business Unit Director & EMEA Leadership Team of Outform
I have an unwavering desire to deliver truly innovative digital and physical solutions for my global customers. My 20 years+ in the industry has taught me never to compromise but to continually push boundaries in the pursuit of compelling brand propositions which deliver commercial success for customers. I am told however, this has become obsessive when I’m found looking at the back, underneath, around and inside solutions in store. Their passion, reach and collaborative expertise means Outform can offer an unrivaled proposition to help your business grow.
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About Outform: Outfom is a retail agency and manufacturer that specializes in combining strategic thinking.
Paul Archer
Founder and Managing Director of Duel
World Record-breaking Adventurer, Best-selling Author and founder of Duel. Aside from his expeditions and writing, he has spent his career building technology, including the Daredevil Project app development studio, and consulting for advertising agencies and tech companies. He founded Duel to democratise and decentralise marketing for brands. Duel is solving the lack of emotional connection and social proof in often clinical looking online stores by rewarding customers for creating visual testimonials and advocating among their friends, rather than wasting millions on advertising to drive sales. Before this Paul conceived and implemented the It’s on the Meter Expedition to drive to London taxi around the World. The expedition broke two Guinness World Records, raised over £20,000 and passed through 50 countries after driving 80,000 miles from London to London in Hannah, a 1992 London Taxi bought of eBay. Paul is also an experienced speaker, moderator and a conference host. Including TEDx, SXSW, Festival of Media, Cannes Lions, Social Media Week, GenerationE, the Content Marketing Institute and Retail.Tech, as well as guest lecturing at the British School of Fashion.
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About Duel: Brand Advocacy Platform that enables purpose-led brands to drive organic growth & retention through word-of-mouth & advocacy
Talal Cheaib
Partner / Operations Director of Slidr
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About Slidr: SLIDR is a dynamic pricing technology allowing customers to buy products/services at prices always lower than retail
Sean Blanks
Marketing Director of Cartridge Save
Sean Blanks is the marketing director of Cartridge Save.
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About Cartridge Save: Cartridge Save is an online printer cartridge retail shop.
Ian Cowley
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Cartridge Save
Ian Cowley is the managing director of Cartridge Save.
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About Cartridge Save: Cartridge Save is an online printer cartridge retail shop.
Robert Andrews
Director of Content of Clarity PR
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About Clarity PR: Clarity delivers tech PR campaigns for the world’s most exciting technology startups.
Peter Lukes
Managing Director & Founder of Wanstor
Peter established Wanstor in 2002 to provide a more proactive approach to IT support services than the then established ‘maintenance’ companies. Following an early career as a research chemist working at the universities of St Andrews, Durham and Rome, Peter changed track in the mid-90s and began the second phase of his career, in IT. Spells in Italy with a small system builder then back in the UK as technical director of an IT service and integration business followed, before the ambitious launch of Wanstor. Over ten years later, Peter has led the company through continuing success and growth by focusing on their dedication to “service and technical excellence”. Peter has kept Wanstor at the forefront of developments in cloud and hosting services, while adding a focus on core IT infrastructure, networking and front office support.
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About Wanstor: Wanstor are a trusted IT Services company that supports organisations of all sizes in all industries.
Chris Sargent
Founder and Digital Director of Sticky Pixel
Founder, UX / UI digital product designer and developer and snowboarder. I like to work with similar people to me; straightforward thinkers who recognise that knowledge, ability, experience and integrity go a long way in building credibility and trust. People who do everything to the best of their ability and who aren’t afraid to take risks or enthusiastically disagree.
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About Sticky Pixel: Sticky Pixel is a product design and software development company, specialised in FinTech and Blockchain applications
Paul Hornby
Digital Customer Experience (DCX) Director of The Very Group
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About The Very Group: The Very Group is an integrated digital retailer and financial services provider.
Rebecca Kalra
National Communications Manager, Associate Director of Avison Young
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About Avison Young: Avison Young is a retail company that specializes in making full use of our agency, investment and lease advisory skills.
Simon Kelton
Co-Founder & Director of pepperhq
Simon is a relentlessly determined, passionate and ambitious entrepreneur, writer, film producer and angel investor with twenty-five years of broad-ranging creative and business experience. With an exceptional international network of friends, colleagues, investors and commercial contacts, Simon is able to combine his visionary creativity and communication skills as a professional writer to guide and sell his companies strategic goals and products. He has founded, financed and managed eight companies in entertainment, technology, publishing, event management and the snowsports industry. He has Master’s Degrees from Oxford, Stanford and UCLA and is a member of the British Academy of Film and TV. As a professional writer, Simon has published two books, written more than thirty screenplays for Hollywood including the British hit comedy EDDIE THE EAGLE starring Hugh Jackman and produced by Matthew Vaughn, and penned numerous articles for the likes of TIME, the Daily Mail, Sunday Telegraph, Harpers and Queen, and Worth.com. An avid and competitive sportsman, Simon represented Oxford University at golf, is a member of the Royal & Ancient G.C. and the Queen’s Club, has ski guided for the Ski Club of Great Britain, and taken part in the British and World Extreme Snowboarding Championships.
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About pepperhq: The Pepper platform supports white label apps for mobile payment, discovery, digital loyalty, social media marketing, and actionable data.
Ken Platt
Managing Director of Elevaate
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About Elevaate: Elevaate is the most efficient way for retailers and their suppliers to execute trade funded activity online.
Rajesh verma
Founder and Director of Ebuiteq Limited
Dynamic tech enthusiast working in Development, Architecture & Analysis, helping customers find their way to the best digital solution and deliver amazing digital experiences and software. My primary areas of interest: • Product development • Solution architecture (full stack: server, client, cloud, web, mobile, desktop) • Development (full stack: Java 8, React, JavaScript, Swift, iOS) • Mulesoft, Spring boot, Spring MVC, Docker, Kafka, MongoDB, MySQL, PostgresSQL, Oracle DB, Big data – Hadoop ecosystem • Integrations of Legacy, SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, Mainframes • AI & VR • Cloud platforms (Amazon AWS) • Test automation (TDD, BDD) • System Analysis • Continuous Delivery • Agile delivery (Scrum CSM, Safe) I am from a Product plus Consulting background with below-mentioned Industries/Domain experience: -Banking Finance: Open Banking, Trading, Commercial Banking -Others: Retail, Energy Media and Automotive Diagnostics
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About Ebuiteq Limited: Specialised in AI, Cloud, Data, APIs, UI, Digital technology resourcing pool and transformation.
Andrew Burgess
Technical Director of Omnifi
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About Omnifi: A retail and leisure innovation agency
Nick Nicolaou
Non Executive Director of Streetlike
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About Streetlike: In-store Digital Interactive Reward Platform for Enterprise Retail
