Taking Venture Capital to the next level

George is an energetic serial entrepreneur, gaining operational experience as part of the founding teams at a series of tech companies before becoming an investor at a European VC. During this time he developed the end to end Investment experience from deal origination to running the investment committee, which ultimately lead in over 50 investments across Seed & Series A. George now sits on various Investment Committees investing throughout UK, Europe and Israel.

George is a long distance endurance athlete completing various challenges including an Ironman whilst also making time for his two young children.

Kelvin has over 17 years of experience in technology investment banking, VC and managing high-growth operations. Previously a Principal at Molten Ventures(formerly Draper Esprit) and headed up investments at Founders Factory, Kelvin worked closely with founders on product, strategy and fundraising and has co-invested with over 100 venture investors throughout Europe. Kelvin gained operational experience at a deep tech scale-up where he led the company to Series B and the eventual exit to one of the largest global supply chain players. He started his career at Credit Suisse and HSBC where he provided M&A and financing advice to technology companies after achieving a first class Master's degree in Computer Science from Imperial College London.

Outside of speaking and learning from really smart people (aka founders), he geeks out on Lego and Rubik’s cube and spends his every waking moment entertaining his two young daughters (but in vain).

Ziad believes in the power of technology bringing people together, he is passionate about European VC and the development of the MENA start-up ecosystem. Ziad previously headed Investor Relations at Force Over Mass Capital a pan European VC fund with offices in London and Belgium, voted one of the most active and involved VC’s in Europe. Ziad was also being responsible for Portfolio Management, Investing and maintained an active seat on the Investment Committee while supporting portfolio companies to enter the MENA region. Ziad graduated from the American University in Washington DC and speaks English, French and Arabic.

Ziad is an avid traveller, with an affinity for a good beach and some surfing.

Greg spent the last 9 years as an operator and investor in technology startups. After spending the first years of his career in investment banking at Deutsche Bank in London, he moved to Seattle and then the Bay Area where he worked as aninvestor for Nanodimension, a nanotech-focused VC firm. Coming back to London, he ran the Startupbootcamp Fintech’s intake and portfolio management, resulting in 20 investments by the accelerator. Greg then set up the first UK Treasury-backed fintech programme for Tech Nation and, as Head of Sector Programmes there, deployed two additional government-backed programmes focused on Applied AI and Cybersecurity companies. Aside from his investing role at Cell, he’s also an angel investor and startup mentor at Sie.Ventures, a community-based support programme for female founders.  

Greg graduated in Economics from the University of St.Gallen. A Swiss national, he speaks fluently English, French and German.

Maria is a qualified lawyer having spent several years at a City law firm with incorporate and capital markets, focusing on M&A deals and technology investments. She then moved to Founders Factory, where she led the structuring and negotiation of deals for all startup investments, as well as sitting on several company boards, assisting with growth and strategy initiatives. Maria completed her studies in Italy, Germany and France before graduating from UCL. Maria speaks English, Italian, German and French.

Victoria brings her experience from both sides of the table, having worked as a startup operator for Prolific and Seeth, and as an investor with Finch Capital, an Amsterdam based VC fund focused on early stage Fintech and Insurtech companies across Europe and South East Asia as well as Concrete Ventures, a European focused Proptech platform catering to clients such as Starwood Capital, JLL Spark, U+I Group, and more. She holds a BSc from UCL and speaks English, French and Spanish.

Jack commenced his VC career at Eight Roads a global VC firm backed by Fidelity with a presence in China, India, London, Hong Kong, Israel and Japan. He was then the Principal Investor in charge of Europe at Next47, a €1bn VC fund backed by Siemens focusing on B2B and DeepTech investments globally.  Most recently he has been an Investment Director at Downing Ventures, a UK VC with a portfolio of over 160 companies. Prior to Venture he worked at Goldman Sachs having completed a degree in Economics.

Kate’s key responsibility is to proactively identify, evaluate and mitigate the firm’s regulatory and reputational risks and to ensure the firm has a robust Compliance framework. Prior to 2010, Kate worked at HSBC Private Bank, as Head of Client Services in the UK where her focus was to ensure successful outcomes for clients with a continued world class service. She previously worked as an Analyst at JPMorgan Private Bank for 6 years in the UK UHNW team and then joined Coutts in the newly formed Private Office servicing UHNW clients.

Mark is an expert in climate technology, advising business leaders in climate risk intelligence, decarbonisation, sustainable finance, and supply chains. At deep-tech platform Cervest (cervest.earth), he built a commercial ecosystem of advisories and technology platforms. Mark is a judge and coach for the UK TechNation NetZero program, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He also has over 25 years’ experience in the US and UK leading several global public sector and commercial GTMs, including Microsoft and Google. Mark holds an M.Sc. in Rural & Regional Resources Planning from Aberdeen University, having specialized in sustainable development and natural resources.

Nick Kind is a Managing Director at Tyton Partners who specializes in the Future of Work and impact investment. Having spent 16 years developing educational software for every age group and in many geographies around the world; he then moved into corporate development for one of Europe’s largest media groups (Holtzbrinck), operating a market intelligence, thought leadership and internal strategy consultancy team for the board. He subsequently acted as SVP Global Strategy for Area9 Lyceum, a Danish adaptive learning technology business which has raised over €40m in funding. Area9 Lyceum has a core focus on corporate learning, reskilling and upskilling markets. Nick is an acknowledged thought leader in the educational impact investing and Future of Work space.

Keith is an AgTech consultant with nearly 40 years agriculture and AgTech experience, including acting as Velcourt’s Technical Director for 30 years focusing in areas such as crop production technology, agrochemicals, seed, crop nutrition and precision farming methods spanning the UK, Spain, France, Germany, Zambia and the Ukraine. He is member of DEFRA, Chairman of the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research), and board member of LEAF (linking environment and farming) as well as several other links to AgTech and agricultural groups.

Ankush is an entrepreneur, investor and adviser operating in the UK and East Africa. He has worked in several businesses (some alongside private equity funds) to create value in sectors including food & beverage, packaging, FMCG and pharmaceuticals. He is additionally an equity partner at Outlier Ventures, a leading blockchain startup accelerator and is an active tech and blockchain investor. Ankush holds a first class degree from Oxford University, an MSc from the London School of Economics and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School (OPM). He started his career working in M&A and financing at Credit Suisse after which he worked as a Partner at Gruss & Company, a $2.5bn AUM hedge fund. He is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organisation.