# Ian Merricks

> Ian Merricks is a pre-seed investor at Whitehorse Capital backing Banking. See 3 investments, round sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Oct 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Whitehorse Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/whitehorse-capital)
- Location: London, United Kingdom
- Total investments: 3
- Last investment: Sep 2022
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Oct 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ianmerricks
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/ianmerricks1

Ian Merricks is a pre-seed investor at Whitehorse Capital in London focused on Banking and Robotics. Ian launched the Accelerator Academy, and working with 16 exited entrepreneurs as mentors has overseen the graduation of 74 high growth start ups since 2011, helping to prepare the companies to raise over £10m from private investors, seed funds, syndicates and corporates, creating around £85m of value.Ian is now overseeing the expansion of theAcademy initiative into a full service pan European accelerator network with the sector’s most efficient connections to early stage capital, encompassing the Fast Forward Pre-Accelerator Programme.He also works as Managing Partner of White Horse Capital and sits on the investment committees of the Cabinet Office’s £10m Social Incubator Fund, and the Startup Funding Club. Ian acts as corporate ventures lead for TMT Connect and is a board advisor to Dell UK’s Centre for Entrepreneurs, BCS Entrepreneurs Group and The Entrepreneurs’ Network Westminster think tank.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Ian Merricks: 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/ian-merricks?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Banking | 1 | 33% |
| Robotics | 1 | 33% |
| Software | 1 | 33% |
| Education | 1 | 33% |
| InsurTech | 1 | 33% |

17 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pre-Seed | 1 | 33% |
| Series A | 1 | 33% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 33% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Round size | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Optalitix | Optalitix is an award-winning software provider, that offers a no-code pricing and underwriting platform for global insurers, reinsurers, MGAs and lenders. It converts Excel, Python, and R models into cloud-hosted APIs within minutes, enabling compatibility with advanced tools like reserving models and claims simulations, and enhancing efficiencyand innovation in pricing and underwriting. Our products are easy to use. They enable insurers and lenders to manage risks better, with pricing models that can be used everywhere to boost pricing, improve underwriting performance, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. The company's achievements have been recognised by various prestigious programmes, including the Fintech Innovation Lab, Lloyd's Lab, Mass Challenge, and Oxbow Insurtech 25, as well as winning a number of prestigious industry awards | $5.2M |  | Sep 08, 2022 | http://www.optalitix.com |
| Optalitix | Optalitix is an award-winning software provider, that offers a no-code pricing and underwriting platform for global insurers, reinsurers, MGAs and lenders. It converts Excel, Python, and R models into cloud-hosted APIs within minutes, enabling compatibility with advanced tools like reserving models and claims simulations, and enhancing efficiencyand innovation in pricing and underwriting. Our products are easy to use. They enable insurers and lenders to manage risks better, with pricing models that can be used everywhere to boost pricing, improve underwriting performance, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. The company's achievements have been recognised by various prestigious programmes, including the Fintech Innovation Lab, Lloyd's Lab, Mass Challenge, and Oxbow Insurtech 25, as well as winning a number of prestigious industry awards | $4.6M | Series A | Sep 08, 2022 | http://www.optalitix.com |
| Awen Collective Ltd | The Awen Collective mission is to make society safer by increasing the cyber resiliency of our critical national infrastructures and manufacturers. Awen does this by developing software products purpose-built for all Operational Technologies (OT), whether brand new or legacy.A cyber attack to an energy, water, transportation or manufacturingorganisation could cause significant disruption to society. Awen helps to solve this by developing software which helps these industrial organisations to increase visibility into their operational networks and decrease cyber risk.Within the general concept of Operational Technology (OT) we include: Industrial Control Systems (ICS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, Building Automation & Control (BAC) & Building Management Systems (BMS), Industrial Robotics and the Internet-of-Things (IoT) |  | Pre-Seed | Jan 11, 2018 | https://www.awencollective.com/ |

3 of 3 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Calculus Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/calculus-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Development Bank of Wales](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/development-bank-of-wales) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Inspire Growth Wales](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/inspire-growth-wales) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Whitehorse Capital

VC Fund · New York, United States

WhiteHorse Capital is the credit arm of H.I.G & also is a leading global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with over $21 billion of equity capital under management.** Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliateoffices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/ value-added approach

5 contacts available at Whitehorse Capital.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Daniel Dubé | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/daniel-dube |
| Jeff Wells | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jeff-wells-8c5e |
| John Yeager | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/john-yeager |
| Kimberly Massa | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kimberly-massa |
| Peter McLaughlin | Principal | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/peter-mclaughlin-4 |

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## FAQ

### What does Ian Merricks invest in?

Ian Merricks invests primarily in Banking, Robotics and Software 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 Ian Merricks?

Public channels for Ian Merricks include LinkedIn and X (Twitter). 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 Ian Merricks last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Ian Merricks 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 Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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