Top 50 Platforms Angel Investors in United Kingdom in November 2024

Jaan Tallinn is the Co-Founder of the Centre for Study of Existential Risk and Future of Life Institute.

Hilmar has been leading CCP Games’ ongoing success and growth since his appointment as Chief Executive Officer in 2004. Under Hilmar’s management CCP’s critically acclaimed science-fiction game EVE Online celebrated an unprecedented ten consecutive years of subscriber growth. In addition, Hilmar has put CCP into the pole position in the VRrevolution by embracing the new technology early. The company released virtual-reality arcade shooter Gunjack for the Samsung Gear VR in 2015, which has been the best-selling game on the platform since launch. And in early 2016 CCP released EVE: Valkyrie, a hotly-anticipated multiplayer spaceship dogfighting shooter built from the ground up for virtual reality, bundled with Oculus Rift pre-orders. EVE: Valkyrie will ship on HTC Vive and PlayStation VR on PlayStation 4 later in 2016. Before his appointment to the CEO position, Hilmar held the title of CCP's Chief Technical Officer, heading the engineering effort required to create the company’s persistent world technology and 3D engine. Prior to joining CCP in 2000, he served as the CTO of SmartVR, an OZ.com spin-off based on that company’s multi-user virtual reality technology following his tenure as the VP of software development for the OZ Studios division of OZ.com.Currently, he is also active on a number of boards and committees relating to Icelandic information technology and innovation. Hilmar has a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Iceland.

Theo Osborne is a Managing Partner at 9Yards Capital.

Emre Kurttepeli is a Serial Entrepreneur & Investor and is the Founder & Chairperson of Mynet Group, Turkey’s leading internet company with over 32 million users and Founder & CEO of Mynet Games, a global mobile gaming company.Columbia University/NY graduate, he has been the founder or the investor of over 50 internet andtechnology companies, mostly leaders in their own categories that ranges from e-commerce companies to vertical social network sites, mobile and gaming companies, including Trendyol, Insider, Iyzico, RemoteTeam and vc fund that invests in the internet and technology space. Additionally he is an investor in C24 Gallery, a prominent contemporary art gallery in Chelsea/New York.He is the President of Endeavor Turkey and Galata Business Angels (GBA), that are non-profit organizations helping to grow the entrepreneurship ecosystem. He serves on the Board of Endeavor Global, TOBB Turkish Venture Capital Industry Council and TOBB Turkish Entrepreneurs Council. Besides being on the advisory board member of Columbia University Global Center in Istanbul, he also is a member of YPO and is an Ashoka fellow.

Nate Macleitch - CEO @ QuickBlox

Ian Livingstone CBE is one of the founding fathers of the UK games industry. He co-founded iconic games company Games Workshop in 1975, launching Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer in Europe.He co-authored The Warlock of Firetop Mountain with Steve Jackson in 1982, writing 14 titles in the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series which has sold over18 million copies worldwide. He designed Eureka, the first computer game published by Domark in 1984. He joined the Domark board in 1992, overseeing a merger that created Eidos plc in 1995 where he served as Executive Chairman until 2002, and as Creative Director until 2006. At Eidos he launched global video games franchises including Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. He co-authored the influential Livingstone-Hope Next Gen review published by NESTA in 2011, recommending changes in ICT education policy. Following publication, he chaired the Next Gen Skills campaign, working with government to introduce the new Computing curriculum in schools in 2014. In the Wired 100 list for 2012, he was ranked the 16th most influential person in the UK’s digital economy. He was listed in the 2015 Debrett’s 500 of most influential people in UK.Roles (as of May 2016): Founder and Chairman of the Livingstone Foundation, Chairman of Playdemic, Chairman of Midoki, Chairman of Sumo-Digital, Chairman of PlayMob, Chairman of Antstream, Chairman of The Secret Police, Chairman of Flavourworks, Vice Chair of UKIE, Patron and Non-executive director of Creative Skillset, a Member of the Creative Industries Council, Non-executive director of Creative Industries Federation, Non-executive director of Creative England, Non-executive director of Young Rewired State, GamesAid Trustee, Advisory Board Member of GameCity, and Adviser to the British Council.

