Top 50 Retail Angel Investors in United Kingdom in January 2025

Paul Forster

Will Martin - Founder and Director @ Portfolio Ventures

Richard started in his career in advertising but has since shifted his attention to start-ups. As an investor/advisor to over 50 early stage companies, including Sofar Sounds, Blaze, Dojo & What3Words, Richard has learnt a lot about what it takes to launch & grow a start-up. He also the co-founder of the ‘Friday Club London,’ a‘non-profit’ events company aimed at providing start-ups free access to senior marketing expertise. Since launching, over 250 start-ups have benefitted from the programme. And in exchange for their advice, industry mentors have had access to the UK’s brightest founders. In 2013 & 2014 Richard was named in BIMA’s ‘Hot 100’ list and in 2016 and 2017 short-listed for the Europas ‘Investor of the Year’ award.

Tom Singh OBE is the Founder of New Look, a leading UK entrepreneur and active private investor with family interests spanning: retail, technology, real estate, renewable energy sectors and private equity. He currently holds the position of Non-Executive Board Member for New Look with over 900 stores worldwide which he founded in 1969.Inaddition to his responsibilities at New Look, Tom is a founding member of: the Social Investment Task Force, the Chairman of the UK Advisory Council for the British Asian Trust, and is a Trustee of the Pakhar Foundation. Tom is an active philanthropist and social investor and in recent years, has taken an increasing interest in the world of technology.

Will Brooks - Founder & Director @ Portfolio Ventures

Simon set up online bookstore Bookpages in 1996 and sold it to Amazon in 1998. As VP Europe for Amazon, he managed huge growth from start-up through to multimillion turnover and hundreds of staff. As an Angel investor, he has invested in Shazam, been chairman of VideoIsland (now merged with and renamed LoveFilm, and purchased in Feb 2011 byAmazon.com), Zoopla! and Shutl (currently chairman).Simon founded and funded FriendsAbroad.com, a social network for developing language skills and contacts abroad which was successfully sold to Lesson Nine GmbH, operators of language learning site Babbel.com. Simon is currently CEO of StormForward, an e-commerce conversion consultancy which helpsonline retailers to increase their online salesand profits.

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.

Haluk Can Hür

Kevin Taylor is a coder turned entrepreneur who lives in the Chicagoland area, where he makes things out of words, bytes or flour, depending on his mood.Kevin has suffered from a lifelong obsession with entrepreneurship and is an angel investor and advisor for early-stage start-ups. He has a current interest in brick-and-mortar or otherold-school business models that are ripe to receive exponential boosts by leveraging technology.He consults on how to start up and successfully grow professional services businesses, such as software development, web design, headhunting and recruiting, etc. He also works as CTO-for-Hire to help startups without technical co-founders successfully get their product development off the ground.Career highlights:Former Co-Owner of EventWax, LLC, an online event registration company.Former Lecturer in Technology Entrepreneurship at DePaul University, where he designed and taught courses for both undergraduate and graduate students.Former Director of Engineering at Groupon.Former President and Founder of Obtiva Corporation, an Agile and Ruby on Rails development shop acquired by Groupon in 2011. Co-Founder of the Software Craftsmanship North America conference.Early promoter and adherent to Software Craftsmanship values and practices and practitioner, trainer, and coach in the areas of Agile Project Management, Extreme Programming, and software development.

Mr. Commercial. Was the innocent co-CEO & sales director who led the international expansion to exit. Ex McKinsey UK & Jo'burg and former Virgin marketing manager. St John's college, Cambridge- economics.

Phil studied finance and accounting at Salford University and went on to qualify as a management accountant shortly after. He has worked for various retail, FMCG and tech companies over the last 20 years, with 8 years spent working for Amazon, where he held various finance roles and learned about scaling a business. His most recent role wasleading finance for Amazon’s European Operations, before joining Deliveroo in 2016 as CFO, helping scale the organization rapidly. Although his favorite job ever was investing in bars in Germany and Austria. Outside work Phil has 4 children, is engaged with a number of European based Start-ups and small enterprises covering various industries such as VR/AR, Media, Security, Software, and e-commerce.

Tjaart van der Walt is the Co-founder & Director at Tyme. He attended Stellenbosch University.

Paul Birch resides in central London, England. He graduated from University (Imperial College) many years ago - but now believes the University of Life has much more to offer than traditional education.Paul's background is systems analysis. He has loved the Internet since the first day he went online back in 1996. He's been surfingthe Internet ever since and has applied many surfing discoveries to BirthdayAlarm. He also enjoy's travelling and helps run Adventura Singles Holidays.Paul has fun everyday, by helping bring a little extra joy to people's lives through the Birthday Alarm service. Formerly himself a 'bad boy' at remembering birthdays - he is of course now excellent!

Marc Hazan is the Vice President Of Premium Business Development at Spotify (https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/spotify#/entity), a commercial music streaming service that provides digital content from a range of record labels and artists.

