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 Angel Investment 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.
Andrew Sillitoe
co-CEO of Apax Partners
Andrew Sillitoe is a Partner and Co Head of the Tech & Telecom team. Andrew is also a member of the Executive, Investment, Approval, Portfolio Review and Exit Committees. He has been based in London since joining the firm in 1998 and has focused on the technology & telecommunications sectors in that time. Andrew has been involved in a number of deals, including Orange, TIVIT, Trizetto, TDC, Intelsat/Panamsat and Inmarsat. Prior to joining Apax Partners, Andrew was a consultant at LEK where he specialised in advising clients on acquisitions in a number of sectors. Andrew holds an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford and an MBA from INSEAD.
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About Apax Partners, LEK Consulting: Apax Partners is an independent global partnership focused solely on long-term investment in growth companies.
Matt Hagger
Founder & CEO of E-Man Venture Labs
English born entrepreneur and investor in the technology space. He is widely regarded as one of the country’s most influential product directors with a focus on customer behaviour, user experience and logic, winning many awards for his work, as a founder or consultant/advisor to major global consumer brands and high paced start ups. At only 21, Matt created Net Sorcerer; the first real-time desktop news alerts platform in the UK, winning a patent & innovation award from the UK’s DTI, raising investment in excess of $500,000. The platform was later adopted by Sky News/Sports to deliver breaking content in real-time. Matt creates and incubates technology out of his startup studio e-Man labs whom he Founded after graduating from business school aged 21. The company now boasts 7 figure turnovers with a small but dedicated team of 26. E-Man is incubating AR game Snatch and doctors on demand service, Zoomdoc. Both set to launch out of beta in Early 2017. Matt is in the Co-Founding team and was an initial shareholder, in both. Matt is an investor and Co-Founder of Bizk.it a business tools platform for start ups and small business owners. He also has an investment in Redeemia, which launched in September 2012 and followed this with investments in Pocket High Street, Juxtafeed, Burn This (acquired by BodyBoard), 123 Friday and Octane Inc in 2014. In 2016 Matt invested in ANA, Wise Amigo, Zoomdoc, 123 Friday and Snatch. Matt was the Founder and CEO of Samsung Ventures funded, Zkatter, in San Francisco until 2013 and now he spends his time based London with offices in Los Angeles as he works on the launch and scale of a start up called Doppels, based in Venice Beach. Matt remains the company’s Co-Founder and CEO.
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About E-Man Venture Labs, Snatch: e-Man is a start up studio and launches 3-5 companies per year
Scott Weavers-Wright
Founder, CEO & Partner of Haatch
Scott is best-known for founding one of Britain’s largest e-commerce businesses Kiddicare.com which was subsequently acquired in cash for £70m, by Morrisons, one of the UK’s largest supermarkets. Reaching 6th on the Retail-Week Power List, Scott is regarded by many as one of the UK’s most innovative business professionals in retail. After the Kiddicare acquisition, Scott became Managing Director and Chief Architect for Morrisons.com and has a wealth of experience in building and scaling large e-commerce businesses across the UK, most notably Kiddicare.com. Founding Haatch, Scott has invested in, and developed businesses in the areas of ad tech, B2B SaaS (software as a service) and retail tech within the FMCG market including Elevaate, founded in 2014, enabling supplier monetisation programs across retailer websites.
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About Haatch, Kiddicare: Award-Winning Investors from Pre-Seed to Exit. Investments via Haatch Angel and our SEIS, EIS & Follow On funds from Haatch Ventures.
Stephen Welton
Founder,CEO of Business Growth Fund
Stephen Welton has over 20 years of experience in the development capital and private equity industry. He joined Business Growth Fund (BGF) after 10 years with CCMP Capital (formerly JP Morgan Partners) a global private equity firm. Stephen was a Founder Partner and member of the investment committee. He has extensive experience as an investor working with private companies, most recently as Chairman of Edwards, the global engineering group headquartered in the UK. Before this, he was Chairman and CEO of TV Travel Shop prior to its successful sale to a global media group. He also has 10 years of UK private equity and growth capital experience as Managing Director of Barclays Private Equity and at Henderson Ventures, which he co-founded. In January 2013, Stephen joined the advisory group formed specifically to guide the UK government on the direction and priorities of the proposed Business Bank, a Government funded institution looking to provide lending and support to small and mid-sized businesses. He started his career in banking, has a law degree from Durham University and is a qualified Barrister-at-Law. Stephen became Chief Executive of BGF in 2011 and is responsible for overall strategy and day to day management of BGF, as well as chairing the Investment Committee.