Sir Terry Leahy joined Cheshunt, England-based Tesco in 1979 and held marketing positions at the retailer before becoming commercial director of fresh foods in 1986 and a member of the board in 1990. Leahy was appointed Chief Executive of Tesco plc in March 1997.Leahy received a Knighthood for services to food retailing in the 2002 New YearHonours. He was voted as Britain’s Most Admired Leader (2005 and 2006) by Management Today, recognized by the Wall Street Journal and CNBC as European Business Leader of the Year (2005), and named European Businessman of the Year by Fortune (2004). A Guardian Unlimited Politics panel found him to be the most influential non-elected person in Britain in 2007.Leahy is a Director on the Liverpool Vision Regeneration Board and a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Council.In 2010 he received the Daily Telegraph’s Award for a Decade of Excellence in Business, a Lifetime Achievement award from Director Magazine, and was voted Business Person of the Year by the Sunday Times.Sir Terry Leahy retired from Tesco in March 2011.

Nadav Ben-Chanoch - Partner @ Pareto Holdings

Stewart Butterfield serves as the CEO and Co-Founder at Slack Technologies, Inc. Stewart Butterfield serves as the President of LudiCorp Research and Development Ltd. Stewart Butterfield directed the 11-member design group (creative/visual/UI, production & QA) at Communicate.com, where he acted as design lead or managed teams onmillions of dollars worth of projects for companies like HSBC and Sears Travel. He co-founded Flickr at Yahoo! Inc. Stewart Butterfield has served in the W3C's XForms working group and has been active in many other professional organizations. He has also a long consulting interaction design career, most recently with Telus, the CBC and The Economist. Stewart Butterfield founded the 5K competition, a lo-fi, high-profile design award, which has been featured everywhere from Playboy to Le Monde to USA Today. He serves as a Member of Advisory Board at Wantoo Networks Incorporated. Stewart Butterfield is a frequent speaker on design and technology topics at professional and academic events across Europe and North America. He was recently named to the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and is a nominating judge in the Webby Awards (for Best Practice). In 2001, he was nominated for a Chrysler Design Award. In 2006, Time magazine’s put him on their list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Stewart Butterfield received a BA (Hons. with Distinction) in philosophy from the University of Victoria, and an MPhil in philosophy from Cambridge University, graduating with a First.

Thomas Paul Mann is the CEO and Founder at Raycast.

Allison Pickens is an internationally known thought leader on Customer Success and scaling teams during hyper-growth. As former Gainsight's Chief Operating Officer, Allison manages corporate strategic planning, corporate development, and operational responsibilities that are critical to the company and its customers’ success.Allison wasnamed one of the top women leaders in SaaS, one of the 50 people in the sales and business development industry, and named a Customer Service Influencer. She is an international speaker and blogger, and the host of The Customer Success Podcast. She also serves as a Board Director at SaaS companies RainforestQA and eCompliance and is a Growth Operating Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. She has a passion for helping companies create exceptional Customer Success initiatives across their company.Allison built and scaled Gainsight’s post-sales functions, including a global team of more than 150 team members across Customer Success Management, Professional Services, Support, Business Operations, Customer Marketing, Value Consulting, and Customer Engineering. Before that, she built Gainsight's Sales Development and Business Operations, teams.Allison started her career in management consulting for Fortune 500 companies while at Boston Consulting Group and later worked in private equity investing at Bain Capital. At both companies, she helped organizations drive change and scale teams. Allison has a BA in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University, as well as an MBA from Stanford University. On weekends you can find Allison geeking out about blockchain or hiking in the Marin Headlands.

Prior to founding AdMeld, Mr. Barokas was Vice President of Advertising for JumpTV. He also spent 6 years at AOL in a variety of online advertising leadership positions including senior manager on the team that developed and launched the AOL video platform. Mr. Barokas served on the IAB's Broadband Committee.

