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 CEO’ operating in the Wealth Management space. If you think a CEO’ 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.
Peter Briffett
Co-Founder and CEO of Wagestream
Peter Briffett has been the Chief Operating Officer of LeanWorks. Peter Briffett served as Sales Director of iView Multimedia Ltd. Peter Briffett has multimedia technology sales experience and begun his career at 3Com Corporation. He served as European Sales and Marketing Manager of Actiontec Electronics, where he significantly expanded its wireless business and implemented successful channels and distribution strategies.
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About Wagestream: Wagestream is a financial services firm that allows employees to stream their earned wages into their accounts through an instant app.
Nilesh Jethwa
CEO of Marex Spectron
Nilesh Jethwa is the CEO of Marex Solutions, which he set up in 2017. He was previously at Leonteq, a Swiss-based FinTech company, which he helped launch and was ultimately IPO’d, running their Markets Division, managing Trading, Sales Structuring, Quantitative Analytics and Treasury. Prior to Leonteq, he spent eight years at Lehman Brothers, latterly as Head of Stock Exotics trading for Europe and Middle East. He is a Non-Executive Director of Ardent Media and Trustee of Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice. Nilesh has an MA (hons) in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge.
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About Marex Spectron: Marex Spectron is a broker offering unrivalled breadth of commodity market.
Ian Lowitt
CEO of Marex Spectron
Ian Lowitt joined Marex Spectron in July 2012 as CFO, becoming CEO in January 2016. He was previously at Barclays Wealth America where he served as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Barclays, Ian spent 14 years at Lehman Brothers, latterly as CFO and prior to that, as Co-Chief Administrative Officer
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About Marex Spectron: Marex Spectron is a broker offering unrivalled breadth of commodity market.
Bobby Console-Verma
CEO of 1fs Wealth
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About 1fs Wealth: 1fs Wealth is an easy-to-use sophisticated platform which allows you to control all your investments and collectibles in one place
Neil Alexander
CEO of Nutmeg
Neil joined Nutmeg in May 2017 from Secretsales.com, where he helped them achieve their exit with a sale to Wowcher. Neil, a Chartered Accountant, brings a wide range of finance, risk and management experience in online international, regulated and growth stage businesses from large corporates through to agile start-ups. Neil held European CFO and CEO roles at the sports betting platform Sportingbet Plc, and was part of the team involved in the sale of the business to William Hill. Neil also spent two years as managing director at Mylotto24 part of Zeal Networks SE.
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About Nutmeg: Nutmeg is an online investment service that specializes in investments, ISAs and pensions.
Charlotte Ransom
Founder & CEO of Netwealth
Over 25 years’ experience in private wealth management and investment banking. Goldman Sachs Partner for 10 years.
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About Netwealth: Netwealth is an online wealth management service that brings together an experienced team, user-friendly technology and lower fees.
Adrian Durham
Founder & Group CEO of FNZ
Adrian is the founder and CEO of FNZ and has overseen the development of the company since it started in 2004. He is currently based in the company’s London office. Prior to starting FNZ, he worked as an equity analyst for what at the time was Credit Suisse NZ now First NZ Capital. Adrian has a BSc (Hons 1st Class) in physics and mathematics, and a BMus in performance piano, both from Victoria University Wellington.
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About FNZ: FNZ partners with financial institutions to enable them to provide multi-channel wealth management services to their clients.
Alexandros Christodoulakis
Co-founder & CEO of Wealthyhood
Alexandros Christodoulakis is the Co-founder & CEO of Wealthyhood. Previously, Alex worked as a Fixed Income Trading Strategist at Morgan Stanley and has coded multiple optimisation models and algorithms for portfolio allocation. He holds an MSc in Investment & Wealth Management from Imperial, an MSc in Health Economics from LSE and a Diploma in Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens.
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About Wealthyhood: The first DIY wealth-building app for long-term investors.
Giovanni Dapra
Co-Founder and CEO of Moneyfarm
Giovanni believes that a true culture of innovation begins with the customer experience. As a lover of technology and finance, Giovanni co-founded Moneyfarm with the goal of finding the best solutions to protect and increase an individual’s wealth over time. Prior to Moneyfarm, Giovanni worked in the Global Market Division at Deutsche Bank AG. Giovanni graduated from Bocconi University with a degree in finance and has an MSc in Mathematical Trading and Finance from Cass Business School.