Jeroen Sibia

Tom is the Chairman of SPARK Venture Management and has a long track record in backing, chairing and developing some of Europe’s most successful internet, technology, music, games and software businesses. Additionally, he has 20 years’ prior investment banking experience acquired at Credit Suisse, Bank of Montreal Nesbitt and Mitsubishi Bank,where he held various positions including Head of Corporate Finance, Trading and Syndicate. Tom was Executive Chairman of SPARK Ventures plc for 10 years until 2011 and now chairs SPARK Venture Management, which manages the SPARK Ventures plc portfolio and other significant technology and life sciences portfolios including funds from major institutions and 27 Oxford University colleges and the UK Government. Tom has operated hands-on after his City days in many small and fast growing businesses from start up to IPO or trade sale. Thus, unusually, he combines awareness of the capital markets and the M&A environments with that of entrepreneurial, rapid growth companies with mould-breaking ideas.

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.

Guy is an entrepreneur and investor who’s experienced online/technology businesses at pretty much every level – from 1-man startup to global multinational. He is Co-founder & CEO at Lavanda in London. Guy knows what it means to roll your sleeves up and get your hands dirty, whilst understanding the need to establish scalable processes thatcan support rapid growth. He is passionate about culture and working with exceptional people to build innovative businesses that create meaningful value. He speaks Spanish, French and Italian. Studied at the ESCP Europe and University of Bristol. His interests are UX, e-commerce, web 2.0, social media, cloud computing, analytics, ECM, Business process management, web content management, software, business solutions, strategic marketing, consultancy, innovations, cinema, music, literature, current affairs, entrepreneurship, start-ups.

Matt Cooper is Chairman of Octopus. Before joining Octopus, Matt was Principal Managing Director of Capital One Bank (Europe) where he led the team guiding strategy and operations. He helped the UK arm grow from a start-up to a business employing more than 2,000 people and generating over £275 million in revenue.

Operations guru. Was the co-CEO and COO of innocent, behind much of the process and operations still in place there today. Ex Bain Consultancy. St John's College, Cambridge - Engineering.

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.

Dimiter Tschawow

Giles Brook

James Fong has been the CEO of Oriental Dreamworks. James joined Amazon in 2012 and is responsible for leading its Merchant Services and Advertising businesses, including “Selling on Amazon”, “Fulfillment by Amazon”, “Global Selling” and “Advertise on Amazon”.Prior to joining Amazon, James was a Managing Director of China Tongyin, a boutiquemerchant bank in Greater China, responsible for its TMT practice; a Managing Director of Strategic Investments at NBA China, responsible for its arena, internet and league investments and business development efforts; a General Manager at Microsoft China, responsible for sales and marketing for 17 provinces and 32 cities; and the Managing Director of Microsoft’s $165 million China equity investment fund.James holds an undergraduate degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Martin McCourt is Leader in High Tech Growth & Transformation

Lee Harlow (former MD, TFG London).

Magnus Rausing

Will Hobhouse

Simon has been building strong operational businesses since 1999.  Since leading the buy-in of Ground Control, a facilities management company, in 2004, he has been heavily involved in operations, financial management and business development, along with acquiring four new businesses into Ground Control.  He has also backed management teams and ledinvestments in Excel IT, Solar Ventus, CQC and Survey Roofing, along with investing in a number of other ventures in the US and the UK.Simon holds a Master’s degree in Economics, Engineering and Management from Oxford University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.

Craig founded Flex-e-card with Tony Kerr in 2000, before founding Global Processing Servcies. He was a former technology director in investment banking and front office systems within Salomon Brothers, JP Morgan, CSFB.

Helen Williamson (former MD, Whistles)

Mato invests in technology companies globally. His portfolio companies have raised over US$ 5 billion in capital, employ >15,000 people and have operations in 35 countries across six continents.

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.