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.

Mr. Shishir Mehrotra is a Co-Founder/CEO of Coda since June 2014 and served as Strategic Advisor to the Chief Executive Officer from December 2015 to May 2017. Mr. Mehrotra is the CEO and Co-Founder of Coda, Inc. He served as Vice President of Product and Engineering, Youtube/Video at Google Inc. Mr. Mehrotra served as a Director ofProduct Management for Google TV Ads and YouTube Ads at Google Inc. He served as Director of Program Management at Microsoft. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Centrata, Inc. Prior to working with Centrata, he was part of the team that brought the Microsoft Office email client to the market. He was Director of Program Management at Microsoft. He held positions at the W3C, Taurus Telysys and the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He is accurately regarded as one of the most knowledgeable people in digital content and technology. He has been a Director of Victorious, Inc. since July 23, 2015. He served as a Director of INVIDI Technologies Corporation. Mr. Mehrotra holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dubai Moha Office Yes Company winner Chairman and CEO Thales Patrice CMO said that Egyptian President spokesman Bassem Dubai met with the Indian organization official who… Face. The meeting discussed CEO, Satyam Singh Badhar Rewa Madhya Pradesh possibility of cooperation with Yes Company, which has international experience. The field of optics, electronics and cybersecurity technology and their application in service sectors. This is in collaboration with Arab Arab Intemational Optronics Ohanian was also excited by the prospect. “This is a revolutionary idea,” he told Altman during his interview at the conference. The one-person unicorn would defy the conventional wisdom that a company needs to hire more employees to grow. “It's going to be a new phenomenon,” Ohanian said.Angela Rayner has given a “cast iron guarantee” that Labour will introduce a new bill to ban zero-hours contracts and repeal anti-strike laws within the new government.       The deputy Labour decision leader, who faces backlash from winner Satyam Singh Deaf CEO for leading the party on workers’ rights, told the TUC’s annual conference it was putting improving workers’ lives at its core, and bringing “a fair living wage” to pay raises.       Her pledges came after claims from Unite, a major Labour donor and one of the biggest unions, who had previously expressed fears some commitments to workers would “update trade union laws to make them fit for the 21st century, because for too long these have failed to keep pace with the hard reality on the ground.”       Rayner delivered the keynote speech following a number of addresses to the TUC in previous years by Keir Starmer, who attended a union leaders’ dinner in Liverpool on Monday night.  Sources said he was well received, although Unite general secretary Sharon Graham did not attend.

David is a technologist, the founder of Unity Technologies, non-exec director to others, and a restless entrepreneur with a passion for creating feedback loops between innovation and teams and products, applying new and old business models to changing industries, and pushing people to do the very best they can do.David's background is inprogramming, an assortment of university dabbling, creating companies, and helping entrepreneurs. He served as CEO of Unity Technologies since co-founding it in 2003 and until October 2014, with an unflinching vision to democratize game development, and to develop technology and business models for the next phase of the games industry. David Helgason attended the University of Copenhagen.

Throughout his highly successful international career, Jeff Pulver contributed to helping to launch the VoIP industry in 1995 and helped grow it to what has now become a two trillion dollar global industry in 2019. As an Internet Pioneer known for his work in VoIP, Jeff literally helped change the way the world communicates. Jeff launched the firstphone network on the Internet known as Free World Dialup in 1995; launched the VoIP Industry Trade Show VON in 1997; founded the company which is now known as Vonage in 1998 and worked with policy makers in Washington, D.C. which resulted in the landmark order issued by the FCC in 2004 known as “The Pulver Order.”His work in Washington on getting “The Pulver Order” passed is the reason services like: FaceTime, Telegram and WhatsApp are free both in the US and in over 100 countries around the world. Jeff has influenced the creation of numerous startups and has invested in over 400 startups. Currently exploring the intersection of: Blockchain and Finance. As Co-Founder of The Local Group, Jeff is a passionate advocate of Programmable Securities and Digital Assets. Strategic adviser to Blockchain projects.

