The podcast
In this episode of Riding Unicorns, James and Hector sit down with Adam Turaev, Co-Founder & CEO of Praktika, an AI-powered language learning platform that has grown to $55 million ARR, more than 30 million learners and almost 500,000 paying subscribers since launching in 2024.
Shah Ramezani, Founder & CEO of Noah, a global payments infrastructure company using stablecoin technology to make international payments faster and more efficient. Following a $38 million seed round, Noah now supports 60+ currencies across 150+ markets, with payouts to 60+ countries. The company holds 40+ licences and serves over 200 clients, including Western Union, Checkout.com and Opera.
Yaron Valler, Founder of Target Global, a European venture capital firm managing more than €3 billion. With over three decades of experience as an engineer, entrepreneur and investor, Yaron has backed more than 15 unicorns, including companies such as Delivery Hero and DocPlanner.
In this episode of Riding Unicorns, James and Hector sit down with Anatolii Papulov, Co-Founder & CEO of NewOrbit, the UK SpaceTech company developing satellites designed to operate much closer to Earth than conventional satellite constellations. The company recently raised an $18.5 million Series A to bring its technology to market.
For this special episode of Riding Unicorns, there is no guest. James Pringle and Hector Mason sit down together to look back at six years of the podcast, what they've learned along the way and how much the technology and venture landscape has changed since the first episode in 2020.
AI is creating extraordinary new demand for electricity. But what happens when the grid can't keep up?
What happens when companies deploy AI agents before fixing the data those agents rely on?
What happens when AI moves beyond the digital world and starts transforming the companies that manufacture the things around us?
What happens to software engineering when almost every line of code is written by AI?
How do you build a global AI company without burning hundreds of millions of dollars?
How do you build a consumer product that people genuinely love, while still making the economics work?
What happens when you hear your own hit song playing in public, but never receive the royalty?
What does it take to build a frontier AI model lab in a world dominated by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google?
What happens when computing reaches the limits of classical physics?
How do you build AI for one of the world's largest, most valuable, and least digitised industries?
Laura Modiano leads Founder Experience at OpenAI, a newly created function designed to help startups build, grow, and scale on the world's leading AI platform.
What does it take to build an AI company a decade before the world realises AI is the future?
What happens when software adapts to humans, rather than humans adapting to software?
Steve Domin, Founder & CEO of Duffel, the company rebuilding the infrastructure layer of the global travel industry.
Mahdi Yahya, Founder and CEO of Ori, is now part of Radiant following its partnership with Brookfield.
This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Charlotte Palmer, Vice President of Venture Capital at Integra Global Advisors.
This week on Riding Unicorns, we welcome back Alan Chang, Founder and CEO of Fuse Energy.
What does a genuinely great VC fund look like today, from an LP’s perspective?
Tony Jamous first joined Riding Unicorns in January 2023, just after Oyster became a unicorn. Since then, the company has raised its Series D, Tony has moved into the Executive Chairman role, and Hadi Moussa has stepped in as CEO.
Nikola Mrkšić is the Co-Founder and CEO of PolyAI, one of the world’s leading voice AI companies, helping enterprises automate customer service through conversational AI at massive scale.
This week on Riding Unicorns, Matt Wilson returns to the podcast. Matt previously joined us in September 2022 to talk about Omnipresent, which has since been acquired by Deel. He is now back building Jack and Jill, one of the most talked-about venture-backed companies in Europe right now.
Nicolò Frisiani is Co-Founder & CEO of Lupa, the world’s first enterprise-ready AI operating system for veterinary clinics.
George Davis, Founder and CEO of Lorum.
James sits down with Dr. David von Rosen, the serial founder behind Lottoland and 25 Degrees, and the Principal of the VONROSEN family office, through which he invests globally and pan-sector in fast-growth pre-IPO startups.
Harrison Rose co-founded Paddle, one of the UK’s standout B2B billing and payments companies. Now he is building GoodFit, a go to market platform helping teams prioritise the right accounts, at the right time, with the right data.
Ben Freeman is the Co-founder and CEO of Omnea, an AI native procurement and supplier management platform used by companies from the mid-market through to enterprise, including Synthesia, Typeform, Spotify, Monzo, Albertsons, and The Adecco Group.
James and Hector sit down with James Cadwallader, CEO and Co Founder of Profound, to unpack how AI is reshaping the internet and what that means for every brand on the planet.
Ariel Harmoko is the Co Founder and CEO of Artifact AI. Ariel joined James and Hector for a conversation that moves from race tracks to reconciliation engines.
Andrew D’Souza is the Founder of Boardy, the Creandum backed AI super connector reshaping how founders and investors meet and build trust.
Erin Platts is the CEO of Octopus Ventures and former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank UK & Europe — one of the most pivotal figures in the UK tech ecosystem.
Lee Veitch is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of SuperAwesome, the world’s leading kid-tech and youth marketing platform.
The AI rollup transforming property management
Hector is joined by Gauthier van Malderen, Founder and CEO of Perlego, the “Spotify for textbooks” and one of Europe’s leading edtech scale-ups.
This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Paul Becker, Co-Founder & CEO of re:cap, a fintech platform helping digital businesses unlock capital and understand their financial position through intelligent forecasting, real-time data insights, and flexible financing.
Ali first joined us in January 2022, when Babylon was still one of the most ambitious healthtech companies in the world. Today, he returns with a new mission, building Quadrivia and its clinical AI assistant, “Qu”, designed to automate millions of repetitive healthcare workflows and rebalance the global shortage of clinical labour.
Sam Jacobs is the Co-Founder of Go Places, the operating system for social commerce.
Akash Bajwa, Principal at Earlybird VC, one of Europe’s longest-standing early-stage funds.
Lexi Novitske, General Partner at Norrsken22, a $205m growth-stage fund backing transformative tech companies across Africa.
Please note: The topics covered in this episode should not be taken as investment advice.
This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Manny Medina, the visionary founder behind Outreach — the $4B sales engagement unicorn — and now co-founder & CEO of Paid.ai, a startup pioneering how AI agents get priced, paid, and scaled.
In this episode we are joined by Kenneth Auchenberg, Partner at AlleyCorp — one of New York’s most prolific early-stage funds known for incubating companies like MongoDB, Business Insider, and Radical AI.
This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, Founder and CEO of Nu Quantum, a pioneering company building the networking layer for the quantum computing era.
In this episode, we're joined by Patrick Haede, the founder of Superscale AI, a breakout new startup transforming how digital products are marketed. 🚀
Paul Anthony is the co-founder of Primer, a rapidly growing payment orchestration platform with over 200 employees and more than £70 million in funding from top-tier investors including Seed Camp, Balderton, Accel, and Iconic. His journey began as the first employee at a FinTech startup (now called Depay), followed by a stint at PayPal's Braintree division, before founding Primer to solve the complex payment infrastructure challenges he witnessed amongst enterprise merchants. Paul is now also…
In this episode of Riding Unicorns, James and Hector sit down with Simone Maini, CEO of Elliptic, the world’s leading blockchain analytics company. Simone’s career path is anything but conventional — from a history degree and Deutsche Bank to leading a $100M+ funded crypto intelligence powerhouse.
From international math olympiads to high-frequency trading to leading deals at Accel, Andrei Brasoveanu has carved one of the most impressive careers in European tech. After a decade on Wall Street as a quant, he joined Accel’s London office and quickly became one of their top investors—backing breakout companies like Celonis and, more recently, Polar.