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About Business Growth Fund: Business Growth Fund is an influential investor in small and mid-sized businesses.
Sarah Turner
Co-founder & CEO of Angel Academe
Founder at Angel Academe.
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About Angel Academe: Angel Academe helps engage female founders and co-founders with their tech startup to a unique pool of, mainly female angel investors.
Maulik Sailor
CEO of Innovify
Maulik has a deep and long lasting passion for entrepreneurship and wanted a way to share that passion with the world. That’s why he founded Innovify. A company that allows him to help new entrepreneurs take their ideas to market and watch their companies flourish. His history working for leading companies like Nokia, Microsoft, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, Betfair, and Visa gave him the experience and contacts that every new startup dreams of having, while his unique vision and creative spirit will help your company achieve lasting success in the marketplace. A few startups Maulik has been founder/co-founder includes Innovify, Landbay, Kwanji, Brickowner, Instantt and more. Maulik obtained his MBA (Distinction) from Imperial College, London, MSc from Brunel University, London and B. Eng. from Sardar Patel University, India.
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About CodeMonk.ai, Innovify, Tech London Advocates: Innovify is a digital venture studio enabling startups and corporates to convert their ideas in to Most Lovable Products
Matt Perkins
Chief Executive Officer of Oxford University Innovation
Dr Matt Perkins joined Oxford University Innovation (OUI), the research commercialisation arm of Oxford University, in October 2016 during a time of both great change and growth for the company. Over 2016, OUI saw its spinout company rate double, while the wider innovation ecosystem around Oxford continues to evolve rapidly. As OUI’s Chief Executive Officer, it is Dr Perkins’ responsibility to guide OUI through these changing times to have an even greater impact, and to pioneer ways in which OUI can continue to enhance its offer to the University and the surrounding ecosystem. Prior to taking on the CEO role at OUI, he was President of Space Imaging at e2v for 18 months where he assembled a new management team to help transform the division. Space was also a focus for the previous eight years, spent as Group CEO at Surrey Satellite Technology ltd, the world’s leading small satellite mission provider. Matt held a variety of technical and management roles for Filtronic Comtek (part of Filtronic plc) from 1993 to 2007, including setting up manufacturing in China, bolstering the growth of a business unit and leading the global engineering and project management teams. Matt is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and has a BSc and PhD in electronic and electrical engineering from the University of Leeds.
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About Oxford University Innovation: Oxford University Innovation manages the university’s technology transfer and consulting activities.
David Forbes-Nixon
Co-Founder,Chairman & CEO of Alcentra Group
David is the co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive of Alcentra. David chairs the Alcentra European Investment Committee and acts as Senior Portfolio Manager of Alcentra’s distressed/Special Situations funds and Strategic Credit Fund. He also acts as Senior Portfolio Manager of the Special Situations business. David sits on the Executive Committee of BNY Mellon Investment Management and the BNY Mellon Operating Committee.Prior to founding Alcentra, David worked at Barclays Capital from 1995 to 2003 where he was Managing Director, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Barclays Capital Asset Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barclays Group Plc and the predecessor firm of Alcentra. Whilst he was at Barclays he set up the par loan trading business and served as a Director of the Loan Market Association (LMA) and chaired the LMA Valuation Committee.David worked at Bankers Trust from 1992 to 1995 where he was a Vice President and head of European leveraged loan distribution and prior to that worked at Chemical Bank from 1987 to 1992 in New York and London in the structured finance and loan syndication departments.David graduated from Birmingham University with a BSc (Hons) in Chemical Engineering.
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About Alcentra Group: Alcentra is a global asset management firm focussed on sub-investment grade corporate credit.
Adam Pritchard
CEO of AlphaBeta Investments
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About AlphaBeta Investments, Cypaw: We seek early stage cybersecurity technology & provides seed investment to commercialise the most promising innovations.
