Top 30 Beauty Angel Investors in United Kingdom

Sebastian Picardo is an active investor and advisor in the global luxury goods sector.As an investor, he has been very active in the fashion, technology and media sectors for over 9 years, investing in companies like Net a porter, Lyst, Farfetch, Business of Fashion and Highsnobiety. He has also been a venture advisor to London-based FelixCapital, a leading Venture Capital firm investing in digital lifestyle start-ups, since 2014.As an advisor, he has helped brands and retailers in areas such as digital marketing, customer experience, omni-channel retailing and innovation, In addition, he has advised companies wanting to enter and market their brands in China mainland.Sebastian was formerly Deputy President of Asia’s iconic luxury department store Lane Crawford. Sebastian joined Lane Crawford in 2012. As a member of the senior management team, he crafted and drove Lane Crawford’s “connected commerce” strategy, underlying the company's focus on omni-channel retail development to deliver a seamless customer experience.Previous to Lane Crawford, Sebastian was with Burberry where he served as Managing Director - Digital Commerce, based in the London headquarters. Prior to this role, he had helped transform and integrate the brand's Spanish operations into the global business as Managing Director - Operations at Burberry Spain. Before joining Burberry, Sebastian had held various senior finance roles at Net-A-Porter, Alexander McQueen and Deloitte.Originally from Argentina, he is a Chartered Accountant, holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and a Master’s degree in International Finance. Most recently he attended Harvard Business School, where he successfully completed the Advanced Management Program.Sebastian lived in Buenos Aires, London, Barcelona and Hong Kong. He is fluent in Spanish, English, Italian and has an elementary command of Mandarin.

Founder and former CEO at Trouva (backed by Index Ventures & exited to LON:MADE). He is now an Angel Investor & Advisor, and a Board Member at Amnesty International. He was previously an investor at BC Partners, one of Europe’s largest Private Equity funds, investors in Intelsat, Foxtons (where Mandeep was on the board), and Chewy. Prior tothat he was a strategy consultant at OC&C and graduated in Natural Sciences (Physics) from the University of Cambridge. He set up his first startup in his bedroom as a teenage coder.

Laura joined Balderton's investment team in 2018. She spent the previous three years advising technology startups across industries to develop and implement their fundraising and launch strategies as well as their financial and operational structure, in sectors ranging from online retail to healthcare and fintech.Laura was at Goldman Sachsfor five years, first in the Investment Management Division and subsequently the Financial Institutions Group in M&A.Laura undertook neuroscience research in the Brain Sciences Department of Imperial College's Faculty of Medicine. She was a Fulbright Scholar and gained her MBA from Harvard, and she studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford.Laura speaks fluent English and French and her primary focus is later stage investing with the Liquidity I fund.

Claire Cherry is the Investment Partner at Ataraxia & Joyance.

Ian got a master's in machine learning at Cambridge and loves dystopian robot takeover narratives. Seven years ago, Ian realized being a choirboy came with no street cred, so he started DJing hip-hop, funk, drum & bass, and grime. Ian quit his job at Bain & Company, Singapore to start Songkick.

Nikolay Piskunov is an investor.

Sean Phelan

Ben is a Partner at Index Ventures, having joined the London office in 2002. Ben focuses on the software and internet sectors and has been actively involved with many of the firm's consumer and media investments. He currently sits on the boards of Astley Clarke, Grey Area Labs, iZettle, Just-Eat, King.com, Mind Candy, Notonthehighstreet,Rebtel, Secret Escapes, Shapeways, Stardoll and Twoo. He was previously a Director of Panther Express and Playfish (Electronic Arts).Prior to joining Index Ventures, he worked at the NewMedia Spark investment fund, before becoming Vice President at EO plc, a Spark portfolio company in the consumer financial services sector. Previously he spent four years at OC&C Strategy Consultants, advising firms in the retail and IT sectors.He has a Masters degree in Engineering, Economics and Management from Oxford University.

Mike Wroe is the chief financial officer of Just Eat. Previously, he held the same position at Nexagent. Wroe holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nottingham. He resides in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.

Andrew Grahame is a Founder at The Cook & The Thief.He attended St Austell College.