Prior to co-founding OpenSignal in 2010, Brendan spent over 10 years building solutions to help people understand and improve mobile service and experience. In 2007, he was part of the team that launched RepeaterStore, which provides signal boosting solutions to improve wireless cell and data reception in buildings, homes and vehicles. Brendan wasnamed in the Telecoms Business Power100 in 2017. He holds a Physics degree from Oxford University.

Catherine Chew

Current positions: Chairman, Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia; Member, Board of Centre for Engineering Leadership and Management, Engineers Australia; Member Standards Australia Strategy Committee; Council Member Swinburne University of Technology and member of Audit and Risk Committee.Former positions: Group Board member andDirector, Arup Group Ltd; Chairman Global Infrastructure, Arup Group; Member Living with Environmental Change Strategy Board UK; CEO and Chairman, Arup Australasia; Chair Buildings Standards Sector Board Standards Australia; Chair and Director Australian Construction Industry Forum; Director Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation; President and Chair Association of Consulting Engineers Australia; Director Association of Consulting Engineers Australia; Chair National Engineering Registration Board; Member Advisory Board, University of Cambridge Program for Sustainability Leadership.Other achievements: OPM Program, Harvard Business School 1996-98; One of Australia's 100 Most Influential Engineers in 2004 to 2007 inclusive; One of five finalists as "CEO of the Year", Equal Opportunity in the Workplace Agency, 2002; Director of RedR Australia Ltd 1998-2001.

Guy Johnson

Biz Stone is the Co-founder and CEO of Jelly Industries, Inc. He previously worked at The Obvious Corporation as a Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer. Biz Stone attended Northeastern University.

Luca Martinetti - Co-Founder and CTO @ TrueLayer

Eren Bali is the CEO and Co-Founder of Carbon Health. Eren leads the Carbon team towards his vision to democratize healthcare and make quality care accessible for everyone. Previously, Eren paved the way to make education accessible by founding Udemy, the world's largest marketplace for online courses, with over 10 million studentsworldwide. In his youth, Eren was a star mathematician, winning awards in mathematics, physics, computer science and chess including the International Mathematical Olympiads. He still loves chess today and plays to unwind after a long day at the office.

Zack Kanter - Founder & CEO @ Stedi

Mike is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sling Money. He previously worked at Monzo Bank as a Chief Product Officer.

A true business visionary, Nick has established some of the most successful fast-growth digital companies of the last two decades. In recognition of his contribution to the digital industry, he was recently shortlisted as one of the top 20 most influential and inspirational Britons in the BIMA Digital Hall of Fame.Nick founded Somo in 2009 withCarl Uminski to help companies make sense of the huge opportunities and the disruptive potential of mobile technology. In his role as CEO, Nick defines the overall strategy, has recruited the team, and shaped the culture of Somo, establishing corporate-scale governance in this rapid-growth business.Nick was formerly CEO and owner of The IMW Group, comprising search marketing agency, The Search Works, and digital tech business, The Technology Works. He launched operations across Asia, with offices in Tokyo and Seoul, and established The Search Works as Europe’s largest search agency, before the group was acquired by TradeDoubler AB in 2007 for $112 million.Before that, Nick was founder, CEO and President of Overture Europe. Here he launched the paid search industry in Europe, building Overture from a start up to an established billion dollar business across 16 countries, in just 30 months. Acquiring AltaVista FAST Technology Search along the way, Overture secured exclusive, multi-year distribution deals with every premium portal and ISP in Europe. The company was sold for $1.63 billion to Yahoo! in 2003 and became Yahoo! Search Marketing.In his early career, Nick created the electronic points system for Air Miles, transforming a struggling paper voucher business into a $62 million per annum profitable business in four years. Nick developed and implemented Air Miles loyalty schemes across NatWest, BT and Vodafone (building their first customer database). He also introduced the world’s first national Smart Card programme for Shell, and the ‘Reward’ loyalty scheme for Sainsbury’s.Nick’s career began as a fast-track graduate at British Airways, where he led a number of global initiatives. Appointed as BA’s youngest senior manager at the age of 29, he was sponsored by the airline to complete an MBA at the University of Bath in 1992.