This week on Riding Unicorns, we're joined by Martin Kassing, founder and CEO of Upvest, one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintech infrastructure companies.
In this special Riding Unicorns episode, recorded live during London Tech Week and hosted at Cooley’s London HQ, we bring you two candid conversations from the frontline of startup building.
In this episode, we’re joined by Apostolos Apostolakis, the founder-turned-VC behind VentureFriends, a pan-European pre-seed and seed fund known for backing consumer and fintech breakouts like Plum, Blueground, Huspy, Carmoola and Instashop.
In this episode, we’re joined by Deepka Rana, Principal at leading venture fund Northzone, early backers of Klarna, Truelayer, Spotify, iZettle, Kahoot, and Personio. Deepka shares her journey from physics at Imperial and investment banking to investing in some of Europe’s most exciting startups.
In this episode of Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Carles Reina, Go-to-Market Lead at ElevenLabs, an AI Audio research and deployment company that tripled it's valuation to $3.3BN in January, after confirming a new $180M funding round.
In this episode of Riding Unicorns, we're joined by Romain Sestier and Guillaume Lebedel, the co-founders of StackOne, a rapidly growing startup that’s building the universal integration layer for modern SaaS and AI products. Hot off the back of their $20M Series A led by GV, the duo joins us to share their journey, insights, and lessons from the trenches.
Recorded live at the Capsule Scale-Up 50 event in London on 30th April 2025, this episode features a standout panel discussion moderated by our co-host James Pringle.
In this episode of Riding Unicorns, James Pringle is joined by Raffi Salama, Co-Founder & CEO of Passionfruit, a fast-growing marketing OS used by the world’s most ambitious brands to orchestrate campaigns across resourcing, planning, execution, and tracking.
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Subscribe to the Reading Unicorns newsletter here. Follow Riding Unicorns on LinkedIn here. Subscribe to the Riding Unicorns YouTube channel here.
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Stefano Vaccino is the Founder and CEO of Yapily, a leading open banking infrastructure provider.
Mandeep Singh is an angel investor and co-founder and former CEO of Trouva, a marketplace for independent boutiques that was acquired by Made.com.
Tim Chong is the Co-Founder and CEO of Yonder, a modern lifestyle rewards credit card designed for young city adventurers.
This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Romina Savova, Founder & CEO of PensionBee, the platform transforming how people manage their pensions. With over 260,000 customers and £5.5 billion in assets under management, PensionBee has become a household name in the UK. Romina shares the journey of building a public company that empowers consumers to take control of their retirement savings.
This week on Riding Unicorns, we're joined by Dom Hallas, Executive Director at the Startup Coalition, the policy voice for UK tech startups and scaleups. Dom brings a wealth of insight into the intersection of tech, venture, and public policy, offering a fascinating look into the state of the UK ecosystem during a time of governmental and economic change.
Ron Levin is the Managing Partner at Alumni Ventures, the most active venture capital firm in the US. Hector spoke to Ron to discuss his journey from entrepreneur to investor and his insights on scaling ventures and building impactful companies.
Martin Sokk is the Co-Founder and CEO of Lightyear. He joined Hector to discuss his journey from product management at Wise (formerly TransferWise) to building a company revolutionising retail investing in Europe.
In this episode of Riding Unicorns, James is joined by Matt Chandler, Principal at Octopus Ventures, one of Europe’s leading early-stage venture capital firms. Known for his focus on consumer tech, Matt shares his journey from aspiring oil painter to venture capitalist, weaving creativity into every step of his career.
Sasha Kaletsky, Managing Partner at Creator Ventures, joins James Pringle on Riding Unicorns to discuss his journey into venture capital, the evolution of Creator Ventures, and the unique insights creators bring to consumer internet investing.
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK, joins James Pringle and Hector Mason on Riding Unicorns to delve into the fascinating intersection of behavioural science, marketing, and business strategy. With a career dedicated to understanding human decision-making, Rory shares his unique perspective on how psychological insights can unlock growth and create competitive advantages in today's business landscape.
Vidu Shanmugarajah is a Partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), where he invests in transformative tech companies across Europe. In this episode of Riding Unicorns, Vidu joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to share his journey from corporate law to venture capital, highlighting how his unique background has shaped his approach to investing.
Edwina Johnson is the General Manager of MoneyGram Online International, responsible for overseeing the company’s digital consumer business outside of North America. In this episode of Riding Unicorns, Edwina joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to talk about her diverse career, ranging from working with startups to corporate roles, as well as her experience as an angel investor and startup advisor.
Paul Yacoubian is the Founder and CEO of Copy.ai, a company revolutionising the way businesses create marketing and sales copy by automating workflows with AI. Founded in 2020, Copy.ai initially helped distribute the value of GPT-3, but has since expanded to build an enterprise product streamlining go-to-market efforts for companies globally. In this episode, Paul joins hosts James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss his journey from an accounting and hedge fund career to becoming a leading A…
Charles Wells is the Founder and CEO of HelloSelf, a technology business focused on personalised psychological advice aimed at self-betterment. In this episode, Charlie joins hosts James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss his eclectic career in marketing, charity, angel investing, and entrepreneurship, as well as the story behind HelloSelf. The business provides personalised online therapy designed to help people feel better, faster and stay better, longer, and Charlie shares how his near-de…
Simon Mellin is the Founder and CEO of The Modern Milkman. Their business started as a local milkround inspired by David Attenborough's Blue Planet and the need to reduce plastic waste. In the space of a few short years, they've grown from four friends and a truck to a vast network of milkmen and women working tirelessly to reduce consumer waste. Their mobile tech supports their 'eco-warriors on earlies' by connecting them to their customers via online ordering and driver apps, facilitating …
David Jarvis is the Co-Founder and CEO of Griffin. Griffin puts the bank in Banking as a Service. They combine the secure, regulated infrastructure of a bank with the speed and power of modern software into one powerful full-stack BaaS platform. Their goal is to empower companies to embed banking into their products quickly and safely. With purpose-built APIs and an all-access developer sandbox, they’re helping customers build and launch payment platforms, financial wellness apps, client acc…
Mike Soutar worked in the media and entertainment industry since the mid-1980s, starting as a magazine journalist and editor before becoming a Publisher and Managing Director working across print, digital, and broadcast platforms in the UK and America. In 2000 Mike joined the Board of Britain’s largest magazine publisher, IPC, and was part of the Board team which sold that business to Time Warner. In 2006 Mike co-founded Shortlist Media, one of the fastest-growing media companies of the early…
George Henry is a General Partner at LocalGlobe. LocalGlobe is a venture capital firm that focuses on seed and impact investments. They have seeded impactful founders since 1999 at places like Citymapper, Improbable, Lovefilm, Moo, Wise, and Zoopla. They invest in startups selling to consumers, small businesses, and enterprises. They are lean, data-driven, and move fast in decision-making. They offer highly structured, collaborative support to investee companies, and have an excellent track r…
Richard Anton is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Oxx. Oxx partners with the most promising European B2B software companies at the scale-up stage. As a specialist SaaS investor, Oxx provides each entrepreneur with a support system of unique specialist expertise and network, and a culture of unfaltering partnership and absolute conviction. The firm’s strategy is built around the concept of “Go-To-Market Fit”, developing a structure for thinking about how to build a repeatable, sustainable…
Tim Creswick is the CEO and Founder of Vorboss. Vorboss is a dedicated fibre network and internet service purpose-built for the needs of London’s most demanding businesses. They are the only internet service provider that offers 10Gbps as a minimum—meaning that their network can cope with the demands of the most data-hungry businesses for the next decade and beyond.