Nigel Wray is a highly successful entrepreneur, and has been a shareholder in several companies amongst others, Domino's Pizza, Carlton Communications and Singer & Friedlander. He also has a strong commercial background built in a range of business sectors.Saracens does a lot of excellent work in its local, north London community.Nigel still calls the area home, too - having attended Mill Hill School, he now lives in Totteridge.

Arjun Purkayastha is a purpose driven leader with extensive global experience managing diverse businesses and multi-cultural teams at FTSE Top 10 and Fortune 100 companies - Reckitt and P&G. He has a strong track record of building outperforming teams, iconic brands & innovative business models across 60+ countries having lived & workedin the UK, Singapore, South Korea.

Nicole Crentsil is the CEO at Black Girl Fest.

James Watt is an Aberdeenshire entrepreneur who co-founded one of the world’s most popular craft breweries, BrewDog.Before embarking on a hop-fuelled journey that would change the face of the beer industry forever, James completed an honours degree in Law and Economics. It didn’t take long for him to discover that the corporate suit-and-tie worldof litigation and libel was not for him, so he packed in his career in a law after a few weeks, opting to return to the bitter cold shores of Northeast Scotland to join his father as a fully-qualified Deepsea Captain.At 24-years-old, James took a new path. Inspired by the bold and experimental beers being crafted by a new movement of brewers on the West Coast of the U.S, James joined forces with friend Martin Dickie, and together the pair started brewing their own beers in Martin’s mum’s garage. In a world dominated by cask bitters and mass-produced lagers, their penchant for heavily-hopped and relentlessly bitter beers made them a unique duo, especially in the town of Fraserburgh. Undeterred by opinion, they pursued their passion through meticulous study, experimentation and boundary-pushing ideas, hellbent on showcasing that beer could be more than just fizzy yellow liquid made by global dominating brewers.2007 was a seminal year for James. BrewDog became a reality, setting up shop on a derelict industrial estate in Fraserburgh between a needle exchange and ‘The Godfather of Carpets’. While Martin took the reins on brewing and production, James focused on growing the business, handling accounts and spearheading the brand’s new breed of irreverent marketing that grabbed headlines for years to come. Not only did the pair produce some of the most exciting beers the UK has ever seen, but James also led the charge on Equity for Punks, a ground-breaking new crowdfunding initiative that would be mirrored for years to come by other brands across the globe. In 2014, James was awarded Great British Entrepreneur of the Year. He is also one of only a handful of people in Europe holding the title of Master Cicerone5, a title reserved for only the most diligent beer experts. In 2016, he was awarded the MBE in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours list. By this time, BrewDog was now 9 years old and boasted a 360-person strong workforce, 26 bars across the UK and Europe, as well as over 14,000 shareholders. Latter achievements include a number of publishing deals. James released Business for Punks: Break All The Rules – The BrewDog Way and co-wrote BrewDog: Craft Beer for the People. These books both showed the impact that BrewDog had on the beer, from both a business and marketing perspective, as well highlighting the importance of exceptional quality products in a world heavily populated by mainstream beer. But times were changing, and James was at the front of the pack, leading the way and carving a new path for the beer world.By 2019, James’ passion for sustainability had become integral to the brand. BrewDog was employing over 2,000 people at this time, with 100 bars located around the globe and over 130,000 Equity Punk shareholders. Amazing beer was still at the heart of everything James was doing, but building sustainability into this world was now not a question of if, but when.So, in 2020, BrewDog announced that they were the world’s first carbon negative brewery – a huge step that would see the industry take note and follow suit with commitments to change the way they do business. James worked closely with Small World Consulting’s Mike Berners-Lee to calculate the businesses carbon emissions and identify ways to reduce these through authentic reforestation programmes, which included a 9,308 acre plot of land in the Scottish Highlands and set forth to embark on one of the largest reforestation projects the UK has ever seen. In just 15 years, the beer world has transformed. Beyond the liquid in your glass, the breweries at the forefront of the movement are more than just suppliers of a product. They are social commentators, integral to local communities and beacons of quality and change. James has been paramount to these developments, showing that beer can be a force for good.