I help developer tech entrepreneurs beginning from crazy idea, through MVP stage, product market fit, go-to-market fit, up to go-to-market scaling. Also I help you get your first 1000 leads. Before, I was the CMO at Contentful and helped it grow from $0m to $50m in ARR, and before that founded 3 companies, including Wooga (exit to Playtika),Linklift, and Mundwerk.I obsess about being customer-centric and customer-driven in building your organization. And I am the curmodgeon who tells you things you need to (but probably don't want to) hear.

As co‑founder and UK Managing Director James leads the UK business and is responsible for overseeing the overall strategic direction and day‑to‑day operation of Funding Circle in the UK. James co‑founded Funding Circle in the UK in 2010 after seeing how difficult it was for small businesses to access funding and wanting to build something better.Prior to Funding Circle James was at OC&C Strategy Consultants where he advised companies on strategy and growth across the retail, media and services sectors.James has a first class Economics and Management degree from Oxford University.

Dilek was actively investing as an angel and being an active chairwomen since 2017. She has been an angel investor in companies like Picus Security, DataRow (acquired by AWS), Genomize, and Genialis, having a board seat on multiple of them.Previously she was an investor at 212, an early-stage technology venture capital in İstanbul. She investedin companies like IyziCo, the biggest Fintech company in the region and Insider, global marketing automation software, funded by Sequoia Capital and so on.Prior to 212, Dilek worked at Groupon as Director of Strategy and Analysis, Management Consultant at Accenture and Business Developer at Koc Group. She started her career in the USA, where she held different project management positions and also started her own startup.Dilek received a BA honors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yildiz Technical University and MBA from Johnson & Wales University, both with honor degrees. Dilek is also one of the first Kauffman Fellows, chosen from Turkey and distinguished by scholarship. She is also a founding member and leader of Arya Women Investment Platform. She is a guest lecturer at Stanford University and a judge at European Commission. Dilek was awarded as One of the Most Successful Women Leaders in Turkey, thanks to her contributions and impact on tech industry.Outside the office, Dilek loves to experience authenticity in new destinations. She is a competitive basketball player, a serious artwork collector, and an avid reader of books. She puts deliberate effort to spend quality time with her loving family and friends; informative pastry cooking sessions with her daughter, sophisticated board games while drinking coffee with relatives and friends, or book clubs to foster intellectual curiosity between friends and colleagues. She also jumps every morning to find the leaders of future who will be able to create big impact and help them at their journey. It is fascinating to witness how her life outside the office enriches her work as an investor.

Michael Herf - President @ flux

Adam Clayton is an Irish musician who is the bass guitarist of the rock band U2.

Brian is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Airbnb. Brian drives the company's vision, strategy and growth as it provides interesting and unique ways for people to travel and changes the lives of its community. Under Brian's leadership, Airbnb stands at the forefront of the sharing economy and has expanded to over 1,000,000listings in 190 countries. Brian met co-founder Joe Gebbia at the Rhode Island School of Design where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design.

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.