Oana Andreea Jinga is a CCO and Co-founder of Dexory. They develop robotics and AI logistics solutions to drive better business decisions. Through their DexoryView platform, they automate data collection and build real-time fed digital twin technology that unlocks insights across all levels of warehouse operations.
Gareth Jefferies is a Partner at RTP Global, a global, early-stage venture capital firm, backing ambitious founders who are reshaping the world with technology. Their track record speaks for itself; over 110 investments worldwide, with one in 10 becoming multi-billion dollar companies including Datadog, DeliveryHero, and Cred.
Akshat Goenka is a Partner at Moonfire. Enabling European entrepreneurs to dream big and execute fully on their bold ideas at the very earliest stages of their journeys is Moonfire’s passion and cause. Moonfire can help entrepreneurs at the very start of their journeys to create the right foundations to drive growth exponentially. Moonfire lights a fire within seed stage investing in Europe to help entrepreneurs grow their boundless ambition and burning creativity. In partnering with Moonfire…
Sam Ettelaie is the Co-Founder and CIO at Thema, Europe's strategic LP for emerging fund managers. They act as a strategic cornerstone limited partner, writing first tickets of up to £5m, offering operational and regulatory support.
Callum Taylor is the Head of ITV AdVentures Ignite, they are here to help startup and scaleup brands begin an ongoing journey into the exciting world of TV - not as simply a media owner, but as a business partner. Hosting some of the nation’s favorite shows and offering unrivaled reach, advertising on ITV will supercharge your brand's growth - unlocking new customers in the only medium that can give you the scale and gravitas to tell your brand’s story with impact. They’ll use their expertise…
Johannes Weber is the Founding Partner at Ananda Impact Ventures, the leading impact venture capital fund with a pan-European investment remit, managing ca. €200 million in four Core Impact Funds, with backing from notable institutional and private investors. They back technology businesses committed to having a positive impact that answers the most pressing social and ecological challenges of our time, in a way that is both scalable and sustainable. The active portfolio includes NatureMetric…
Meri Beckwith is a Co-Founder at Lindus Health. Their mission is to accelerate clinical trials, so patients can benefit from new treatments sooner. They are an anti-CRO running radically faster, more reliable clinical trials for life science pioneers. They do this thanks to a commercial model that aligns incentives (fixed-priced quotes per study, with milestone-based payments), marrying a world-class clinical operations team with their unique software platform, and access to 30 million Electr…
Chrys Chrysanthou and Leila Zegna are General Partners at Kindred Capital. At Kindred, they align their ambitions and achievements with their portfolio - in structure and in spirit. Every entrepreneur they invest in becomes a co-owner of the fund and they call it ‘equitable venture’. They invest early and work with their community of founders and advisers to help founders get further, faster from the very beginning.
Suranga Chandratillake is a General Partner at Balderton Capital; a multistage venture firm with more than two decades of experience supporting Europe’s best founders from Seed to IPO. They have both early and growth funds and invest across the technology sector.
Dinika Mahtani is a Partner at Cherry Ventures; an early-stage venture capital firm led by a team of entrepreneurs with experience building fast-scaling companies such as Zalando and Spotify. The firm backs Europe's boldest founders, usually as their first institutional investor, and supports them in everything from their go-to-market strategy and the scaling of their businesses.
Amon Ghaiumy is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ophelos; a fintech startup with unique technology that uses machine learning and behavioural science to get people debt-free and organisations paid back.
James Evans is the Co-Founder and CEO of CommandBar; an AI-powered user assistance platform that makes your product easier to use. Activate and retain more users to grow faster.
Christian Gabriel is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Capdesk (acquired by Carta), a platform that helps people manage equity, build businesses, and invest in the companies of tomorrow. Their mission is to unlock the power of equity ownership for more people in more places. Carta is trusted by more than 40,000 companies, over 5,000 investment funds, and half a million employees for cap table management, compensation management, liquidity venture capital solutions, and more.
David Bateman is a Managing Partner at Claret Capital Partners.
Agate Freimane is a General Partner at Norrsken VC, an Article 9, or "dark green," investment fund. They operate as a pure impact fund, exclusively investing in companies that have a sustainable objective for the product or service they develop. They provide extensive support to their portfolio companies, assisting them in implementing impact workshops and training programs. This enables them to measure their company's impact incrementally over time and establish long-term ESG goals.
Christian Noske is a Partner at NGP Capital. They back early-stage B2B companies from Series A onwards in Europe, the US, Israel, and China within enterprise software, industrial tech, cybersecurity, and infrastructure. Their current portfolio includes Coda, DataLoop, Clue, Nova Labs, Scandit, Shippeo, & SecurityScorecard, while their exits include Deliveroo, Xiaomi, Moovit, Kaltura, and many more.
This episode is with Raphael Thiolon (Managing Director) and Lopo Champalimaud (Co-Founder & Managing Partner at V3 Ventures) at Verlinvest, an international, family-backed evergreen investment company. They partner with visionary entrepreneurs who are driving consumer revolutions and building the next generation of category-defining brands that will positively impact the consumer sector for years to come.
Audrey Handem is a VC at Speedinvest; one of Europe’s most active early-stage investors with more than €1 billion AuM and 40+ investors based in Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, and Vienna.
Jay Radia is the Founder and Managing Partner of Blissgrowth. They ideate, build, and scale industry winning B2B software technology companies with the best second-time founders.
Roger Wade is the Chairman of Boxfund VC, a venture capital fund established by entrepreneurs, funded by entrepreneurs, and dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs. They possess a deep understanding of the qualities required for entrepreneurial success and actively seek out exceptional individuals with brilliant ideas. They provide them with financial backing and expert guidance to help them thrive.
Sir Martin Sorrell is the Founder and Executive Chairman of S4Capital plc, the tech led, new age / new era digital advertising and marketing services company for global, multinational, regional and local clients, and millennial-driven influencer brands.
Chris Smalling is a professional footballer and is also the Co-Founder of The Player's Fund. Chris currently plays for AS Roma in Italy. He has 31 caps and 1 goal for England.
Niccolo Perra is the Co-Founder of Pleo.
Jimmy Fussing Nielsen is a Partner and Co-founder of Heartcore Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund with offices in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, and Paris. Since 2007, they have backed some of Europe’s biggest category-defining companies, such as Tink, Neo4j, Boozt, Peakon, Seriously and TravelPerk. So far, they have invested in over 100 founding teams from 13 different countries. And they're looking for more.
Babs Ogundeyi is the Founder and CEO of Kuda, a fintech company on a mission to make financial services more accessible, affordable and rewarding for every African on the planet. They've built the money app for Africans around the world, giving them a better alternative to traditional finance by delivering services including free money transfers, smart budgeting, investments and instant access to credit through digital devices.
Kirsty Grant is Managing Director at Seedrs. Seedrs is Europe’s leading online private investing platform that enables individuals to invest in startups, growth companies, and, if eligible, top VC funds, as well as supporting entrepreneurs in all sectors to raise capital from their communities, angels and institutional investors.Since its launch in 2012 as an equity crowdfunding platform, Seedrs has funded over 2,000 deals, with over £2.5 billion invested on the platform to date. With the rec…
Donald Gillies and Henry Irish are the Founders of PassFort. They enable regulated financial services companies to rapidly onboard customers then manage risk and compliance standards throughout the customer lifecycle. Their integration model enables them to ingest datasets from any provider and interoperate with any system. They help you build a data ecosystem, with pre-built connectors to more than 25 data providers and growing.
