Our Team 

Mark Pearson - Fuel Ventures Funds

Mark Pearson is an award-winning digital entrepreneur and investor. In 2006 Mark began his career in e-commerce. From an initial investment of circa £300 Mark grew MyVoucherCodes into the second biggest voucher code brand in Europe (by revenue and audience) where the network served over two million users in eight territories across Europe and South America and the business employed circa 100 staff in the UK and India. 

The Fuel Ventures Funds specialise in seed-stage investments in European marketplaces, platforms and SaaS sectors.

Find out more about the Fuel Ventures Scale-Up EIS Fund.

Find out more about the Fuel Ventures CoInvestment EIS Fund.

Rajeev Saxena & Bil Bungay - Velocity Funds

Raj has founded a series of successful entrepreneurial businesses across a range of industries. These include MPPI, an Indian media fund, raising money and managing Indian property ventures, a 200mw wind farm development near Istanbul and Soho House Mumbai, a franchise business launching the Soho House brand in Mumbai.

Bil co-founded Beattie McGuiness Bungay (BMB), an advertising agency that went on to become one of the fastest-growing agencies and considered one of the most creative advertising and marketing agencies of the decade.  His entrepreneurial spirit, combined with almost 30 years of creative and marketing experience, has helped him bring many ideas to fruition, for example, Purple Bricks, and mentoring numerous early-stage businesses.

The Velocity SEIS/EIS Technology Funds aim to invest in technologies and entrepreneurs providing financing and support for technology-enabled businesses. 

Find out more about the Velocity SEIS Technology Fund 4.

Find out more about the Velocity EIS Technology Fund 5.

Pippa Gawley - Zero Carbon Fund

Pippa has been angel investing in technologies in the US for the last four years and was an active and passionate member of the impact investing world in the Bay Area. She learnt by investing alongside experts in the field of early-stage climate innovation and impact investment and as a member of several angel networks including E8 and Investor’s Circle (now Social Venture Circle).

The Zero Carbon Fund is investing in EIS qualifying technologies and companies on a mission to address climate change on a large-scale through technological innovation.

Find out more about the Zero Carbon Fund.

Dominic Keen - The British Robotics Fund

Dominic is a successful British technology entrepreneur. Having previously floated on the London Stock Exchange mPorium Group plc, the software business that he founded, he now helps promising ventures to maximise their growth potential. In particular, Dominic looks to apply the lessons learned from his experiences gained in taking the business that he started in his garage through to becoming a public company, to other exciting early-stage companies.

The British Robotics Funds target UK-based robotics, AI and technology-focused companies looking to capitalise on the widespread inevitable adoption of robotic processes.

Find out more about the British Robotics Scaleup Fund.

Mehjabeen Patrick - Creative England Investment Fund

Mehjabeen is Creative England’s Chief Financial and Operations Officer, responsible for the implementation and running of all operating functions across the company. With extensive experience as a Finance Director, Mehjabeen oversees all investment activity for the company and has a keen interest in growing its commercial activities and diversifying its income stream. Previously Mehjabeen worked as Director of Finance for United Nations Association and Stakeholder Forum.

The Creative England Investment Fund is dedicated to the growth of creative industries, investing in talented people and their creative ideas, nurturing the UK's richly diverse games, TV, film and digital media industries. 

Find out more about the Creative England Investment Fund.

Dan Rodwell - GrowthInvest EIS Fund

Daniel is the Managing Director of GrowthInvest. Prior to co-founding GrowthInvest Daniel worked in finance for nearly 20 years, managing institutional and private funds focusing on equities and derivatives. Daniel has been an angel investor for over ten years, he mentors growth businesses and sits on numerous panels assessing such businesses. He is passionate about increasing efficiency in the alternative investment sector.

The GrowthInvest Portfolio Service seeks to invest and provide support for early-stage companies.

Find out more about the GrowthInvest Portfolio Service.

Jasper Smith - Vala EIS Portfolio

Jasper runs Vala Capital and has overall responsibility for the Vala EIS Portfolio’s deal flow and mentoring services. He is an entrepreneur who has founded and invested in many companies in the media, technology and engineering sectors.  He has achieved a number of successful exits, creating significant shareholder value along the way.

The Vala EIS Portfolio aim to acquire shares in small companies with big plans for growth, chosen by an experienced group of entrepreneurial investors.

Find out more about the Vala EIS Portfolio.

Dr. Ayla – Cambridge VenturED Fund

Dr. Ayla co-founded the Cambridge University Venture Capital and Private Equity society in 2016 where she served as President and Chair and subsequently founded Cambridge Ventured. She holds a Ph.D. in Psychiatry from the University of Cambridge, School of Clinical Medicine, and undertook several courses at the Cambridge Judge Business School. Dr. Ayla has a thorough understanding of the unmet clinical and scientific needs with over a decade of experience in healthcare. She also has experience in working with several life science-based venture capital firms.

Find out more about the Cambridge Ventured Fund.

