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 Founder operating in the Personal Finance space. If you think a Founder 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.
Crawford Taylor
Co-Founder & CEO of Nude
Crawford is the CEO of Nude, a savings account and financial friend for first-time home buyers. He was previously a senior owning partner at Hymans Robertson LLP, one of the largest independent pension consultants in the UK. After spending decades helping older people save for retirement, he is now helping the younger generation buy their first home. He wants to make the home buying experience easier, faster and fairer for young people across the UK. He started Nude to change an outdated, complex and unfair home buying experience that has ultimately resulted in Generation Rent and a growing financial gap between home owners and renters. Nude is the first to guide home buyers all the way, from saving their first £5 through to paying off their mortgage. His ultimate vision is to help people tick off every major financial milestone – there’s children’s accounts, retirements savings and plenty more to fix. Whatever the goal, the focus is always to make it easier, faster and fairer for people to save for it.
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About Nude: The new way to save for and purchase your first home.
Marty Bell
Co-Founder of Nude
Co-founder of pre-launch fintech startup Nude and sunglasses brand Tens, with a background in building and growing exciting brands for millennial audiences. Tens launched in 2014, picking up 10,000 customers in the first 8 weeks, before receiving significant investment from Sir Richard Branson in 2016 to accelerate growth of the international audience. Tens’ in-house marketing campaigns have been featured by press worldwide. Marty is also founder of Poolside FM; a super-summer internet radio station with 350,000+ annual listeners. Featured by TechCrunch, Harpers Bazaar, The Next Web, VICE and (for some reason) tweeted by multiple tech billionaires.
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About Nude: The new way to save for and purchase your first home.
Stephen Doherty
Co-Founder & COO of Nude
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About Nude: The new way to save for and purchase your first home.
Charles Hayter
CEO and Co-Founder of CryptoCompare.com
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About CryptoCompare.com: We bring you all the data in the world of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Blockchain in an easily digestible value added format.
Vlad Cealicu
CTO and Co-Founder of CryptoCompare.com
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About CryptoCompare.com: We bring you all the data in the world of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Blockchain in an easily digestible value added format.
Virraj Jatania
Founder & CEO of Pockit
Co-founder of Pockit, a leading prepaid card provider in the UK. Second generation of leading personal care and cosmetics business Lornamead that was sold to Li & Fung in December 2012. Interested in investing into businesses as well as operating early stage tech businesses.
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About Pockit: Pockit is a financial technology company that provides a digital banking app for the underbanked masses.
Romina Savova
Founder and CEO of PensionBee
Romina Savova is Chief Executive Officer of PensionBee, the leading online pension manager she founded to simplify pension savings in the UK, following a harrowing pension transfer experience of her own. Romi began her career at Goldman Sachs at the height of the 2007 global financial crisis in the Credit Risk Management and Advisory Division, working in New York and London. In 2012 she joined Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division to advise major banks, insurance companies and pension providers. In 2014 Romi followed her entrepreneurial spirit to become employee number four and Head of Corporate Development at Credit Benchmark, which has subsequently grown to be one of the world’s most successful B2B data start-ups. Fascinated by the emerging world of financial technology, Romi incorporated PensionBee shortly thereafter. Romi earned an MBA from Harvard Business School as a George F. Baker scholar and graduated summa cum laude from Emory University. In 2017, she was named Entrepreneur of the Year at computing.co.uk’s Women in IT Excellence awards.
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About PensionBee: PensionBee: the clever way to find and combine all your old pension plans in one good-value, online plan Capital at risk.
J.D. Rainey
Founder and CEO of Finmo
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About Finmo: Finmo is a financial management tool for self employed workers with a focus on improving financial health and filing taxes.
Ricky Knox
Founder of Azimo
Ricky is a serial investor and entrepreuner. He has built five technology disruptors in fintech and telecoms, each of which also does a bit of good for the world. Before Tandem he founded Azimo and Small World, two remittance businesses, and is managing partner of Hexagon Partners, a private equity firm. He built Tandem to be a digital bank that helps improve customers’ lives with money. Ricky has a first class degree from Bristol University and an MBA from INSEAD.
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About Azimo, GSM Systems, Tandem: Azimo is an online money transfer company that provides a fast, secure, and low-cost alternative to legacy high street remittance services.
Juan Montalvo Bressi
Co-Founder & Chief Risk & Analytics Officer of Tymit
Juan Montalvo Bressi is the Co-Founder and Chief Risk & Analytics Officer of Tymit.