Saif Hameed is Founder and CEO of Altruistiq. The platform enables large enterprises with complex supply chains to automate sustainability data measurement, management and exchange - with unparalleled accuracy and ease. They believe that business has the power to be a force for positive change in the world.Their mission is to help businesses do more of what is measurably good, and less of what is immeasurably wrong.
Jack Durling is Co-Founder of Lockdown Liquor & Co. The brand offers award-winning premium blended cocktails, crafted by expert mixologists using the best quality ingredients resulting in unique and great tasting cocktails. Having initially traded direct to consumers, Lockdown Liquor is now retailed in a selection of prestigious outlets including Daylesford Organic, Anthropologie to name a few, as well as a diverse selection of customers in the on trade from national restaurant groups, 5* hot…
Alex Macdonald Co-Founded Velocity Black which went on to be acquired by Capital One and is now the Co-Founder at sequel helping the world's best athletes invest in the world's best startups, making a positive impact.
Saasha Celestial-One is the co-founder & COO of Olio, a sharing app for local communities, on a mission to fight waste. They make it easy to pass on the things we no longer need — from food to furniture, and clothes to books — to people who live nearby. They also work with businesses to redistribute unsold or unserved food. That way, every last bit of edible food ends up benefitting local people, rather than it ending up in the bin.
Cristina Vila Vives is the founder and CEO of Cledara. A dreamer and a doer, she started Cledara as a result of her life-long desire to start a company that focussed on helping people.
Dr. Andre Retterath is a Partner at venture fund Earlybird Venture Capital.
This week's guests are Leapsome Co-founders, Jenny von Podewils and Kajetan von Armansperg
Peter Specht is a Partner at venture fund Creandum.
This week's guest is Sequence Co-founder & CEO, Riya Grover
This week's guest is Playfair Partner, Henrik Wetter Sanchez.
This week's guests are Odin Co-founders, Paddy Ryan and Mary Lin.
Startup Spotlight with Edmond Boulle, Co-Founder at Orbital Witness.
This week's guest is Yulife CEO & Co-founder Sammy Rubin.
Startup Spotlight with Alex Lempka, Co-Founder at Connect Earth.
This week's guest is Packfleet CEO & Co-founder Tristan Thomas.
This week's guest is hackajob Co-founder & CEO Mark Chaffey
This week's guest is CodeMonk Founder & CEO Maulik Sailor
Our guest this week is Otta CEO Sam Franklin
Our guest this week is Eileen Burbidge, Partner @ Passion Capital and Director @ Fertifa
Our guest this week is Thomas Wynne, Co-Founder & CEO @Capsule!
Startup Spotlight with Dan Webb, Co-Founder at Light Garden.
Our guest this week is Yann Sarfati, Co-Founder & CEO @ Userled
Startup Spotlight with Chris Priebe, Founder at Zelt.
Our guest this week is Tony Jamous, CEO @ Oyster™
Our guest this week is Mayowa Ogunremi, Investment Principal @ Form Ventures
Our guest this week is Crowdcube Co-CEO Matt Cooper.
Startup Spotlight with Blair Hawthorne, CEO & Founder at LoopFX.
Our guest this week is Believe in Science Founder & CEO Anthony Fletcher.
Alan Chang is the CEO of Fuse. As former Revolut-er #5, Alan was involved in the disruption and innovation in banking, and now, he is bringing that same energy and passion to Fuse.
Our guest this week is Fearless Adventures Founding Partner David Newns.
Our guest this week is Left Lane Capital Principal Magnus Karnehm.
Our guest this week is Georgi Ganev, CEO of Kinnevik.
Our guest this week is George Richardson, Co-Founder & CEO of AeroCloud.
Startup Spotlight with Kadence. They've just announced a $10M Seed funding round led by Kickstart Fund with participation from Portfolio Ventures, Manta Ray, Hambro Perks and Vectr7 as well as Shadow Ventures and Forward VC.
Our guest this week is Jamie Beaumont, Founder of Playter.
Our guest this week is Gordon Midwood, CEO of Anything World.
Our guest this week is Dr. Ben Maruthappu, Co-founder & CEO of multi-award-winning technology company Cera. Cera is a digital-first home healthcare company, delivering cat nursing telehealth and repeat prescriptions. In less than five years, we’ve grown from scratch to a team of almost 10,000 professionals, providing over 40,000+ in-person healthcare visits in homes throughout the UK every day. They have raised over $400 million to date.
Our guest this week is Jacob Waern, Founder & CEO of eduMe.
Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, our mini-series, which will provide insight into an early-stage company that we are very excited about.
Welcome to Season 5 🥳
This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at The Oval in Vauxhall as part of our first live event. Guests and friends of the show gathered to celebrate 2 years of Riding Unicorns.
Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, our mini-series, which will provide you with an insight into an early-stage company that we are very excited about.
Justina Tartilaite is the Co-Founder of Adsum, tax credit specialists. Adsum is pioneering innovation in tax-based financing and is at the forefront of leveraging modern technology in order to provide businesses with much-needed tax credits in real-time. Prior to launching Adsum, Justina worked as a Director at Deutsche Bank and in various capital markets roles for ABN AMRO Bank.
Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, our mini-series, which will provide you with an insight into an early-stage company that we are very excited about.
Pietro Bezza is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of thesis-led venture capital firm, Connect Ventures. Specialising in investing in seed companies, Connect was the first to invest in unicorns such as TrueLayer, Typeform and Oyster.
Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, an entirely new series, which will provide you with an insight into a company that we are very excited about.
Joe Curtis is the Director and Co-Founder of 11 Investments, a seed-stage investment and accelerator program for recruitment businesses. Not content with one running one recruitment business Joe also works as a Director at Recruiter Labs, a recruitment consultancy business that he also co-founded and as if that wasn't enough he also finds time for a third role, that of Director at 3Search. All in all then we think it is fair to say that when it comes to speaking on the topic of recruitment th…
Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, an entirely new series, which will provide you with an insight into a company that we are very excited about.
Yoko Spirig is the co-founder & CEO of Ledgy, an equity management and investor relations platform for startups and high-growth companies. Yoko comes from a Physics background and such was her proclivity for the subject as a student that she was invited to become the project lead of Swissloop, an initiative which was looking to build the first Hyperloop pod in Switzerland. Upon graduating Yoko and her co-founders Ben-Elias Brandt and Timo Horstschaefer, who she met at university decided to la…
Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, an entirely new series, which will provide you with an insight into a company that we are very excited about.
Matthew Wilson is the Co-CEO and Co-founder of Omnipresent, one of the leading global HR providers. Matthew is an experienced entrepreneur and in fact had, prior to Omnipresent, already founded and run a number of businesses including an enterprise software business. Matthew launched Omnipresent alongside his fellow co-founder, Guenther Eisinger, in the hope of solving many of the challenges companies face when managing a remote team. His work and career achievements have been recognised by F…
Riding Unicorns is delighted to announce an entirely new series called Start-up Spotlight. These new weekly bitesize episodes will provide you with an insight into a company that we are very excited about.
