Introducing 14 new Venture Partners fighting to change the status quo

We’re thrilled to announce 14 new Seedrs Venture Partners. These entrepreneurs, investors, and experts are helping us level the playing field for funding around the country. 

On the back of what was a very challenging economic year for many founders, we now need to rally together more than ever to unite in our efforts to support them.

The individuals joining VP2 are all exceptional leaders and influencers in their own right, from fund managers leading the charge investing in female founders of the future to experienced exited founders, we are excited to see what additional value they can bring to Seedrs communities and what value Seedrs can bring to theirs.

Meet VP2:

Clara Probert

Clara is a managing partner of Madonna Capital and a former senior banker with a wealth of experience consisting of – corporate banking, leading large technology projects, managing a £100m venture debt fund for financing tech companies, and structuring business strategies for large institutions.

Her expertise and services include supporting companies with fundraising, structuring and implementing scalable propositions through optimising across marketing, sales, product development and finance resources.

James Routledge

James is a serial entrepreneur and ex-VC who has built three companies over the last 10 years, he’s spent time a lot of time on the west coast and brings a US mindset to the companies in which he works or advises. When not scaling companies James is an active angel investor at early-stage.

Ian Walker

Ian Walker is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and startup mentor. After working as a strategy consultant and activist hedge fund investor, he co-founded LaundryRepublic, now London’s leading sustainable dry cleaning and laundry scaleup. He studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University and International Relations at Johns Hopkins SAIS on a full UK government scholarship.

Veronika Patkai

Veronika is an early-stage investor, focusing on pre-seed and seed stage companies. She was part of the founding team that established Antler in the UK and she invested in over 65 start-ups across a wide range of sectors. She continues to support the growing portfolio as a Venture Partner while she is working on her own new venture.

Nick Telson

Nick Telson started life working at L’Oreal for 4 years in the marketing department. He then went on to build and exit from DesignMyNight in 2017 for $30-$40m and has since invested in over 55 startups across the globe, through his investment arm, Horseplay Ventures. He has a global top 3 business podcast around investing and pitching called Pitch Deck and is now co-founder of his 2nd startup, in the sales operations/buyer enablement space, called trumpet.

Yana Abramova

Yana Abramova is a Founder and General Partner at Pretiosum Ventures, a UK based venture capital firm with a particular focus on the Future of Businesses: B2B and Web3 Infrastructure. Despite only launching Pretiosum Ventures in 2019, she has already had a number of high-profile exits within the portfolio. Prior to launching Pretiosum Ventures, Yana worked in a $1.5bn investment fund and advised start-ups on their expansion into the UK.

Rockman Law

Rockman is a venture scout for Ada Ventures, angel investor and recovering founder. He previously worked at Ascension and Motion Ventures. Prior to VC, he co-founded a venture-backed cyber security start-up with customers including Vodafone, BAE Systems and the UK Ministry of Defence.

Adam Barker

Adam is an investor at Guinness Ventures where he focuses on pre / Series A opportunities. The fund has a generalist focus and since joining in 2018, Adam has led a number of investments into companies spanning across sports, life sciences, healthcare, insurance, and more. Adam holds a number of non-executive and observer positions in the Guinness Ventures portfolio

Mahesh Santiapillai

Mahesh has worked at a number of leading financial institutions like UBS, LGT Capital Partners and Alantra across both the buy-side and sell-side. His roles have encompassed Consultancy, M&A Advisory & Private Debt before deciding to pursue a long-term career in early stage venture capital at Praetura Ventures. Mahesh invests across Praetura’s EIS and Healthcare & Life Sciences fund where he has focused on Enterprise SaaS, Health Tech and FinTech investments. 

Jai Khurmi

A skilled and experienced business leader, Jai is COO of FutureBricks, a FinTech lending platform connecting SME housebuilders with investors. He is responsible for spearheading FutureBricks’ growth, delivering operational efficiencies, and driving commercialisation. Jai’s expertise spans a multitude of professional environments and functional areas including strategy, finance, business development, growth marketing and HR. With his background and passion for entrepreneurship and growing businesses, Jai is also Strategic Advisor to several tech/B2C startups, working directly with founders and overseeing strategic business initiatives.

Nina Mohanty

Nina Mohanty is the co-founder and CEO of Bloom Money, an app that builds tools for diaspora communities to build generational wealth. Before leaving to found Bloom Money, Nina worked  at Klarna making payments smooth and reimagining a better way to pay. Prior to Klarna, Nina worked at London-based Open Banking start up, Bud. She has been a steadfast believer in delivering technology that can better customer’s financial lives and financial literacy since her days at Starling Bank and Mastercard.

Isabelle O'Keeffe

Isabelle joined SVV in 2018 and was involved in building out the fund in Ireland and the UK. She has built relationships with founding teams innovating in immersive tech, e-sports, Metaverse, Enterprise AI and cybersecurity. Isabelle is also Head of Origination at SVV where she has refined our investment process and also defined and implemented our approach to data driven origination – helping to take us to the next level as a team and partner to our founders.

Francesca James

Francesca James is the creator of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards (GBEA). Founded in 2012, these awards acknowledges the hard work and inspiring stories of British entrepreneurs and businesses. The awards have celebrated some outstanding entrepreneurs who have gone on to become household names including Julie Deane of the Cambridge Satchel Company and James Watt of BrewDog and is now seen as the premier entrepreneurship event in the UK with Steven Bartlett recently calling the awards “the Grammys of Entrepreneurship.

Simona Bali

Simona Bali is an investor and CIO for GoingVC Partners, a Silicon Valley-based investment firm. Prior, she worked with Founders Factory, an international accelerator and venture studio, supported by corporations such as L’Oreal, Aviva, Vodafone, and Lego. She’s also involved in GVC’s affiliated venture capital education company and now serves as a Mentor for Founder Institute and Start-up Chile accelerators. Simona’s background includes startup operator and commercial leadership experience, working with multinational enterprises such as Coca-Cola and Reckitt Benckiser, as well as YC-backed startups such as Superside.

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