Vikrant Bhargava serves as Managing Partner of Veddis Ventures. Mr. Bhargava founded the firm. Previously, till 2006 he served as the Group Marketing Director of PartyGaming Plc. Mr. Bhargava headed the marketing team during PartyPOker's explosive growth from a start-up site to one with revenues of almost a billion dollars in 2005. He leftPartyGaming in early 2006 to set up Veddis Ventures. Mr. Bhargava served as a Group Marketing Director and Director at iGlobalMedia Entertainment Limited. His experience included positions as a Credit Officer at the Bank of America, responsible for managing credit exposure and revenue for a portfolio of corporate clients and a Business Analyst at British Gas in the business development division. He served as a non-executive Director at SocialGO PLC (formerly Bright Things plc) from January 12, 2010 to February 08, 2012. Mr. Bhargava attended Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (1994) and Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (1996).

Charles Songhurst is a founding partner of Katana Capital, a long-short equity hedge fund. He also runs the Songhurst Group, which holds assets in a variety of private companies.Charles ran corporate strategy for Microsoft and focused on partnering and M&A. He was involved in the Yahoo acquisition and commercial deal, and the Skypeacquisition. Before running corporate strategy, Charles was focused on the emergence of Google and the growth of the search industry.Prior, Charles was an analyst at McKinsey & Company in London. Charles received a bachelor’s degree from Oxford University in politics, philosophy, and economics.

Julien is an investor at Felix Capital where he focuses on SaaS (Worktech in particular) and gaming investments.Before joining Felix, Julien Codorniou spent 11 years at Facebook where he led the global platform partnerships team, helping Facebook partners to build, grow and monetize their mobile apps and games. From 2016 to 2021, he has beenserving as Vice President of Workplace. Under his leadership, Workplace went from 0 to 9 million paid subscribers at companies like Walmart, Grab, GSK, Nestlé, Chevron, MercadoLibre, ServiceNow, Astrazeneca, Lixil, Spotify, Save the Children and many more globally. Julien started his career in finance and before Facebook he was Director of Business Development at Microsoft Corp.Since 2012, Julien has served on the board of the French media group Le Monde. He is the co-author of the book: "The Kelkoo.com success story"published by Pearson in 2005.His former investments, as business angel include companies like TripleDot Studios, Bloom & Wild, Pigment, Xentral, Homesome, Olio, Peanut, Nabla, Curio, Linktree, Airlift Technologies and Sunday.He grew up in France and now lives in London with his wife and their two boys.

Harry Blain

Exited Founder of DesignMyNight (Acquired 2019), Co-Founder trumpet, Founder of Venture Arm Horseplay Ventures, Angel Investor in 55+ Startups and Podcaster

Brent Hoberman is chairman and co-founder of Founders Factory, an ambitious corporate backed incubator/accelerator based in London, and also of Founders Forum, a series of intimate annual global events for the leading entrepreneurs of today and the rising stars of tomorrow. Brent is a co-founder and was founding chairman of Smartup, Grip &made.com, a leading European direct-from-factory consumer homewares retailer. Most recently, Brent co-founded Firstminute Capital, a London-based pan-European seed fund, backed by some of the world's top entrepreneurs. Brent co-founded lastminute.comin April 1998, was CEO from its inception and sold it in 2005 to Sabre for $1.1bn. Technology businesses he has co-founded have raised over $500m. Brent sits on the Advisory board for LetterOne Technology (a $16bn investment fund), the Oxford Foundry and the UK Government Digital Advisory Board. He is a board member of The Economist, a YGL and one of the Prime Minister's Business Trade Ambassadors. Brent was awarded a CBE for services to entrepreneurship in the 2015 New Year's Honour's List.

Errol Damelin is the Founder, CEO, chairman, or original investor and backer of over 75 digital and tech companies around the world, including in the US, the UK, most of Europe, Israel, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, and Nigeria. He concentrates his efforts on SaaS, fintech, crypto, marketplaces and data analytics as well as on health andwellness. He is also a technologist and has three granted patents to his name with another four pending.Among the companies co-founded by Damelin are groundbreaking fintech company Wonga, and SME banking startup Tide. His early investments include Wise, Cazoo, Purplebricks, K Health, YuLife, Sure, Demyst, Zoe, Farewill, CityMapper, Modifi, UnBabel, Thimble, HiBob, Modifi, Elliptic, Lendingkart, and VivaReal. Using his own personal equity, Damelin continues to invest early on in the next generation of entrepreneurs so that he can help them succeed. He is not an institutional VC fund and does not maximize the assets under his management. He best describes his approach as Riding Shotgun.Damelin's success as a founder has been recognized by The Guardian, which named him Digital Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011; by Ernst and Young, which named him the UK's Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011 as well; and by TechCrunch, which named him Founder of the Year in 2010.