Jean-Charles Naouri (born March 8, 1949 in Bône (now Annaba), Algeria, is a French entrepreneur who is currently Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and controlling shareholder of Groupe Casino.At 14, Mr Naouri was awarded first prizes for top scores on both the Latin and Greek exams in France’s national concours général competition for highschool students. At 15, he passed his baccalauréat exam with highest honours, and in 1967, he ranked first in the nationwide entrance examination to the École normale supérieure (Mathematics). He then earned a PhD in Mathematics in just one year. Mr Naouri also attended Harvard University and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA), where he graduated from in 1976.After graduating from ENA in 1976, Mr Naouri joined the Inspection des finances, the auditing and supervisory body of the French Administration. From 1982 to 1986, he served as chief of staff for Pierre Bérégovoy, both at the Ministry of Social Affairs and National Solidarity and the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Budget. During this period, he was the architect of the reforms implemented in the French financial markets, which included the creation of the MATIF futures and MONEP options markets and the introduction of certificates of deposit and commercial paper. In particular, he helped drive the financial market liberalization with measures to ease currency controls and eliminate credit restrictions.In 1987, Mr Naouri left government service and joined Rothschild & Cie Banque as Managing Partner. Around the same time, he established his own investment fund, Euris, which acquired minority equity investments in industrial companies, while rapidly increasing its investment capabilities.In the early 1990s, Mr Naouri shifted his investment strategy from opportunistic to acquiring strategic stakes. As part of this new strategy, in 1991 he acquired the Brittany-based retailer Rallye, which at the time was facing serious cash flow issues/challenges. Convinced of the future potential for retailing and the benefits of combining the two companies, in 1992 he engineered a merger of Rallye with Groupe Casino, thereby becoming Groupe Casino’s largest shareholder.In 1997, a hostile takeover bid for Groupe Casino by rival retailer Promodès was thwarted by the successful counter offer from Jean-Charles Naouri, the Guichard family and Casino management, thereby maintaining the Group’s independence.In March 2005, Mr Naouri became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Casino Group, leading a substantial transformation of the retailer’s profile by disposing of underperforming business segments in Poland, the United States, Taiwan and the Netherlands and strengthening the Group’s presence in fast-growing markets. This made Casino the leading food retailer in South America (especially Brazil and Colombia), the Indian Ocean and Vietnam and the second largest in Thailand.In France, Mr Naouri has refocused French operations in the convenience format segment, Groupe Casino’s core business, and also positioned Casino in the discount segment by developing the Leader Price chain and the Cdiscount e-commerce website acquired in 2000.In 2012, Groupe Casino acquired a controlling interest in Brazilian retailer Pão de Açúcar, the country’s largest private-sector employer. The Group also purchased the 50% of French retailer Monoprix, which it did not already own, becoming the sole shareholder.In addition to his business activities, Jean-Charles Naouri is also the founder of the Euris Foundation, which he created in 2000. Each year, the Foundation grants 40 scholarships to promising high school graduates from impoverished neighbourhoods in France.He is also Vice Chairman of the Groupe Casino corporate foundation, which he founded in 2009 to improve access to culture and knowledge for children who are disadvantaged or suffering from illness.In addition, he is Honorary Chairman and Trustee of Ecole Normale Supérieure’s Institut d’Expertise et de Prospective, which is responsible for developing ties between the school and the corporate world.In June 2013, Mr. Naouri was appointed by France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be a special representative for Economic relations with Brazil.

Andy joined Quidco in March 2010 after 13 years delivering large IT programmes across the financial services and media sectors. He previously worked for PwC, KPMG, Gartner and other blue-chip consultancies. Andy also has practical software startup experience from 5 years building up a software technology company which was acquired byActivIdentity in 2005.

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

Ben Barnett (former CEO, TFG London).

Charlie Atterton (former CEO, Jigsaw)

Robin Knox is the Founder and CEO at Boundary.

Sharmadean Reid - Chief Executive Officer @ The Stack World

Serge Weinberg is a French citizen. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law, a Graduate Degree of Institut d’Études Politiques and is a Graduate of ENA (Ecole Nationale d’Administration).Since 2009, he has been a Director of Sanofi and was appointed Chairman of the Board in May 2010. He is also Chairman of the Strategy Committee of Sanofi. He wasinterim CEO between October 29, 2014 and April 1, 2015. Serge Weinberg held different positions as a « sous-préfet » from 1976 to 1981, and became Chief of Staff of the French Budget Minister, Laurent Fabius, in 1981. After serving as Deputy General Manager for Finance at the French Television Channel FR3 (1982-1983), he became Chief Executive Officer and then Chairman of the Havas Tourisme Group from 1983 to 1987. He served as CEO of Pallas Finance for three years before joining the Pinault Group in 1990 as President of CFAO. In the Pinault Group he served as Chairman and CEO of Rexel from 1991 to 1995 He is also a member of the Board of the AFEP and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.He is also a founder of the Institute for Brain and Spinal Cord Disorders (ICM).

Giles Palmer is the founder and CEO of Brandwatch, a leading social intelligence company.Formerly of BSkyB, Giles started Brandwatch and since its launch in August 2007, it has grown to become one of the world’s leading social media analytics and listening companies.Giles’ goal for Brandwatch is to help organisations find and engage withonline conversations that matter. This motivation has turned Brandwatch into a platform that gathers millions of online conversations every day and provides users with the tools to analyze them. This empowers brands and agencies to make smarter, data-driven business decisions. Brandwatch has developed a social listening and analytics offering, Brandwatch Analytics, and a social command center platform Brandwatch Vizia, which showcases real-time visualizations across enterprises. Currently, Brandwatch has over 1,000 customers including 30 of the Fortune 100 companies, and serves businesses across the globe, from FTSE100 companies to SMEs.Giles regularly speaks at social media conferences and serves on the Industrial Advisory Board for Sussex University as well as the Social Media Committee for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Paul Walton is the Founder and CTO of Boundary.

Founder of Divido, the world’s largest white-label saas platform for Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). Prior to starting Divido, he launched Glassdoor.com in EMEA which subsequently got acquired for $1.2bn USD. Hold an MBA from the University of Oxford and is an active early-stage advisor, investor and NED.

Philipp is an earliest stage technology investor in Berlin. He invested in more than 100 companies across various sectors, including open source software, ML/AI enabled SaaS, and deep tech from synthetic biology to materials science.

Riccardo Pozzoli

John Egan is a Non-Executive Director.

Lord Mervyn Davies

June Angelides currently works as an Investor for Samos Investments. She previously worked at the University of Oxford as an Oxford Foundry Mentor. June Angelides attended UCL.