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 Advertising Platforms 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.
Nick Holzherr
Founder & CEO of Whisk
Whisk helps turn food inspiration into meals on the table, through software that makes the process seamless for users. Nick now leads Whisk at Samsung NEXT, Samsung’s software and innovation division. Before Whisk was acquired by Samsung in March 2019, Whisk had grown from a team of 2 to 32, integrating the world’s largest food ecosystem players in the US, UK, Australia and Germany. As a serial entrepreneur, Nick raised over $2m in VC funding to first found Whisk after pitching Whisk.com to Lord Sugar in the final of the BBC Apprentice 2012, where he achieved the series’ best task-win record. In 2017 Nick was awarded an honorary doctorate from Aston University. Nick and his businesses have been featured in leading publications including Newsweek, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The BBC and The Next Web.
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About Air, Samsung NEXT, Whisk: Whisk powers the creation, discovery, personalization, and monetization of food content online, in-store, and at home.
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Ido Erlichman
Group CEO of Kape Technologies
Group CEO at Crossrider
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About Kape Technologies: Kape Technologies is an online distribution and digital product hub.
Calum Smeaton
Chief Executive Officer and Founder of TVSquared
For the past two decades, Calum has dedicated his professional life to starting and growing innovative software and e-commerce startups. After being entrenched in the world of data analytics for years and seeing firsthand how data can transform an industry, Calum founded TVSquared in 2012 to bring state-of-the-art analytical capabilities to TV advertising. Calum is recognized for building outstanding global teams; in fact, many of his employees have been with him for more than 10 years. He thrives on taking a company from idea to exit and is regularly tapped by journalists, analysts and event organizers to discuss his unique management strategies and his fervent belief that data-driven decisions need to be at the cornerstone of every business. Before TVSquared, Calum was the CEO of Sumerian, a provider of big data analytics for retail and investment banks. He was also the co-founder and CTO of Orbital Software, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange and merged with Sopheon PLC in 2001. Outside of work, Calum is an avid outdoorsman, who can frequently be found all over the world kite-surfing, snowboarding and sailing.
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About AdNews, TVSquared: TVSquared is the global leader in TV attribution.
James Draper
Founder and CEO of Bidstack
From Bidstack.com: James founded Bidstack in 2015 utilising more than 15 years of commercial experience to launch his own business. Since the initial launch he has seen the company grow from a one man operation to an international business which trades on the London Stock Exchange. Under his stewardship, Bidstack became the first ever Crowdcube funded company to go public and he pivoted the business into gaming in 2017. James leads the business as a whole and is responsible for the company’s direction, growth, development, and vision.
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About Bidstack: Bidstack empowers brands to place advertising into spaces that sit naturally within video games.
Evren Kacar
Founder, CEO of DAN Global
15 years of experience in digital marketing and agency business. Established Synergy, one of the first generation of digital marketing agencies in 2002. In line with the rising trends, Co-founded Boomerang Social Media Agency in 2010. Managed both agencies and supported the development of digital marketing industry in Turkey with DijitalAjanslar.com which began as a local network for digital agencies in 2013. Witnessed the rise of the digital age. Gained deep experience in all areas of digital marketing, working with global brands and Turkey’s most respectable brands since 2002, as the definiton of web agencies became interactive agencies with web 2.0, and digital agencies as of today. Established DAN Global in Turkey to provide online platforms, industry knowledge and various tools to support digital marketing agencies and global community of marketers. Expanded his business to the UK in 2017, and established DAN Global (UK) Ltd. in London which owns and operates the Digital Agency Network (DAN), an all-in-one platform to discover the best digital marketing agencies in the world.
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About DAN Global, Digital Agency Network: DAN Global provides online platforms, industry knowledge and various tools to support digital agencies and global community of marketers.
Titus Sharpe
CEO of MVF
Titus is CEO and Co-Founder of MVF, one the world’s fastest growing customer acquisition firms. He has a passion for starting Internet companies and has had two successful exits thus far. Titus co-founded Approved Index in 2004, built it into the UK’s largest B2B Lead Generation firm and then sold it to Reed Elsevier in 2008. In 2001 Titus co-founded a Web Development agency called Moodia, specialising in website optimisation. The company was sold to Zone Content in 2009. Titus is also a Fulbright Scholar and holds a first class degree in Artificial Intelligence.
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About Goals for Giving, MVF, Profind: MVF provides Customer Generation for some of the world’s largest companies.