Ben Kaminski is a Partner at leading technology investment firm, Target Global. Prior to joining the firm, Ben spent over a decade working in Investment Banking where he was responsible for overseeing several high-profile M&A transactions. At Target Global since 2018 Ben now heads up the firm's dedicated Mobility 2.0 Fund. His investments include Auto1, Delivery Hero, GoEuro, Flink and numerous others. As well as all this Ben still finds the time to be an active angel investor in over a doze…
Tom Wilson is a Partner at Seedcamp, an early stage seed fund investing in European businesses that are solving real problems using technology. Prior to his time in Venture, Tom worked in Law where he specialised in VC fundraising and M&A. Since joining Seedcamp In 2014 Tom has been helping the fund source and select companies to invest in at the early stage of their inception. Some of their investments to-date include UiPath, Wise, Hopin and Revolut.
Francesco Simoneschi is Co-Founder and CEO of TrueLayer, a fintech development platform. TrueLayer is not, however, Francesco's first experience in founding, managing and growing a successful tech company. In fact, prior to launching TrueLayer, Francesco helped develop an angel fund called Mission and Market, which was able to provide investment to more than 50 startups. Following a period working in mobile game development Francesco became VP of Strategy for FOVE – the world’s first eye trac…
Haakon Overli is the Founder and General Partner of Dawn Capital, a VC firm investing in European founders in the hope of helping them build the next generation of global software companies. During the early stage of his career Haakon worked in investment banking before eventually taking the decision to go out on his own and become an entrepreneur. In 1999 he launched Self Trade, an on-line stock broker, which he eventually sold in 2000 to HypoVereinsbank for €911m (US$1.1bn). Haakon now spen…
Aidan Corbett is the co-founder and CEO of Dublin-based Wayflyer. Founded in 2019 the company supports e-commerce businesses worldwide by providing a range of financing and analytics solutions that improve cash flow, drive sales and optimise supply chains. Since launching in April 2020 the company has already gone on to provide over $500 million to businesses, a fact which has meant that Aidan and his team have been able to build a unicorn in just 20 months. Wayflyer now has more than 800 cus…
Martin Bysh is the co-founder & CEO of Huboo, an award-winning order fulfilment service for eCommerce sellers. Martin spent the early part of his career working in a number of industries including everything from video games to dating sites and market research. After years of toiling in different ventures Martin finally decided to launch Huboo in 2017 with his co-founder Paul Dodd. Since then the company has grown at a remarkable rate and is now responsible for shipping an average of five mil…
Charles Delingpole is the Founder & CEO of ComplyAdvantage, leaders in AI driven fraud and AML risk detection. Founded in 2014, ComplyAdvantage works with over 500 clients across 75 countries to tackle the risk of money laundering, terrorist financing and corruption. Prior to ComplyAdvantage Charles founded the world’s largest student discussion forum The Student Room Group. He then followed this up by co-founding MarketFinance, a corporate financial solutions company.
Tom Goodwin is the co-founder of innovation consultancy, All We Have Is Now. Tom is however much more than just an entrepreneur. Tom has spent over 20 years studying topics such as the impact of new technology, changing consumer behaviours, and trends in digital marketing and as such is regarded as one of the experts in his field. He is also the author of Digital Darwinism, a business book that explores the current digital transformation in business. As well as this Tom is a much sought after…
Katie Marrache is a Partner at JamJar Ventures, a VC firm founded by the people behind the hugely popular Innocent drinks. Katie is the definition of a go-getter. Whilst at University she secured an internship with Dragons’ Den investor, James Caan, which saw her manage the entrepreneurs portfolio of consumer investments. After a short stint working in television Katie joined Innocent drinks as a category manager, which once again saw her manage an investment portfolio. In 2017 she made Partn…
Kevin Diestel is a Partner at Sapphire Ventures, a venture capital firm that primarily invests in Series B technology companies. Before moving into private equity Kevin worked as an Analyst for Merrill Lynch. After two years working for the Investment Bank Kevin began working for Shamrock Capital Advisors, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm. During his time there he was responsible for evaluating investments in the media, entertainment and communications sectors. Having joined Sapphire i…
Freddy Ward is the co-founder of D2C cosmetics company, Wild. Freddy started his career at Hello Fresh and is actually credited as being its fifth ever employee. After working his way up to Marketing Director Freddy decided to start his own company, Wild, with lifelong friend and former Director of Fly Hiring, Charlie Bowes-Lyon. Wild is best known for its refillable deodorants and range of exotic fragrances, which customers seem to have really warmed too. In fact the company has already sold…
James Routledge is the Founder of Sanctus, leading providers of mental health coaches. After starting his first business at University James was hooked by the idea of being an entrepreneur. His first business venture, MatchChat, a social media app would however ultimately go on to be unsuccessful. As is often the case in life there is a silver lining to all supposed failures. James would ultimately go on to reflect more deeply about the stress he felt around this time and how it affected his …
Paul Murphy (@paulbz on Twitter) is a Partner at Lightspeed, a global venture capital firm focusing on multi-stage investments in the enterprise technology, consumer, and health sectors. Prior to his stint at Lightspeed Paul worked at Microsoft, Betaworks, Giphy and Northzone to name but a few. Paul also has extensive experience as an entrepreneur having set-up several companies namely Mobile Games Studio, Dots and calendar app, Katch. Paul is now sharing his knowledge of what it takes to bui…
Julie Chen is the Founder and CEO of The Cheeky Panda, makers of a range of Bamboo toiletry products including traditional toilet paper, facial tissues, kitchen towel, wipes and nappies. The idea for the company was born out of a family trip to China. While in China, Julie and her husband couldn't help but notice the abundance of Bamboo, which is of course one the world's fastest growing plants. It was there where Julie spotted the opportunity to create an environmentally friendly alternative…
Adnan Ebrahim is the co-founder and CEO of health and mindfulness app, Mindlabs. Adnan can trace his entrepreneurial roots all the way back to the school playground where he would often be seen selling wristbands to his classmates. Adnan’s love for business did not stop there however and after one successful venture in blogging Adnan decided to follow that up by launching Car Throttle, an online community for car enthusiasts. What started out as an idea born in his bedroom quickly grew into o…
Rania Lamprou is the co-founder and CEO of Simpler - 1-click checkout for online shopping. Prior to launching Simpler Rania worked in several industries from marketing, business development, sales and product management. In 2020, Rania decided to launch Simpler with the aim of revolutionising the online checkout experience for both shoppers and sellers alike. The company has recently exited stealth mode and is now looking to grow its offering in the coming months.