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About Tymit: Tymit is a provider of credit cards that offers financing purchases overtime and manages the monthly budget.
Alex Mollart
CEO & Co-Founder of Oplo
Alex Mollart is the Chief Executive Officer of Oplo.
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About Oplo: Oplo is a direct lender platform that offers car finance, personal loans, and secured loan products.
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.
Thomas Olszewski
Founder & CEO of Koyo
Thomas Olszewski is the Founder and CEO of Koyo.
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About Koyo: Koyo uses machine learning to serve customers with competitively priced credit
Edoardo Moreni
Founder & CEO of Emma
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About Emma: Emma is a financial app advocate that helps users avoid overdrafts, find wasteful subscriptions, and allows users control of their finances.
Antonio Marino
Co-Founder & CTO of Emma
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About Emma: Emma is a financial app advocate that helps users avoid overdrafts, find wasteful subscriptions, and allows users control of their finances.
Tim Perkins
Co-Founder & Director of Nudge Global
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About Nudge Global: Brighter financial futures for everyone, everywhere
Jeremy Beament
Co-Founder & Director of Nudge Global
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About Nudge Global: Brighter financial futures for everyone, everywhere
Brett Shanley
CEO & Founder of Knoma
Brett is the Founder and CEO of Knoma, the Knowledge Market, offering a payment solution and marketplace for lifelong learning. He passionate about equipping people for the future of work and providing sound financial options.
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About Knoma: Knoma offers a payment solution and marketplace for lifelong learning.
Martin Lewis
Founder of MoneySavingExpert
Martin Lewis is the Founder of moneysavingexpert.com . He launched the site on 22 February 2003. He sold moneysavingexpert.com for 87 million pound. Lewis, a former Sunday Express and News of the World columnist who also writes for the Telegraph and doles out financial advice on several TV shows, is sharing the windfall around. The site’s 42 employees will all get a slice of the money and he has announced that he will donate £10m to charity. He is giving £1 million to Citizens’ Advice as a response to the “terrible funding cuts” it has suffered, and the rest will be distributed through the Charities Aid Foundation.
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About MoneySavingExpert, Moneysupermarket: MoneySavingExpert.com is dedicated to saving you money on anything & everything by finding the best deals and beating the system.
Kerem Ozelli
Founder, Director of Cygnecode Ltd.
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About Cygnecode Ltd., d:code:it – DCODEIT LTD.: Creators of Flick a Trade. London based tech company designs, develops and operates trading games and gamified financial applications.
James Turk
Founder of Goldmoney
James began his career at Chase Manhattan Bank where he worked on assignments in Thailand, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. Since, he has been the manager of the Commodity Department of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and held various advisory roles in money management. In 2001, he co-founded Goldmoney with his son Geoff Turk and remains an active board member and advisor today.
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About Goldmoney: Goldmoney is a financial services group that combines the unique attributes of gold with technology-driven innovation.
Jonathan Galore
Founder of Trussle
Jonathan Galore is an operating executive at [Silver Lake Partners](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/silver-lake-partners#/entity), a private investment firm focused solely on making large-scale investments in leading technology companies. He also founded and heads Trussle. Previously, he was the chief technology officer of Wonga. Galore also worked as the VP of product at Wealthfront. Galore holds an MBA from Stanford University.
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About Silver Lake: Trussle is a free online mortgage broker that works with much-needed transparency.
Ben Davies
Co-Founder and COO of Hugo Save
Ben Davies is the Co-Founder and COO at Hugo Save.
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About Hugo Save: Hugo is a digital account that helps you spend, save and invest, starting with gold.
Braham Djidjelli
Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Hugo Save
Braham Djidjelli is the Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at Hugo Save.
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About Hugo Save: Hugo is a digital account that helps you spend, save and invest, starting with gold.
Kerim Derhalli
Founder and CEO of invstr of Invstr
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About Invstr: Invstr is a fintech app empowering investors to invest with commission-free investing and banking.
Gerald Chappell
CEO and Co-Founder of Fintern
Gerald Chappell is the CEO and Co-Founder at Fintern. Prior to starting Fintern, Gerald was a partner at McKinsey where he lead the digital lending and credit analytics practices globally.
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About Fintern: Fintern is a lending startup looking to offer an AI-driven alternative to costly payday loans.
Tom Richardson
Co-Founder and CPO of Lumio Technologies
Tom Richardson is the Co-Founder and CPO at Lumio Technologies.