Stephen Upstone
Co-Founder & CEO of LoopMe
Stephen Upstone is an established figure in the mobile industry, having worked in mobile advertising since 2006, at the world’s leading mobile companies, including Ad Infuse (sold to Velti), LoopMe and many more. He has very strong experience in mobile and an excellent track record in sales, growth and general management in venture capital backed mobile technology companies including two company sales and one NASDAQ listing. Stephen was Managing Director Europe for Ad Infuse (sold to Velti) and then VP Sales and Business Development Europe for Velti after the takeover. Stephen was part of the senior management team that successfully listed Velti on the NASDAQ and was present in New York for the ringing of the opening bell, raising $300 million USD and reaching over $1 billion USD in valuation. Whilst at Ad Infuse and Velti, he opened offices across the globe, helping to build a multi-million dollar business, working with companies such as Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, Sky and Daily Mail. Prior to Ad Infuse Stephen worked at Touch Clarity (sold to Omniture), FirstCapital, Universal McCann and Lowe Howard Spink. As an experienced mobile advertising expert, Stephen founded LoopMe, the world’s largest mobile video advertising platform, reaching over 2 billion consumers worldwide. Since LoopMe’s foundation, Stephen has opened ten offices all over the world and grown its employee base from only a handful to over one hundred in under three years, developing the company from a start-up to a successful medium sized company with a monthly revenue in the high six figures. Stephen is also Chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association UK Advisory Board, a member of the EMEA Board and a supporter of the mobile marketing and advertising initiatives. Stephen was previously Co-Chair of the Global Advertising Committee and was a Member of the IAB Mobile Advertising Committee.
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About LoopMe: LoopMe is focused on brand advertising, using AI, attribution, and analytics to deliver measurable outcomes.
Adrian Pearmund
Founding Partner & CEO of Cablato
Adrian has been working in programmatic marketing since 2010. Founded Intelligent Futures independent trading desk in 2013 and subsequently Cablato in 2015. Strong media and business background (LBi, KPMG, WPP) proven success at building innovative businesses.
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About Cablato, Conviva: Cablato develops and deploys broadcast quality video personalisation technology for OTT & addressable TV industries.
Nick Moutter
Co-founder and CEO of Admedo
Nick Moutter is an adTech entrepreneur and commercial leader with proven experience developing and commercializing cutting-edge enterprise technology solutions for some of the world’s largest advertisers and agencies. Passionate about simplifying and improving online advertising through highly scalable, data driven enterprise technology. Nick founded Admedo to help make RTB available to the masses, through its low cost self serve model.
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About Admedo, Admedo: Admedo is a self-serve online advertising platform that focuses on developing performance-driven tools.
Siavash Mahdavi
CEO of AI Music
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About AI Music, University College London (UCL): Exploring the relationship between music and AI to enable a new age of music consumption
Ted Nash
CEO & Co-Founder of Tapdaq
Ted Nash built his first business aged 12 and eventually became the first teenager in the world to achieve 1 million app installs. He’s slightly crazy. FUN FACTS Ted is a talker, but he doesn’t get everything his own way. Ted currently holds the record for the fastest fail in a UK motorbike test – 3 seconds (he crashed into the starting gate).
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About Liquid5, Liquid5, Tapdaq: Tapdaq helps mobile developers to maximise their revenue with unbiased ad mediation, and retain their most valuable users.
Sean Riley
Founder & CEO of Ad Dynamo
Sean Riley is founder and CEO at Ad Dynamo. Prior to this, he was managing director at Entelligence Ltd. and had worked one at E-Data Solutions and Credit Suisse.
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About Ad Dynamo: Ad Dynamo is Africa’s largest digital media sales house. Ad Dynamo manages sales in Africa for Twitter, Oath, Snapchat & Spotify.
Shashank Sripada
Founder and CEO of Bubblo (BubbleScene Ltd.)
Shashank Sripada is the Founder and CEO of Bubblo and is currently associated with Marcena Capital Ltd as the company’s Vice President. He is also a former Associate at Oak Investment Management Group. He earned hos Bachelor’s Degree in Science (BSc), Economic History at London School of Economics and Political Science and had his Master’s Degree in Science, Management at the same school.
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About Bubblo (BubbleScene Ltd.), Marcena Capital Ltd: Bubblo is an artificial Intelligence based virtual reality discovery app and marketing platform.
Sonny Michael Holmqvist
CEO of Basebone
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About Basebone: Basebone is a digital content business focused on the mobile phone user. We are the creators and owners of baseplay streaming services.
Damian Collier
Founder & CEO of Blend Media
Damian Collier is a British producer, entrepreneur and business consultant for music, film, TV and stage. Collier has produced both independently (through Damian Collier Entertainment) and has collaborated with major record labels including Sony BMG, EMI, Universal Music, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing and major film and TV studios such as Paramount Pictures, Fox, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation. He has experience in film, television, music recording, music publishing, licensing, merchandising, theatre, novels and comics. He also holds the position of managing director of the Jeff Wayne Music Group.
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About Blend Media: Blend is the world’s leading 360˚ VR video solution for Brands, Agencies and Publishers.
Jigar Patel
CEO & Co-Founder of The Ticket Fairy
COO & Founder at The Ticket Fairy. CEO & Founder at Desinex Group International.
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About Desinex Group International, The Ticket Fairy: Full-stack event marketing, ticketing, analytics and advertising platform
Henry Hyder-Smith
Founder and CEO of Adestra
Henry has been working within the email marketing industry since its inception. As co-founder, Henry leads the board of Adestra and has a unique understanding of different clients’ needs, industry issues and development. Henry has a hands-on approach, and is devoted to keeping Adestra’s products, services and staff at the cutting edge of email marketing.
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About Adestra: Adestra is a trusted provider of First-Person Marketing solutions for global and growing brands.