Hussein Kanji is the founding partner at renowned early stage venture firm, Hoxton Ventures. Following experiences at Microsoft and Accel Partners Hussein decided to set up Hoxton Ventures in 2013 in the hope that by backing Europe’s best global tech companies, his team would be able to bring a slice of Silicon Valley to Europe. As a result of backing four unicorns and creating $54bn of value both Hussein and Hoxton have gone on to develop a reputation as one of the best operators in the vent…
Dominic McGregor is the Founding Partner of Investment Firm Fearless Adventures. Dominic however is perhaps best known for the role he played in helping to build the hugely successful social media agency, Social Chain. With the help of his co-founder Steven Bartlett the pair were able to transform a mere idea, dreamt up in their university halls, into one of the world's leading media companies. Having both now exited the company Dominic has launched Fearless Adventures in the hope of helping …
Brad Coffey is the Chief Customer Officer at Pipe, the trading platform that enables entrepreneurs to grow their business on their terms. By treating recurring revenue streams as an asset, Pipe allows companies to transform their recurring revenue into up-front capital, instantly. Prior to joining Pipe Brad was the Chief Strategy Officer at HubSpot, where he helped grow the business from $1m to $1b in ARR. Brad is also a keen angel investor and advisor having helped many startups develop thei…
Taymoor Atighetchi is the Founder and CEO of British e-commerce stationary brand, Papier. The story of Taymoor’s rise in business is fascinating. He started out by selling antiques on Portobello Market before going on to co-found the now very popular news youth site, The Tab. Upon graduating Taymoor secured a role at Bain & Company as a consultant. It was there where Taymoor spotted the opportunity to disrupt the retail space by providing an online offering to what was once a very bricks and …
Larry Gadea is the Founder and CEO of unicorn workplace software provider, Envoy. Larry’s story is a remarkable one. After his family fled Romania as refugees Larry spent much of his early childhood perfecting his knowledge of computer engineering. His proclivity in this space would see him go on to secure prominent positions at both Google & Twitter. In 2013 Larry decided to go it alone and launch Envoy with the mission of improving visitor and host experiences in the workplace. The company …
Jimmy Williams is the Co-Founder and CEO of InsurTech, Urban Jungle. Jimmy started out in consulting before pivoting towards insurance following his own frustrating experience trying to secure a policy. In 2016 Jimmy launched Urban Jungle in the hope of providing an alternative offering in what he increasingly saw as an unfair, expensive and slow moving sector. Having recently closed an $11.4m Series A round the company hopes to continue building its reputation as one of the key disruptors in…
Tom Leathes is the co-founder and CEO of Motorway. Launched four years ago by Tom and his long term friend and business partner Harry Jones, Motorway is harnessing the power of technology to deliver an amazing experience for customers looking to value and sell their car. In the four years it has been operating the company has already helped over 2.5m customers resulting in 300% year on year growth.
Guy Podjarny is the Founder of cybersecurity firm, Snyk. Founded in 2015 the company specialises in offering developer-first security and was recently valued at over £8bn. Prior to Synk Guy worked as CTO at Akamai following their acquisition of his startup, Blaze.io. Guy has spent his career becoming an expert in web application security, a topic which he covers in depth on his own podcast, The Secure Developer podcast.
Gordon Sanghera is the co-founder and CEO of Oxford Nanopore. With the help of some of the brightest minds around the globe Gordon, who has over 15 years experience in the design and development of biosensor devices, and his team have been able to develop revolutionary sensing technology that performs precise analysis of single molecules.
Ray Chohan is the co-founder of PatSnap, one of the global leaders in connected innovation intelligence. With more than 800 individuals located across three continents, Ray and his team really are at the forefront of revolutionizing the innovation process.
Giles Andrews is the co-founder of British financial services company, Zopa, which in 2005 made waves by launching the world's first peer-to-peer lending service. Prior to revolutionising the financial sector Giles, a keen car enthusiast, worked at a car dealership but quickly turned his attention to other endeavours including becoming the Chairman of Carwow, a position amongst many others, which he still holds to this day.
Philip Belamant is the founder & CEO of BNPL firm, Zilch. Philip started his career in mobile gaming in his native South Africa but quickly realised the potential of BNPL and decided to set up his own firm, which is now worth over £2bn.
Michelle Kennedy is the co-founder & CEO of social media app, Peanut. The former Badoo and Bumble executive used her experience in the social space to launch Peanut, which since 2017 has connected over 2.7 million mothers and helped them find advice and connect with other women on all manner of topics including pregnancy, childbirth and menopause.
Jonathan Anguelov is the co-founder and GM of cloud-based call center software unicorn, Aircall. Jonathan has always had a passion for entrepreneurship. In fact, prior to launching Aircall in 2014 Jonathan had already amassed a great deal of business experience through his various ventures in real estate.
Sacha Michaud is the co-founder of commerce start-up Glovo. Shortly after recording the episode with Sacha the company made headlines after it was announced that German multinational online food-delivery service Delivery Hero had acquired a majority stake in the company.
Nigel Verdon the co-founder & CEO of Railsr (formerly RailsBank), the world's leading Embedded Finance Experience platform. Nigel has spent decades learning everything there is to know about payments and foreign exchange, first through his experience as an investment banker and subsequently as an entrepreneur of multiple financial start-ups.
Ali Parsa is the Founder & CEO of HealthTech Unicorn Babylon. Ali’s knowledge and expertise on the topic of healthcare is unmatched by anyone else in the UK. In fact prior to launching Babylon the British Iranian entrepreneur co-founded hospital operator Circle Health.
Felix Oshwald is the Founder of GoStudent, a venture-backed ed-tech unicorn, which has been disrupting the tutoring space since being founded in 2016. The company as Felis is keen to stress is now on a mission to become the world's number 1 global school.
Steven Mendel is the co-founder of ManyPets (prev. Bought By Many), the insurance provider that is revolutionising the way consumers purchase pet coverage. Rather interestingly the idea for the company came as a result of Stevens own rather disappointing personal experience when trying to buy private medical insurance for him and his familys. Like any good entrepreneur Steven took it upon himself to try and improve the customer experience, which going by the amount of awards the company has w…
Aron Gelbard is the co-founder & CEO of Bloom & Wild, one of the UK’s most-loved online florists. Prior to launching B&W Aron spent time working as a consultant for Bain & Company, who he goes on to credit for giving him the ideal launch pad to pursue his dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.
Andy Shovel is the co-founder of THIS, one of the leading plant based meat alternative companies in the UK. Andy is a true example of a versatile entrepreneur. Having succeeded with the beef burger chain, Chosen Bun, Andy then decided to turn his life upside down by giving up meat and going plant based. His ambition ever since has been to crack the meat free code in the hopes of providing people with a true culinary alternative to meat.
Alex Chesterman OBE is one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs and Angel Investors. Through his unparalleled intuition and bravery Alex has carved out a reputation as a serial winner and disruptor of several traditional industries. His most recent venture, online car retailer Cazoo is proving to be yet another success having already raised over £1 bn in total funding.
Hector and James take a look back at the 25 episodes recorded in Season 2, their favourites and the most-listened to shows. Then they introduce the incredible line-up for Season 3. This is the first place to find out who is going to be on the show for the next 20 weeks.
Jon Coker is one of the Founding Partners of Eka Ventures. His work at the Impact VC fund has transformed him into one of the pioneers of ESG investments in Europe. Prior to Eka Ventures Jon led the investment team as a partner at MMC Ventures.
Rémy Astié is the founder & co-CEO of online investment platform Vauban. Backed by the likes of MJ Hudson, Pentech and Outward Vauban is looking to democratise private investment. Through its revolutionary infrastructure the company has already helped investors fund $700m in companies such as Airbnb, SpaceX, Tide and many more.
Steve Tigar is the founder & CEO of Scottish based EV company loveelectric. With the ever increasing pressure to lower our carbon footprint leading more and more drivers to opt for electric cars, the company is hoping that through its car scheme, which promises to halve the monthly cost of any new electric car, it will soon be the number one choice for all new car buyers out there.
Irina Scarlat is the Chief Growth Officer at centralized crypto exchange Bitpanda. With over 12 years experience in tech marketing, which have included stints at Uber & Revolut, Irina is slowly carving out a reputation as one of the best project managers in her field.
