Top 50 Retail Angel Investors in United Kingdom in November 2024

Paul Forster

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.

Will Brooks - Founder & 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.

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.

Will Martin - Founder and Director @ Portfolio Ventures

Haluk Can Hür

Giles Brook

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.

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.

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.

Martin McCourt is Leader in High Tech Growth & Transformation

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

June Angelides MBE - Investor, Entrepreneur and SpeakerBorn in London and raised in Lagos, June joined Samos Investments in 2018, investing in high growth European businesses. Prior to this, she started the first child-friendly coding school in the UK, Mums in Tech, which taught over 250 women to code in 3 years. She also held roles on theVenture Debt Team and Early Stage Banking Team at Silicon Valley Bank. An active part of the tech and startup ecosystem, she sits on the boards of Cajigo, Women of the Year, Ruka and Everpress, a mentor at Oxford University and runs mentoring circles for founders and aspiring VCs. She is a founding member and judge on the Debut Sessions, a monthly pitch session for founders seeking seed investment. She is passionate about flexible working and getting more women and girls into tech. She is a Columnist at The Financial Times. She has been named by the Financial Times as the 6th Most Influential Tech Leader and by Computer Weekly as one of the most Influential Women in Tech. June received an Honorary Fellowship at the Institute of Engineering and Technology and was awarded an MBE for services to women in technology. She was recently joined the UK Government Taskforce on Women-Led High-Growth Enterprises’ which aims to support women entrepreneurs, tackle investing barriers and increase the number of women-led fast-growing businesses. She is investing in early stage startups in Africa and is focused on Ecommerce, Fintech, Healthtech, B2B SaaS and Future of Work.

Tom Adeyoola is Founder of Metail Limited until Chief Executive Officer.Tom Adeyoola spent more than ten years in various senior strategy and product development roles helping start-ups to devise and implement new business models and products. His career has spanned new media from Sportal to 3 and most recently Inspired Gaming Group where he servedas Head of Gaming. Tom Adeyoola is an Economics graduate from Cambridge.

Nicole Crentsil is the CEO at Black Girl Fest.

Dinika Mahtani

Experienced startup marketer. Co-founder and CEO of Outfunnel. Skype and Pipedrive alumni. Angel investor.

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.

Founding Partner at Vaultier7. Vaultier7 is a London-based, specialist private equity fund dedicated to providing growth capital to brands within Beauty & Personal care, Health & Wellness and Lifestyle.

Knut Frängsmyr is the chief operating officer and deputy chief executive officer of Frängsmyr holds master’s degrees in law from Frängsmyr is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Jonathan co-founded World First in January 2004. His career before this included two years as Head of Business Development within the Financial Markets division of RBS. Prior to that he was at Citibank, initially as a trader before moving to the bank's global corporate sales desk. He then looked after the European sales of Citibank'sonline FX trading products. Jonathan holds a law and accountancy degree from the University of Edinburgh.

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

Leonardo DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and nine Golden Globe Awards. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator (2004), and has been nominated by the Screen Actors Guild, Satellite Awards, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Acommitted environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for his activism. At the 2007 Oscar ceremony, DiCaprio and former Vice President Al Gore announced that the Academy Awards had incorporated environmentally intelligent practices throughout the planning and production processes, and on July 7, 2007, DiCaprio presented at the American leg of Live Earth.

Tim Chen

Charles William Holroyd CBE DL is a British investor and philanthropist.

Nicholas Charles Tyrwhitt Wheeler (born 20 January 1965 in Ludlow, Shropshire) is an English businessman. He attempted a number of different businesses, including a photography venture and a Christmas tree delivery service. In 1986 he established the Charles Tyrwhitt company and shirt brand, which he owns.Wheeler grew up in Ludlow and waseducated at the Dragon School in Oxford, Eton College, and the University of Bristol, where he studied geography. His first job was as a management consultant for Bain & Company. In November 1986, he set up Charles Tyrwhitt, now a well-known shirt brand in the United Kingdom. The business is a Limited Liability Partnership. It has grown to be the UK’s largest mail-order shirt business, and also has several brick and mortar locations (as of October 2014, 17 in the United Kingdom, 5 in the United States, and one in France). In 2008, he was a regional judge for the Entrepreneur Challenge in the UK.Wheeler is married with four children to Chrissie Rucker, founder of The White Company. In 2015, their collective wealth was estimated at £330 million by the Sunday Times Rich List. Together they live in Buckinghamshire and also own a chalet in Klosters, Switzerland named Haus Alpina.

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.

Adrian Thompson CEO at aspen pumps

Lee Harlow (former MD, TFG London).

Nicholas Acaster

Entrepreneur, author and expert on company culture, employee engagement and people. Founder at Reward Gateway where I was CEO for 11 years. Investor and growth / scale up advisor. Now Entrepreneur in Residence at Tenzing Private Equity. Based in Berlin, Germany.

Ricardo Schaefer - Partner @ Target Global

Anu Adedoyin Adasolum

Joe Middleton is the CEO and Chairman of PlayerLayer as well as Dreamsport Ltd.

Magnus Rausing