Peter Mason
Co-Founder & CEO of Illuma
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About Illuma: Leading the way in contextual scaling for online advertising campaigns. Privacy friendly, without using cookies or personal data.
Mark Hain
Founder and CEO of DingIt.tv
Mark Hain is the founder and CEO of DingIt.tv.
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About DingIt.tv: DingIt is a leading destination for premium eSports and Gaming content
Philip Bock
Chief Executive Officer of Supervisual
Philip Bock is 25 years old and works as a creative in advertising. He recently launched his first startup, Sponsta, which now takes up most of his time in London where he lives with his girlfriend and their rabbit.
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About Supervisual: Connects brands with a global community of creators and instantly facilitates creative collaboration.
Jonno Hulford-Funnell
CEO of Novatiq
As a serial tech entrepreneur, purpose-driven leader and the co-founder of Novatiq, Jonno has been at the forefront of data-driven marketing since 1995. He has raised startups on three continents and held executive positions in multinational corporations, most recently Experian where he led the global data management practice at Experian Data Quality. Dedicated, clear thinking and unfailingly cheerful, Jonno combines his proven company-building and go-to-market experience to lead our next stage of business growth.
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About Novatiq: Provider of privacy-first identity solutions that enable telcos, brands and publishers to verify and reach their audiences.
Lee Cassingham
CEO and Founder of Viewex
Founder at Viewex
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About Viewex: Find hidden ad revenue on your website
Mike Anderson
CEO of Padoq
Mike Anderson is the chief executive of Padoq, a Manchester-based networking platform which launched in May 2018 following a £400,000 fundraising round. The platform provides spaces for community organisers to more easily engage with and organise their communities. The serial entrepreneur’s first venture, Jolly Goods, was sold in 2017. He then started award-winning digital agency Nothing But Epic. He has raised over £1m in funding in the past two years and was named ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the UK Business Tech Awards last year.
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About Padoq, Rabipearl: Padoq is the intelligent mobile platform that allows companies to launch branded mobile apps at a fraction of the normal time and cost.
Paul Coggins
CEO of Adludio
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About Adludio: Adludio is a next generation mobile advertising platform to create, distribute, and optimise campaigns.
Jidé Maduako
CEO of Yoke Network
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About Yoke Network: We help apps grow by driving downloads through social media influencers & providing tangible business value.
Pierre Figeat
CEO and Co-Founder of Admo.tv
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About Admo.tv: Admo.tv is the best TV analytics platform that helps TV & radio advertisers to measure and optimise the online impact.
Tino Nombro
Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Ambergreen Internet Marketing
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About Ambergreen Internet Marketing: Ambergreen Internet Marketing is a well-renowned digital marketing agency in the UK, creating bespoke internet marketing solutions.
Michal Marcinik
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of AdTonos
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About AdTonos, E2E: Creating innovative technologies for voice commerce, enabling voice transactions. Bringing the power like Adwords has to audio advertising.
Rob Gay
CEO and Co-founder of Venatus
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About Venatus: Venatus is a global advertising technology platform, focused on gaming and entertainment.
Giuseppe Licari
Co-Founder and CEO in GreenJinn of GreenJinn
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About GreenJinn: GreenJinn is the leading UK cashback app for grocery shoppers. It helps brands to reach consumers where they live the most: their smartphone
Daniel Chubb
CEO of Product-Reviews
Daniel is the CEO of Dansway Communications LTD and founder of product-reviews.net; a top blog dedicated to breaking tech news, hands-on reviews and delivers real solutions to everyday consumer electronics hang-ups. The site serves over 2 million monthly unique readers and has 5 full time writers. It also has a number of guest contributors and has produced millions of dollars in revenue through its advertising. Daniel now spends his time keeping an eye on the latest technology and business trends. Also developing other blogs/news sites in the entertainment and business industries.
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About Product-Reviews: Product-Reviews is an online resource for product reviews, trending apps, news, and more.
Chris Sahota
CEO and Founder of Ciesco
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About Ciesco: Corporate finance advisors to technology-enabled media and marketing businesses
Si Brown
Founder & CEO of skignz
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About skignz: skignz: A Precise Location AR platform providing an Enterprise API/SDK that is capable of placing digital content anywhere on the planet
Damon Francis
CEO of Advenue Limited
CEO
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About : Global advertising exchange for desktop and mobile. Proprietary technology and independent.
Piero Buttazzo
Co-founder & CEO of ZeniAd
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About ZeniAd: We deliver interactive advertising experiences to virtual reality content.
Piero Buttazzo
Co-founder & CEO of ZeniAd
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About ZeniAd: We deliver interactive advertising experiences to virtual reality content.
Frank Monkam
Co-Founder; CEO of Pyrablu Inc.
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About Pyrablu Inc.: A Dynamic and Interactive Gamified News Platform
Orlando Lupsa
CEO of Top Restaurants Offers
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About Top Restaurants Offers: Top Restaurants Offers is a dining booking platform that focuses on exposure, advertising, and customer experience.
Seb Lyall
CEO / Founder of Locappy
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About Locappy: Locappy helps small local businesses reach out to their local community.