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About Lumio Technologies: Lumio is you Intelligent wealth mentor. With the simple aim to maximize your money around your lifestyle
Adrian Shedden
Co-Founder and COO of Lumio Technologies
Adrian Shedden is the Co-founder and COO at Lumio Technologies.
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About Lumio Technologies: Lumio is you Intelligent wealth mentor. With the simple aim to maximize your money around your lifestyle
Charlie Richardson
Co-Founder and CEO of Lumio Technologies
Charlie Richardson is the Co-Founder and CEO at Lumio Technologies.
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About Lumio Technologies: Lumio is you Intelligent wealth mentor. With the simple aim to maximize your money around your lifestyle
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.
Karen Barrett
Founder & CEO of Unbiased.co.uk
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About Unbiased.co.uk: Platform connecting consumers to professional advisers
Robert Pasco
Co-Founder & CEO of Plend
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About Plend: Building a better way to borrow, where people are no longer held back by their credit history
James Pursaill
Co-Founder & CTO of Plend
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About Plend: Building a better way to borrow, where people are no longer held back by their credit history
Richard Jelbert
Founder and CEO of Inzura
Richard is an industry expert on the use telematics and mobile Apps in motor insurance. Richard has been working closely with a range of broker, direct insurers and other technology providers to build next generation mobile centric Apps that support whole lifecycle customer journeys. Working closely with Autoline, Richard and Inzura have developed the ChilliDrive Young Driver insurance App and social platform. Previously Richard was the Founder and CTO of MyDrive Solutions, a telematics service provider, and CEO of Vzzual Ltd the app-based photo analysis business for insurers.
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About Inzura: Inzura’s customer engagement Apps and cloud-based services cover the major personal insurance lines.
Shrenik Patel
Co-Founder & CTO of Moneyjar
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About Moneyjar: Moneyjar is an online financial ecosystem that provides sophisticated investment advice and seamless transactional platforms at scale.
Ben Toogood
Co-Founder of Kytra
Co-Founder of Kytra, Software Engineer, Contracting CTO, lover of life.
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About Kytra: Kytra is the place to discuss investment opportunities and compete against your friends in designing the world’s best investment portfolio.
Sam Younger
Co-Founder of Kytra
Entrepreneur, software engineer, investor, stock broker, tractor driver, barman. Co-founder of https://kytra.app
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About Kytra: Kytra is the place to discuss investment opportunities and compete against your friends in designing the world’s best investment portfolio.
Dennis Reed
Co Founder of Fairstone
Dennis Reed entered retail financial services in 1988 with FPS Management and the French re-insurer, Groupe des Assurances Nationale (GAN) where he progressed from financial adviser to regional director within three years. In 1995 Dennis co-founded Inter-Alliance Group which, at its peak, was one of the UK’s largest national IFAs. He was responsible for the management of the group’s northern division, ultimately encompassing six regions and 500 advisers. Dennis was fundamental to delivering the successful AIM listing of Inter-Alliance which went on to deliver a market capitalisation of £225M. Dennis co-founded Fairstone in 2008 and has been integral to growing the business from a start-up to its present position as a market leader. He heads up the business development function that promotes Fairstone’s unique
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About Fairstone, Fairstone: Fairstone Financial Management Ltd is one of the UK’s largest Chartered Financial Planning firms.
Amandeep Singh
Founder & CEO of Comparism
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About Comparism, Comparism, EquiTipz: Comparism is an online portal to help you with personal finance and money saving tips.
Marvyn Halfon
Co-Founder and CEO of Folio App
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About Folio App: Folio is a mobile app providing users with the ability to create intelligent savings projects and collaborate with others.
David Boyd
Co-Founder of Credit Card Compare
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About Credit Card Compare: Credit Card Compare are updated as and when the banks update their offers so you’ll always be comparing fresh information.
Andrew Boyd
Co-Founder of Credit Card Compare
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About Credit Card Compare: Credit Card Compare are updated as and when the banks update their offers so you’ll always be comparing fresh information.
Andy Cooper
Founder | CEO of Bill Hut
Andy is currently working as co-founder on a pre-launch service named Bill Hut. Website : www.billhut.com Blog: www.blog.billhut.com
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About Bill Hut: Bill Hut is an online platform that makes managing bills in house shares easy and transparent from one applciation.
David Evans
Founder of Hootloot Limited
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About Hootloot Limited: Personal financial management for families