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About Moneyfarm: Moneyfarm is a digital wealth manager that offers online financial advisory and investment services.
Fadi Halout
Chief Executive Officer of BankMed (Suisse)
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About BankMed (Suisse): BankMed is a bank that specializes in providing wealth management services.
Adam Dodds
Founder & CEO of Freetrade
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About Freetrade: Freetrade is a challenger stockbroker that offers free share trading in mobile phones.
Peter Thompson
CEO, Insurance Distribution & Outsourcing of BGL Group
Peter became Group Director in 2013, initially for Intermediated Businesses with his remit subsequently widening to include Legal Services. In 2016, our Legal Services business was sold and the division was renamed Insurance Distribution and Outsourcing (IDO). IDO includes Junction – BGL’s affinity business; life insurer Beagle Street; BGL’s own brand motor and home insurance businesses Budget and Dial Direct; and our customer engagement centres which are based in Peterborough, Sunderland and Wakefield. Peter joined BGL back in 2008 as Managing Director of Junction. Under his leadership, the business became the most successful affinity outsourcing intermediary in the UK with a customer base in excess of 2 million. Prior to this he spent 21 years in the UK insurance industry in both commercial and personal lines, including at Royal and SunAlliance where he was responsible for non-motor personal lines corporate partnerships, and HBOS where he was initially Head of Commercial Insurance and subsequently Managing Director of Partnerships. During his time at HBOS he served on the General Insurance Management Board and undertook a number of non-executive posts.
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About BGL Group: BGL Group digitally distributes insurance and financial products.
Martin Newson
Chief Executive Officer & Chief Investment Officer & Partner of Optimus Capital
Martin is the CEO and CIO of Optimus Capital, and he chairs the Investment Committee meetings. Martin NewsonIn 2015 Martin took control of Optimus Capital. Until recently he was CEO of Religare Capital Markets an Emerging Markets investment bank headquartered in London with offices in eight countries. Prior to that he was Head of Global Equities, Equity Capital Markets and Hedge Fund Solutions at Dresdner Kleinwort Investment Bank (DKIB) and a member of DKIB’s Executive Committee. He has been Head of US Equities at Deutsche Bank based in New York where he was also a board member of Deutsche Bank Securities and member of the Global Equities Management Committee. At Credit Suisse he was latterly Global Head of European Equities, a member of the Global Equities Management Committee, board member of CSFB Europe Ltd and Deputy Chairman of CSFB Germany. Martin has also been involved in various entrepreneurial ventures and started his career as an equities analyst. In this capacity he was latterly a number one ranked analyst in the equity research department of Goldman Sachs in London and a member of the department’s stock selection committee. He holds a B.Sc.(Econ) from the London School of Economics and holds the UKSIP Level 3 Certificate in Investment Management. He is married with two children and enjoys tennis, skiing and the theatre.
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About Optimus Capital: Optimus Capital provider of asset and portfolio management services.
Khing Oei
Founder & CEO of AlphaSwap
Khing is an investor and entrepreneur. Prior to founding AlphaSwap, Khing founded and ran Eyck Capital, a hedge fund with peak AUM of $200mm. Khing started his career at Goldman Sachs in M&A and subsequently worked as an investor/portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs’ Special Situations Investing Group and multi-billion dollar hedge funds Fortress and Halcyon. Khing holds a Master of Science in Econometrics and an Associate’s Degree in Business Mathematics & Computer Science from VU University in Amsterdam.
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About AlphaSwap, Privium Fund Management: AlphaSwap is an investment technology platform, bundling its analyst community’s best stock ideas into Data-as-a-Service
Seth Ward
CEO & Founder of Pynk
Online since the ’80s, I grew up eating my cereals off of arcade game machines which led to my first thriving business aged 8 – running a lunchtime arcade sanctuary for my school buddies in my garage (in true Silicon Valley style). Serial tech entrepreneur and incubator since the ’90s. A hands-on, can-do leader, I’ve: – Raised investment (and delivered ROI) – Coded prototypes, alphas and betas – Set up data-driven analytics that enabled rapid growth – Recruited and led globally disperse tech teams – Built a business from $500 to eight figures in 4 years with zero investment – Pioneered digital download and mobile video streaming platforms for AOL, Vodafone, Orange and Universal Music – Co-founded a business which transformed professional soccer scouting before selling to an industry leader And I… – love to immerse myself in the most positively disruptive technology (from those arcade games and pre-WWW internet in the ’90s, web in the 90s, mobile in the 00s and now blockchain and AI in the 10s – learn to teach, and teach to learn; I feel most alive when I’m learning and applying new thinking – realise that as a society we need to actively shape our use of technology to help us reach our human potential rather than allowing it to rule our lives and diminish our connection to each other I first started mining Bitcoin in 2011. I’m currently focused on the blockchain space, dedicated to helping everyday investors and startups. I love blockchain, and I kinda love capitalism – both are broken right now, but could fix each other. Let’s make things better!
