# Clare Johnston

> Clare Johnston is a pre-seed investor backing Food and Beverage. See 3 investments, round sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Location: London, United Kingdom
- Total investments: 3
- Last investment: Sep 2022
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarejohnstontheupgroup

Clare Johnston is a pre-seed investor in London focused on Food and Beverage and Packaging Services. Clare is the Founder and CEO of The Up Group, a leading international executive search and networking firm focused on the digital and technology sectors. She has an extensive global network and hosts regular sector events attracting some of Europe’s most exciting investors, entrepreneurs as well as executives from start-ups through to globalcorporates. Clare’s earlier career was as a Management Consultant for Detica, an international technology consultancy, as well as being co-Managing Director of an executive search firm. Having self-funded and grown The Up Group from the ground up to a twenty person business shortly opening its Berlin and New York offices, Clare was recognised in Management Today’s influential ‘35 Women under 35’ list, as well as listed on Growing Business Young Guns 2012 awards. Clare graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Management Sciences from The University of Warwick.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Clare Johnston: work email, personal email, work phone, personal phone and socials. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-email/clare-johnston?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Food and Beverage | 2 | 67% |
| Packaging Services | 2 | 67% |
| Information Technology | 2 | 67% |
| Events | 1 | 33% |
| CleanTech | 1 | 33% |

9 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pre-Seed | 1 | 33% |
| Series A | 1 | 33% |
| Convertible Note | 1 | 33% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Round size | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Code First Girls | Code First: Girls is a multi-award winning social enterprise which works with companies and women to increase the proportions of women in tech. They do this by running free and paid coding courses, training events, and by advising companies on tech talent. Over the past 4 years they’ve delivered £5 million+ worth of free tech education, taught8000+ women how to code for free. Their flagship 2020 campaign - supported by campaign ambassadors such as Dame Stephanie Shirley and Baroness Martha Lane Fox - will see them teach 20,000 young women how to code for free by the end of 2020. They are now the largest provider of free in person coding courses for women in the UK.In addition to the free coding courses and events, Code First: Girls undertakes commercial work with some of world's most well known companies. Clients include companies ranging from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, to Trainline, BT, KKR and Vodafone. Code First: Girls alumnae have gone on to work at companies ranging from Facebook and Thoughtworks to Ocado, Twitter, The Guardian and NASA. | $5.2M | Series A | Sep 07, 2022 | http://www.codefirstgirls.org.uk |
| CupClub | CupClub™ — a returnable packaging service designed to hold both hot and cold drinks. CupClub™ offers a tailored end-to-end service helping to reduce single-use plastic packaging by up to 47%. Not only does CupClub™ make it easy to do the right thing, but the product itself is a step-up from disposable cups - CupClub™'s service uses only halfthe CO2e of disposbles and ceramics (including PE lined, sytrofoam and compostable PLA).All of CupClub™’s products are designed in the UK. Every time they pick up the used units, they schedule drop-off of fresh cups at the same time – each trip is coordinated to be as eco-friendly as possible. Even the process of washing the cups is optimised to ensure the minimum amount of water is used to clean the maximum amount of units.CupClub™ partners with businesses to make drinks-on-the-go more sustainable; working together towards the ultimate goal of eliminating single-use plastics. | $223K | Convertible Note | Aug 01, 2019 | https://cupclub.com/ |
| CLUBZERØ | CLUBZERØ is addressing the urgent global challenge of packaging waste, a significant environmental & economic issue. CLUBZERØ is the pioneering AI-powered zero waste packaging system that is a massively scalable and cost-effective alternative to single-use packaging for cities, asset managers, FMCG & Food Service brands. CLUBZERØ is up to30% cheaper than single-use while offering a full-service experience, including packaging, drop points, and washing & logistics. Unlike compostable options, which face contamination issues and produce greenhouse gases during decomposition, CLUBZERØ achieves true zero waste through a fully circular model. Environmentally, by switching to CLUBZERØ, brands can achieve up to 93% reduction in CO2 emissions. Finally, CLUBZERØ is the only solution that uses AI to enable interoperability, accommodating diverse packaging types and customer needs. To date, CLUBZERØ has launched in the UK and U.S. serving over 1.3 million orders, saving 2.6 million single-use items from landfill and reducing 40 tonnes of CO2. Through extensive pilots, CLUBZERØ has supplied to major brands including Starbucks, McDonald’s, Nestle, Google, VISA, John Lewis & Partners, Wendy’s, Barclays, Coca-cola & Just Eat. CLUBZERØ has earned recognition with awards from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, D&AD Packaging Design Awards, IDEO & Fast Company among others.CLUBZERØ aims to revolutionize the returnable packaging sector using AI-based computer vision and an enhanced deposit model, improving scalability and adaptability across various packaging types, enabling them to grow and compete economically with single-use plastic packaging. Their goal is to deliver the safest, most scalable and cost-effective system for brands in FMCG, Food Service, Retail & QSR. |  | Pre-Seed |  | https://www.clubzero.co/ |

3 of 3 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Active Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/active-partners) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Hermesa](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/hermesa) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

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## Featured in investor lists
- [Food and Beverage Angel Investors in United Kingdom](https://shizune.co/investors/food-and-beverage-angel-investors-united-kingdom)
- [EdTech Angel Investors in United Kingdom](https://shizune.co/investors/edtech-angel-investors-united-kingdom)

## FAQ

### What does Clare Johnston invest in?

Clare Johnston invests primarily in Food and Beverage, Packaging Services and Information Technology startups, most often at Pre-Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 3 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United Kingdom. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact Clare Johnston?

Public channels for Clare Johnston include LinkedIn. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### When did Clare Johnston last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Clare Johnston closed in Sep 2022. Shizune tracks 3 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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