Mr. Li Ka-shing is the richest person of East Asian descent in the world and the 11th richest person in the world with an estimated wealth of US$26 billion (as estimated by Forbes). His primary operating company is Hutchison Whampoa Limited. Mr Li's younger son, Richard, is Chairman of PCCW, one of Asia's leading internet andtelecommunications companies.Mr Li Ka-shing is the Chairman of Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited and Hutchison Whampoa Limited. Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited is the flagship of the Cheung Kong Group which has business operations in 54 countries around the world and employs about 240,000 staff. In Hong Kong alone, the Group includes nine listed companies with a combined market capitalization of approximately HKD600 billion (30 June 2009). Hutchison Whampoa Limited is a Fortune Global 500 company.Born in 1928 in Chiu Chow, a coastal city in the southeastern part of China, Mr Li fled to Hong Kong with his family to avoid the perils of war. His father suffered from tuberculosis and passed away in Hong Kong. Shouldering the responsibility of looking after the livelihood of the family, Mr Li was forced to leave school before the age of 15 and found a job in a plastics trading company where he labored 16 hours a day. By 1950, his hard work, prudence and his pursuit of excellence had enabled him to start his own company, Cheung Kong Industries. From manufacturing plastics, Mr Li led and developed his company into a leading real estate investment company in Hong Kong that was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972. Cheung Kong continued to expand by acquiring Hutchison Whampoa and Hongkong Electric Holdings Limited in 1979 and 1985 respectively.Based in Hong Kong, the Cheung Kong Group's businesses encompass such diverse areas as property development and investment, real estate agency and estate management, hotels, telecommunications and e-commerce, finance and investments, retail, ports and related services, energy, infrastructure projects and materials, media, and biotechnology. Mr Li is a strong believer in synergy — the power of combined efforts. This belief is reflected in his naming his company Cheung Kong Holdings after the Yangtze River that flows through China, a great river that aggregates countless streams and tributaries. The Times in the United Kingdom and Ernst & Young UK jointly named Mr Li as the Entrepreneur of the Millennium at the turn of the century.http://www.hutchison-whampoa.com/eng/about/chairman/chairman.htm 30 June 2009

Mehmet E. is the Co-founder & CEO at Layer.

Nicolas is a firm believer of “culture-first” companies and am focused on building just that at Algolia where team empowerment is how they accomplish their goals. Prior to co-founding Algolia with Julien, he spent over 12 years working on information retrieval at Exalead and Thales.At Algolia they believe every website and app deserves greatsearch! they offer a hosted Search API that helps developers deliver an instant and relevant search experience. We’ve seen that search is a great touch point to optimize – they regularly see double digit increases in engagement on sites when they improve their search UX.When they founded Algolia in 2012 it was originally going to be a local SDK for mobile app search. They changed direction and realized that they needed to offer search as a hosted SaaS service, but it was those early mobile optimizations that gave us their unique advantage. They are one of the few search solutions that has been developed from scratch, and they never would have gone that direction if they hadn’t originally been focused on mobile search.His focus has been first and foremost on making Algolia a great place to work. They have a unique culture here that values ownership as its pillar. They want to create a company where every team member takes initiative, gets out of their comfort zone, is empowered to make decisions; in short: be free to be their best.He is recently spoken at SaaStock on the challenges of running a company based in both Paris and San Francisco. His priority lately has been on scaling their growth and ramping up their team size.

Hosain Rahman is the CEO and founder of Jawbone®, a world-leader in consumer technology and wearable products. Hosain has led the company to build innovative and elegantly-designed products for the way we live today. Hosain has been honored in: Fast Company’s Most Creative People, Vanity Fair’s New Establishment, and Fortune’s 40 Under 40. He haskeynoted for TED, DLD, LeWeb, SXSW and the D: Mobile Conference. In 2014 he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

Semyon Dukach is the Founding Partner of One Way Ventures. He previously worked at SharpSpring as a Board Chairman. Semyon Dukach attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mark Gretton

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.

Aviv Nevo - Professor of Economics and Marketing @ Northwestern University

Carl is an internet industry pioneer with over 16 years’ experience creating new products, platforms and executing scalable growth strategies for businesses across the globe. Carl’s impact on the mobile industry was recently acknowledged by The Drum, who named him the most influential person in mobile.As COO & Co-Founder, Carl takes hands onleadership for the delivery of all Somo’s products and advertising businesses, splitting his time between our international offices.Carl has a unique knowledge of the mobile industry ranging from technical challenges to the commercial opportunities for brands to succeed in mobile. He has advised and executed for over 60 international brands on their mobile strategy, working with the leaders of companies including Audi, Groupon, Zynga, Fidelity Investments & BP.Prior to founding Somo, Carl was co-founder at Overture Europe, the company to pioneer the multi-billion dollar pay-per-click advertising industry into Europe. As CTO, he was integral in leading the business to success in 15 European countries, and its eventual sale to Yahoo! for $1.63 billion in 2003. A leader in search and social networking, he was headhunted to the Silicon Valley, where he created the Yahoo! One Search mobile platform, working with some of the world’s largest mobile brands. Previously, Carl was responsible for running real-time systems such as aircraft parking, flight information and security at seven British airports including London’s Heathrow Airport.