Mark Smukler is the founder & CEO of Flow, a location-based app that makes it easy to discover the best coworking spaces, gyms, spas and experiences around you. Flow is now available in 50 locations across London with the target being to have 300 locations signed up by the end of the year.
A year ago today, we released S1E1 of Riding Unicorns with Sir Martin Sorrell. In this first edition of Riding Unicorns bitesize, we pick out the best bits from that episode and dissect some of the advice given by Sir Martin.
Jos White is a General Partner at VC firm Notion Capital. In 2000 Jos alongside his brother launched MessageLabs, the first company in the world to introduce anti-virus as a service, which incidentally at the time also made it the first SaaS business ever. Seven years later MessageLabs was acquired by Symantec in 2008 for $700m.
Jonny Plein is the now exited co-founder of the coupon browser extension, Pouch. Jonny spent his postgraduate years working for EY before leaving in 2017 to work on Pouch full time. During his time Jonny and his team were able to win the MassChallenge startup accelerator award. Jonny is now the Director Of Business Development at the Global Savings Group.
Hector and James discuss mega rounds, valuations, and the effect of public markets on private markets.
George Robson is a Partner at the renowned Venture Capital firm, Sequoia. Preceding his time at Sequoia George worked first with Morgan Stanley and then with Revolut as the Senior Product Owner.
Darren Tenkorang is the founder and CEO of Trim-IT, one of the first app-powered mobile Barber Shops in the UK. The idea for the business came to Darren whilst he was still at University. He entered his business plan into a competition and much to his surprise he won. The subsequent £10,000 award ended up forming the base to launch the business that we see today.
Jeremy King is the CEO and founder of one of the leading consumer research platforms in the world, Attest. Jeremy graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA, which led him to secure several prestigious interning positions. In 2005 Jeremy began working at McKinsey as an Engagement Manager. After ten years with the consultancy firm Jeremy had decided that he was ready to go out on his own. He created Attest with the goal of simplifying consumer data. The company now services over 110 mi…
James and Hector review August's episodes, discuss the future of VC, AgriTech, Sustainability and Robotics. The guys also finally announce their dinner party guests.
Georgia Stewart is the co-founder and CEO at Tumelo, a start-up which provides investment platforms and pension providers increased transparency on the companies they own. Georgia grew up in Edinburgh and was originally keen on pursuing a career as a vet. Whilst studying at Cambridge University Georgia became exposed to just how little transparency there was in the investment sector and made a mental note to circle back to this when the time was right. After a number of years working in asset…
Alice Bentinck MBE is one of the co-founders of Entrepreneur First, one of the world's leading talent investors that helps people develop their startup ideas. Away from EF Alice is also one of the founders of Code First: Girls, an organisation which offers free web programming courses for women in university. In 2015 Alice was named one of the Fifty Most Inspiring Women in European Tech by Inspiring Fifty.
Amy Lewin is the Deputy Editor at Sifted. Backed by the Financial Times, Sifted is a new media publication that provides In-depth reporting, news and analysis on European startups and their founders, investors and partners. Before joining Sifted Amy served as a writer and editorial assistant for IKEA Family Magazine at August Media before moving to Courier magazine to work as a features editor.
Sitar Teli is a founder and Managing Partner at Connect Ventures, a thesis-led, pan-European, seed stage VC. With over 14 years experience in early-stage investments in both consumer and B2B companies, Sitar has become an expert on growth, culture, building high performance teams and finance strategy. Most notably Sitar led the Series A round for SoundCloud when working for Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures.
Simon Franks is a partner at Venture Capital and Private Equity firm, Redbus. Simon however is perhaps best known for co-founding LoveFILM, which during its time was one of the biggest names in film rental. After the company had reached two million subscribers it was sold to Amazon In 2011 for £200m. Simon has spent much of the proceeding years focusing on philanthropy. Through his work at the Franks Family Foundation he is able to provide mentorship to charitable organisations to help them a…
The second of our monthly round up episodes. We discuss our favourite episodes in July as well as the World becoming a more competitive, the Square acquisition of Australian FinTech Afterpay and what's going on in the B2B space... hint "Data Is The New Oil".
David Semmens is the Chief Investment Officer at leading UK digital wealth management service, Wealthify. David has experience working across a number of industries covering banking, insurance and asset management and has worked for world renowned financial institutions such HSBC Asset Management, Euler Hermes and Standard Chartered Bank. David has gained a reputation as the go-to person for anyone looking to improve their financial literacy and become an investor.
James Hind is the Founder and CEO of Carwow, one of the most popular platforms for buying new and used cars in the UK. James studied Finance, which led him into the corporate world, however it was not long before he realised that the only was he was going to be fulfilled professionally was if he went it alone. After working as a ski guide for a few months James went ahead and launched carwow in 2011 with the mission of helping people choose and buy the best car. Since then carwow has grown to…
Eamonn Carey is the Managing Director at Techstars, a global platform that connects entrepreneurs, investors and corporations. Away from Techstars Eamonn also operates as an Angel Investor, which has seen him invest in over 50 companies. His expertise and knowledge has seen him invited to speak at conferences all around the world including Web Summit, Collision, SXSW and Mobile World Congress as well as many more.
Harry Franks is the co-Founder of Zego, a tech enabled insurance intermediary, servicing commercial customers in the modern world. The company was launched in 2016 and now employs over 60 people spread across both London and Madrid. Much of Zego’s growth is due in part to Harrys high-level understanding of how to build partnerships with leading companies in the on-demand space and within the insurance sector.
This is the first of our new monthly series where Hector and James discuss what's going on in the world of venture and startups, take a look back at the last month's episodes and talk through what's going on at their firms.
Jean Nehme is the founder & CEO of Touch Surgery, a health tech company shaping the future of surgery through the convergence of surgical expertise and technology. Jean, a trained surgeon, founded Touch Surgery in 2010, in a bid to offer patients educational surgical simulations for more than 200 procedures in 17 specialties. The company was acquired by Medtronic in 2020 but Jean’s continues to be at the centre of the healthtech boom and was even recently involved in a new SPAC.
Matthew Ford is a Partner at Global FinTech Investment Firm, Mouro Capital. Matthew and his team manage over $400M assets that targets early to growth fintech investment opportunities across Europe, North America and Latin America. Prior to Mouro Capital Matthew worked as the Chief Product Officer at Tandem Bank.
Laurence Krieger is the CEO of Tide, the leading provider of UK SME business accounts and one of the fastest-growing FinTechs in the UK. With over 12 years of experience working in senior roles at fast-growing fintech start-ups Laurence has played a huge role in shaping the industry that we see today. Prior to Tide Laurence launched one of the first prepaid cards into the UK with Moneysupermarket and before joining working at Revolut as its COO.
Sam Louis is an Investor at Venture Capital and Private Equity firm, AIV Capital. Having worked for a wide range of companies, including Angel Investment Network, BrickTribe, SeedTribe Sam has a good idea of the inner workings of the whole entire funding ecosystem and as such has developed a deep understanding over what makes a good founder.
Juliette Souliman is a VC Investor at MMC Ventures, a venture capital fund investing in early stage, high-growth UK companies. Juliette is well regarded for her expertise in fintech, insurtech and the blockchain. Away from MMC Julliette is also the co-founder of Ground Floor Ventures, a European and US business angel network focusing on pre-seed venture deals.