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About Pynk: Pynk is where everyday people invest better together.
Lennart Asshoff
CEO of Nucoro
After years working at one of Europe’s largest quantitative asset management firms, developing made-to-measure investment portfolios for institutional clients and UHNWIs, Lennart became the driving force behind Exo Investing. Exo is the first AI-powered wealth manager, delivering tailored portfolios and individual risk management to retail investors in the UK. Lennart graduated with an MSc in Investment Management from Cass Business School and is a CFA Charterholder.
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About Nucoro: Nucoro enables financial institutions to build digital savings, investment and wealth management propositions at speed and scale.
Jake Wombwell-Povey
CEO and Co-Founder of Goji Investments
Jake is an avid change provocateur and is passionate about developing Goji into a powerhouse of the marketplace lending sector globally. Jake is responsible for driving Goji’s strategy and managing Goji’s relationships with its lending and investment partners as well as the propositions they build for them. Prior to stepping up to launch Goji, Jake advised some of the largest UK P2P lending platforms whilst at a global advisory firm. His experience includes Corporate Finance (Public & Private ECM) as well as strategic and regulatory reviews for some of the biggest names in the FS, wealth management and Fintech including; Woodford Investment Management’s £800m IPO of Woodford Patient Capital, the sale of Intelliflo to Hg, and the sale of GoCompare.com to eSure. Jake is a chartered accountant.
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About Goji Investments: Investment platform providing access to regulated investment products from across the direct lending sector
David Genn
Chief Executive Officer of Goji Investments
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About Goji Investments: Investment platform providing access to regulated investment products from across the direct lending sector
Abdullah Hiyatt
Founder and CEO of THETA Trading Systems
20 years of experience in capital markets working with sell and buy-side firms on e-strategy, design and building e-trading solutions. In 2013, Abdullah’s focus shifted to the buy-side and more recently worked with Deutsche Wealth Management leading the design and delivery of SPARTA, its new global multi-asset trading platform.
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About Deutsche Bank, THETA Trading Systems: Capital Markets London based FinTech
Uday Nimmakayala
Founder & CEO of WealthObjects
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About WealthObjects: WealthObjects helps firms launch a bespoke fully automated robo-advisor or hybrid advisory digital wealth platform.
Anton Padmasiri
Founder and CEO of WealthOS
Anton Padmasiri is a Founder and CEO at WealthOS.
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About WealthOS: Enterprise, cloud native core wealth management SaaS. Launch and run superior digital wealth management propositions faster & cheaper.
Andre Costa
CEO & Co-founder of Advicefront
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About Advicefront: Advicefront is an advice platform for financial advisors that combines algorithmic investing with the human side of financial advice.
Josif Grace
Founder & CEO of Legado
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About Legado: Securely and easily organise, store and share your most important documents, files, wishes and memories.
Andrew Firth
CEO of Wealth Wizards
Andrew has been developing internet financial services since he was part of the founding team of Egg in 1998. He has been a leading proponent of the power of the internet to improve financial services since before the dot com boom. He was Marketing Director and Group Strategy Director of Egg, and Managing Director of Egg Investments during his 6 years with the company. He has been the director of several FCA regulated financial services businesses, and is highly experienced at delivering useable web applications to demanding clients. Andrew says “I am passionate about the power of the internet to bring cheaper and better financial services to clients. Ever since digital banking took off for the mass market I have believed that the same should be possible for financial advice. Wealth Wizards is the culmination of many years of thinking about how this can be delivered successfully.”
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About Wealth Wizards: Wealth Wizards is the UK’s first online independent financial adviser and we offer digital regulated financial advice and guidance.
Andries Smit
Founder & CEO of Upside Saving
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About Upside Saving: Upside is Intelligent Cashback as an API, fuelled by Open Banking.
Craig Lemmon
CEO of Miigen
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About 2e-volve, GlobalScot, Miigen: Miigen is a online social platform for older adults.