Damon Bonser - The British Design Fund

Damon is a serial entrepreneur with over 15 years’ experience of building and running product design and manufacturing businesses. The CEO, investor and mentor started out in business when he was in his mid-20s, after finishing university. Fast forward to October 2019 and the BDF has invested just under £1m into six companies, with the aim of expanding their portfolio over the coming years.

The British Design Funds seek to invest in and provide support for UK product design and manufacturing companies.

Find out more about the British Design Fund 2.

Dr. Ilian Iliev - EMVC Evergreen EIS Fund

Dr Ilian Iliev is Managing Director of EMV Capital (EMVC) where he also leads the investment advisory team. Prior to that he co-founded and was CEO of CambridgeIP Ltd, which he built into a leading market and technology business intelligence provider in the UK. In the late 1990s, he co-founded and led 100-person family business in Southern Africa in the electrical industry, with a focus on turnkey industrial installations.

The EMVC Evergreen Fund specialises in B2B technologies including industrial high-technology, energy, robotics, AI, IoT and resource efficiency.

Find out more about the EMVC Evergreen EIS Fund.

John Bailye - The SBS Later Stage EIS Fund

John moved to the United States in 1987 from Australia and cofounded and assembled a team that grew a start-up to a billion dollars in market cap (formerly on Nasdaq: DRTE) with nearly 3,000 employees. He sponsored and co-founded the New Jersey Technology Council, now with circa 1,500 entrepreneurs as members, which is aimed at creating an exchange for entrepreneurs’ experiences and ideas. John has personally been investing in early-stage companies for many years.

The SBS Later Stage EIS Fund aims to invest in successful later stage companies with an established customer base and revenues, led by driven teams who want to take their companies to the next stage.

Find out more about the SBS EIS Venture Fund.

Stephen Margolis - Arie Tech EIS Fund

Stephen is a qualified lawyer with over 35 years’ experience in financing and alternative assets. Stephen founded Taurus Asset Finance in 2011 and has been involved in multiple technology-related capital raises via Taurus.

The Arie Capital Technology EIS  is an EIS fund that will provide private investors access to a selection of innovative growth companies that have an established proof of concept and commercial viability.

Find out more about the Arie Capital Technology EIS Fund.

Daryl Thorpe - Zenzic Estate Planning Service

Daryl has over 20 years of finance experience, successfully co-founding and exiting a consumer finance business to a listed United States based corporation. Daryl has been involved in UK real estate since 2002 with more recent focus as a principal lender within the sector.

Zenzic Estate Planning Service is an estate planning service striving to invest in property based companies qualifying for business relief in order to mitigate inheritance tax.

Find out more about the Zenzic Estate Planning Service.

Rupert Strachwitz - Velocity Credit Advisors Portfolio Management Service

Rupert co-founded a sustainable energy business in 2007 where he was initially responsible for cross-border project finance before leading the business to a successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange. Rupert is also co-founder and the interim Managing Director of TR8CY UK Limited a technology platform supporting trade finance for SMEs. 

The Velocity Credit Advisors Portfolio Management Service seeks to build a diverse portfolio of short term credits to SMEs, managed by a team with wide corporate and financial experience.

Find out more about the Velocity Credit Advisors Portfolio Management Service.

Andy Davidson - Nova CofounderySEIS & EIS Fund

Andy is a software engineer and serial technology entrepreneur. Over the last 20 years he has co-founded numerous technology companies, he still holds directorships in many of them, including Lucid Games and Sentric Music. Along with software engineering, Andy has strong financial experience and has raised seed venture capital for the companies he has co-founded. In 2017 Andy was recognised by the Sunday Times as one of the UK's Top 100 Disruptive Entrepreneurs.

Find out more about the Nova Cofoundery SEIS & EIS Fund.

Marcus Love - Love Ventures Fund I

Marcus has approximately 14 years of experience as an FCA approved financial professional in London. He worked most recently at William O’Neil+Co, the US-headquartered equity research firm between 2011-2019.

Marcus has a strong track record of delivering global equity idea generation to investment managers. In particular, he focused on growth stocks at William O’Neil+Co and key investment themes globally, e.g., cash to cashless, Software as a Service (SaaS), eCommerce expansion. He overlaid this methodology with timing indicators, a recent example being calling the lows in equity markets in March 2020. He successfully built an angel network that has invested in approximately 20 early-stage businesses during the last five years.

The Love Ventures fund specialises in seed-stage investments in FinTech, PropTech, and ConsumerTech sectors.

Find out more about the Love Ventures Fund I.

Brian McCaul - QUBIS Ltd

Brian is the CEO of QUBIS and also Director of Innovation at Queen’s University Belfast. Having worked both within technology transfer environments and as an entrepreneur with his own start–up companies, Brian’s experience prior to joining QUBIS includes: co–owning an aerospace manufacturing business based in the UK and Poland; co–founding an innovation software company in the UK and Netherlands; establishing the Innovation Commons – a community and shared platform of university Technology Transfer Offices bringing entrepreneurs to work on early–stage projects; and working on numerous national knowledge transfer initiatives as Chair of the Association for University Research and Industry Links (AURIL).

Find out more about the QUBIS Innovation Fund.