Rachel Carrell is the Founder and CEO of private childcare provider, Koru Kids, Originally from New Zealand Rachel moved to London and soon realised after having a baby just how difficult it was to arrange good quality childcare in the capital. She therefore decided to launch Koru Kids to help parents find the right childcare to suit their needs. Prior to Koru Kids Rachel worked at McKinsey.
Welcome back to Riding Unicorns as we usher in Season 2 with more guests and more insight into the world of startups and VC. We are also delighted to welcome Hector Mason, Partner @ Episode 1 Ventures as our new co-host.
Hector McNeil is Founder and Co-CEO at ETF business, HANetf. The company is Europe’s first independent white label ETF platform and has over $2bn assets under its management. Hector is considered a veteran of the EFT space after having played a huge role in establishing Susquehanna’s ETF desk in Europe as head of business development. His work has been recognised several times, most recently by being included in the ETF Stream ‘30 Index’.
Chad West is Director of Global Marketing & Communications at British unicorn, Revolut. The Fintech startup has acquired over 3.5 million customers in three years and was recently valued at over $1.7B making it one of the most revered British companies in recent years. Prior to Revolut Chad worked in Marketing and Communications at VC, Rocket Internet.
Carlos Eduardo Espinal is the Managing Partner at Seedcamp, a European seed fund investing in early stage startups. To date Seedcamp has backed over 400 companies, 6 of whom went on to become unicorns. Carlos is one of the most experienced investors in Europe having worked at numerous high profile companies before joining Seedcamp in 2010.
Roisin Levine is the Head of Banks at one of the UK’s leading fintech companies, Flux. The online banking app provides fully itemised digital receipts into banking apps for the likes of Barclays, Monzo and Starling and many more. Roisin has experienced a meteoric ascension in the space which has seen her crowned winner of the Rising Star in Women in Fintech Award an incredible three times.
David Wascha is the Chief Product and Technology Officer at Zoopla and also a Product Adviser at Kindred Capital. David is, as he describes on his official website, “a product guy at heart.” In fact David has dedicated his entire career to becoming an expert in this field and his tremendous knowledge in the space has seen him work at numerous successful tech companies including Microsoft, Moo.com and Photobox.
Jasper Martens is the Chief Marketing Officer at leading online pension provider, PensionBee. Jasper is an award winning marketing professional with over 15 years of client side experience. Prior to joining PensionBee, Jasper worked at Simply Business, bringing business insurance to SMEs online.
Harry Hugo is the co-founder of award winning global influencer agency, The Goat Agency. Operating across international offices and with over 200 employees, The Goat Agency is the world’s fastest growing influencer marketing agency. Since its launch seven years ago the company has achieved great acclaim having worked on huge campaigns for the likes of Lidl, British Airways, New Look and Chelsea FC. Currently working as Chief Campaign Officer Harry oversees campaign success, ensuring that KPIs…
Rikke Rosenlund is the Founder and CEO of online platform Borrow My Doggy. Much of Rikke’s career was spent working in financial services and entrepreneurship. It was only in 2012, following her own experience of dog sitting for a friend, that she decided to launch the company to help connect dog owners with trusted local dog walkers and carers. 10 years on the brand has established a reputation as the premier dog sitting service in the UK.
Natasha Thomas is the co-founder of premium blended cocktail company, Lockdown Liquor. Launched at the beginning of the pandemic by Natasha and her husband Jack Durling the brand has already been able to shift more than 10,000 units since April 2020. Natasha works on the brand alongside her other venture she founded, Total Management, a leading global event, travel and experiences group.
Lucas London is the co-founder & CEO at the UK’s fastest-growing home decor startup, Lick London. The brand is revolutionising the interiors sector with their unique community-driven ethos, content-rich approach and high-touch quality support. Lucas started out in investment banking before going on to cut his teeth at a host of tech startups. In 2020 Lucas and his fellow co-founder Sam Bradley launched Lick Home and it has quickly grown to become one of the most desirable home decor brands.
Mustafa Khanbhai is a Venture Partner at Seamlessly, a VC looking to help companies launch, source & scale sustainably. Mustafa for his part is an experienced corporate development and business leader. Prior to joining Seamlessly Mustafa worked at Uber and helped it grow to the business powerhouse we know it to be today. Elsewhere Mustafa spent 5 years at Virgin helping them launch businesses within the Health Care, Financial Services and Consumer Technical Support sectors.
Sam Hodges is the Growth Director at men's health company, Numan. Founded in 2018 Numan has quickly become the go-to place for men looking to treat all manner of health issues such as hair loss, gut and lung health and nutritional deficiencies. The company's honest and modern approach to healthcare, fuelled in part by Sam expertise in Performance & Multichannel Marketing, has seen it become one of the fastest-growing companies in the UK.
Paul Lindley OBE is Founder of organic baby and toddler food brand, Ella’s Kitchen. Before turning Ella’s Kitchen into a company with a global turnover of over $100 million the entrepreneur worked as deputy managing director of Nickelodeon UK. Away from work Paul is a committed philanthropist. He is currently the Chair for Robert F Kennedy Human Rights UK and a Trustee of Sesame Workshop, a Board member of social enterprise Toast Ale and Counsellor at One Young World and a Director of Bite th…
Hector Mason is an Investor at Episode 1 Ventures, a seed stage Venture Capital fund, whose previous investments include Carwow, Attest, Zoopla and Shazam. Prior to his time at Episode 1 Hector tried his hand at being a founder and after a couple of attempts, one of which included a successful exit Hector decided to move into consultancy before finally settling on venture capital. Since his move Hector has been slowly making a name for himself as one of the most adept early stage investors in…
Jeff Kelisky is the CEO at equity crowdfunding platform, Seedrs. Jeff is an experienced executive whose track record in building, leading and scaling successful technology businesses has made him one of the most revered figures in his space. Before joining Seedrs, Jeff was CEO for Picsolve and Multimap, the latter of which he led through a successful sale to Microsoft.
Vlad Tropko is a Partner at Digital Horizon, a new generation international venture company focused on B2B software based companies in fintech, retail and e-commerce. Vlad is a seasoned VC executive with over 15 years of experience with particular expertise in European and American startups. As well as this Vlad is also an Investor at companies such as Advisable, Bnext, and Ably.
Jonathan is the VP Commercial at Europe’s largest equity investment platform, Crowdcube. The company has invested over £1bn into startups including Revolut, Monzo & Moneybox. Prior to Crowdcube Jonathan spent time working for the United Nations, UK energy firm, Centrica and was part of the founding team at Pavegen. Jonathan is multiple times Tedx speaker and has spoken at conferences around the world including Future 50.
Hamish Grierson is the co-founder & CEO of Thriva Health, a Wellness and Fitness company providing personalised blood tests, GP-reviewed results, and evidence-based advice. Thriva has already raised over £11m to help it achieve its mission of providing simple and affordable tools to help people better understand and track their internal health data.
Andrew Scott is the Founding Partner of early-stage startup investor, 7percent Ventures. Andrew and his team have a keen eye for ambitious companies with huge upside. Several of his investments to-date include Oculus VR, Source DNA & Magic Pony, which have been sold to Facebook, Apple & Twitter respectively.
Sir Martin Sorrell is the Founder and Executive Chairman of S4 Capital plc. Sir Martin rose to prominence for founding WPP plc, the world's largest advertising and PR group. Prior to his departure from WPP in 2018, Sorrell had become the longest-serving chief executive of a FTSE 100 company.