Scott is an American entrepreneur and angel investor. He is best known as a co-founder of IronPort and an early advisor and board member at PayPal.Scott Banister started his career as a pioneer in the email business. He was Founder and VP of Technology at ListBot, the largest ASP for business email list hosting. ListBot was acquired byMicrosoft. After ListBot, Scott spent his time working with other start-ups as a board member and investor. These start-ups include eVoice, creator of the first email-enabled home voicemail service, which was acquired by AOL in 2001. He served as VP of Ideas at idealab!, where he contributed numerous innovations, including the unique bid-for-placement search engine model that powers Overture. In December 2000, with Scott Weiss, Banister co-founded IronPort, an email appliance provider that was acquired in 2007 by Cisco for US$830 million.Scott Banister is co-founder and Chairman of Other private equity investments include Zappos.com, LiveOps, Facebook, Hi5.com, Tagged.com, iLike, and Causes.com.Banister attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from which he dropped out in 1996 to move to Silicon Valley. He currently lives in Half Moon Bay, California with his wife Cyan.

Nevo is the owner of NV Investments, a venture capital firm that is believed to invest in technology companies around the world. Vivi has also been backing The Weinstein Company. His mutli-million fortune has built up through his investments to cable companies with the initial $10 million that he inherited. He has bought some big stakes in Comcastand U.S. West and Charter Communications. Today, some of his earnings come from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and recently, with Twitter.

Cyan Banister is a partner at Founders Fund, where she invests across sectors and stages with a particular interest in augmented reality, fertility, heavily regulated industries and businesses that help people with basic skills find meaningful work. Prior to joining Founders Fund, Cyan was an active angel investor with a portfolio including Uber,Thumbtack, SpaceX, Postmates, EShares, Affirm and Niantic, creator of Pokémon GO. A self-taught engineer and entrepreneur, Cyan has held a number of technical leadership positions throughout her career. As an early employee at IronPort, which was acquired by Cisco, Cyan oversaw support infrastructure and performance for a global customer base. She has a passion for the arts and is a voracious film, documentary and media consumer.

Nicholas Berkeley Mason, CBE is an English drummer and founder member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd.

Edward Gazelle is the co-founder of Propoly.

Melih is one of the pioneer Internet entrepreneurs in Turkey. Born in Istanbul, he studied Computer Engineering and MBA at Bogazici University. After one year of professional experience in Citibank, Melih founded yemeksepeti.com with his partners in 2000. Yemeksepeti.com became the online food delivery giant first in Turkey, and then in Middle Eastand Eastern Europe. As a co-founder, Melih has acted as CTO of the company until 2013 and as Board Member until May 2015, when the company was acquired by Delivery Hero writing one of the biggest Internet exit stories in the region. Melih has been selected an Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2007. Since 2011 he has been an active angel investor in internet and technology companies with more than 30 investments. He is one of the cofounders of Galata Business Angels, which is one of the first business angel networks in Turkey. He is a founding member of EO Turkey. Melih lives in London now with his family and continues to invest in tech start-ups globally.

Paolo Rubatto is Managing Director of Start Capital. His background is mainly entrepreneurial, advising startups from the consumer internet to the life sciences sector in their business development strategies as well as in their fundraising. He holds an MBA from London Business School.

Software designer turned investor 👨‍💻 Design: Facebook, Messenger, Dropbox 🌱 Capital: Figma, Vercel, Vanta, Framer, Perplexity and more