# John Makinson

> John Makinson is a seed investor at Pearson backing Gaming and Computer. See 2 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Pearson](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/pearson)
- Location: London, United Kingdom
- Total investments: 2
- Last investment: Sep 2021
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Aug 2026

John Makinson is a seed investor at Pearson in London focused on Gaming and Computer. John's diverse background spans business, consultancy, financial journalism and publishing. He was finance director of Pearson before heading Penguin, and previously served as managing director of the Financial Times newspaper, where he had earlier served as editor of the popular Lex column. John co-founded Makinson Cowell, aninternational financial consultancy, and was vice chairman of the US holding company of advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi. John is chairman of the National Theatre and a director of the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian organisation.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for John Makinson: 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/john-makinson?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Gaming | 1 | 50% |
| Computer | 1 | 50% |
| Hardware | 1 | 50% |
| E-Learning | 1 | 50% |
| Social Network | 1 | 50% |

6 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 1 | 50% |
| Series B | 1 | 50% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 1 | 50% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 50% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Supersocial | Supersocial is an indie games studio focused on creating insanely fun games for the metaverse, starting with Roblox. | $5.2M | Seed | Sep 24, 2021 |  |
| STEM | Kano provides a system of kits and coding platform that enables users to develop apps, games, and music. It teaches kids and adults about computers and coding by way of a variety of do-it-yourself hardware building kits. Also, its computing platform enables someone to build real devices, learn how they work, code them step by step, and share theircreations with the world.The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in London, England. | $28M | Series B | Nov 01, 2017 |  |

2 of 2 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Aream & Co](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/aream-co) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Barclays Corporate Banking](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/barclays-plc) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Breyer Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/breyer-capital) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Griffin Gaming Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/griffin-gaming-partners) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Index Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/index-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Initial Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/initial-capital) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Pearson

VC Fund · London, United Kingdom

Pearson operates as a media and education company in the United Kingdom, other European countries, the United States, Canada, Asia Pacific, and internationally.The company operates through North American Education, International Education, Professional, and FT Group segments. It provides its customers with a range of products and services such ascurriculum textbooks and other learning materials; student assessments and testing services; and education technologies for educators and students from early education through elementary, middle and high school, and higher education. It also publishes educational materials in local languages; English language teaching materials for children and adults; and online learning products as well as offers testing, assessment, and qualification services.In addition, Pearson Education is involved in publishing, training, testing, and certification for professionals; publishes computer, information technology, and business titles; and offers electronic testing for regulatory and certification boards providing a suite of services from test development to test delivery and data management. It also offers a range of data, analysis, and services through various print, digital, and mobile channels to business people and financial institutions.The company publishes Pearson Education was founded in 1844 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

5 contacts available at Pearson.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Harish Manwani | Member of the Board of Directors | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/harish-manwani |
| John Makinson | Finance Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/john-makinson |
| Linda Lorimer | Member of the Board of Directors | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/linda-lorimer |
| Sidney Taurel | Chairman of the Board of Directors | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sidney-taurel |
| Alexa Christon | Chief Marketing Officer | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alexa-christon |

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does John Makinson invest in?

John Makinson invests primarily in Gaming, Computer and Hardware startups, most often at Seed and Series B stage. Most of the 2 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact John Makinson?

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 John Makinson last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for John Makinson closed in Sep 2021. Shizune tracks 2 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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