Lord Stanley Fink is a non-executive director and investor in British Pearl. He is a senior, well-known and accomplished financial services professional, with a long and diverse track record in, among others, the managed futures, brokerage and hedge fund industries.He was born in 1957 and educated at Manchester Grammar School and Trinity Hall,Cambridge graduating with a degree in Law. He then qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1982 and worked at Mars and Citibank NA before joining Man Group plc in 1987, stepping down as Deputy Chairman of the Group in July 2008 after an illustrious career spanning 21 years including a successful period as Group CEO.Currently he is Chairman of ISAM Europe LLP, a hedge fund with offices in London, Florida and Cayman. He also is a non-executive director of Marex Spectron and Chairman of Zenith Hygiene Group plc.Lord Fink is a committed philanthropist whose focus is health, education and the environment. His roles include being a Trustee of ARK (Absolute Return for Kids), a Trustee of the Mayor’s Fund for London and Co-Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He was Chairman of the highly successful campaign by the Evelina London Hospital's Appeal to raise £10 million to assist in equipping the new hospital in 2005. He is also Chair Emeritus of the Board of Governors of Burlington Danes Academy which he sponsored through ARK. He was raised to the Peerage in 2011.

Swedish entrepreneur Niklas Östberg is the Co-Founder and CEO of Delivery Hero. He holds a Master of Industrial Engineering & Management from Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm & ETH Zurich.Following five years as a management consultant at Oliver Wyman, Niklas co-founded Pizza.nu (later OnlinePizza.se) where he served as afull-time chairman. After winning the Swedish market he was responsible for building up market leading companies in online food ordering in Poland, Finland and Austria. In late 2010, Niklas convinced Team Europe to develop the concept to the German market under the name of Lieferheld (Lieferheld.de) and got the license to use the technology and know-how from the original Swedish company.After a successful market entry into the competitive German market, Niklas Östberg and his team decided to launch the business model internationally under the name of Delivery Hero in May 2011. The company has since then expanded the concept organically and through acquisitions into 34 international markets, and is today the largest global platform for online food ordering with 200,000+ local restaurants in its network, processing more than 10m orders monthly.What initially was a small vision narrowed to the Swedish market has today expanded into a global vision to provide a platform of choice, convenience, reliability and quality. Or, in essence, an entire food court in your pocket.Niklas’ vision is to transform the industry. Therefore services of Delivery Hero will reflect changing eating habits just as new opportunities in technology and logistics.

Vlad Pinskij - CEO @ Endel

Jonathan Goodwin is the Founder, Partner & Head of Merchant Banking of Alvarium & he attended University of Nottingham.

Sharmadean Reid - Chief Executive Officer @ The Stack World

Matt Robinson is the CEO and a co-founder at Nested, a property technology company. Prior to this, he founded GoCardless in 2010 and remains on the board of the recurring payment company.

Dr. Johann ‘Hansi’ Hansmann was born in Austria and studied economics in Vienna. He spent the major part of his professional life working as an executive in the pharmaceutical industry in Austria, Germany, UK and Spain. He gathered several years of entrepreneurial experience running successfully his own pharmaceutical company in Spain afterconducting a management buy-out of a big pharmaceutical plant, making an exit in 2003. Since this time he is active as investor and business angel. He currently holds investments with a geographical focus on Austria, Germany, UK and Spain both internet and in the health industry. He led Runtastic, shpock, mysugr and just recently durchblicker and Busuu to extraordinary exits. He was president of the ‘Austrian Angels Investors Association’ until 2021, was awarded 'Best European Early Stage Investor' in 2016 by eban.org and is now based in Vienna and tries to find spare time to ride his mountain bike.

Tom Adeyoola is Founder of Metail Limited until Chief Executive Officer.Tom Adeyoola spent more than ten years in various senior strategy and product development roles helping start-ups to devise and implement new business models and products. His career has spanned new media from Sportal to 3 and most recently Inspired Gaming Group where he servedas Head of Gaming. Tom Adeyoola is an Economics graduate from Cambridge.

Joe Falter is the founder of Zapp.