The ‘angels’ of UK tech: 9 most active investors of 2020

Currently, angel investors across Europe appear to be more positive and active than ever before. Back in 2018, a total investment of $5B (nearly £3.75B) was pumped into European startups directly from private wealth. The same exceeded in 2019 with a new wave of multi-millionaires from companies such as Spotify, TransferWise, and DeliveryHero.

However, according to a report by Dealroom, investments have slowed down during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report notes that funding rounds in Europe have witnessed a drop of 22%. This applies to angel investments as well. While some tourist angels are not seen in the picture, many others are investing actively. The report also notes that some angel investors are as active as they were prior to the pandemic crisis and have come across an increase in the deal flow in some angel-friendly countries.

Here, UKTN has compiled a list of the most active angel investors in the UK right now, the amount they have invested and their notable investments. These angels are important figures in the tech ecosystem of Europe. In addition to their own business, they also back early-stage startups. Check out the list of most active angel investors from the UK below.

Anthony Rose

Anthony Rose, who launched BBC iPlayer is a serial entrepreneur. Currently, he is the CEO and co-founder of SeedLegals. Anthony created the business with Laurent Laffy, an angel investor after both realised they had been spending large amounts of money to lawyers for the same legal documents that took months to negotiate and close at every funding round. He is also the founder of Beamly and has experience with 6Tribes, YouView and a few others.

Alex Chesterman

Alex Chesterman is the founder of the UK-based property website Zoopla and the pan-European movie rental and streaming service, LoveFilm, which was sold to Amazon for £200M earlier this year. His latest venture Cazoo is a London-based used car marketplace, which attained the unicorn status with a valuation of over £2B in mid-2020. He is one of the most active UK-based angel investors. Recently, he backed several early-stage tech startups including MindLabs, Lick, Fenton & Co, Perlego, and more.

Martha Lane Fox

Martha Lane Fox is the co-founder of lastminute.com, which was sold to Sabre in 200 for $1.1B (nearly £0.82B). Since then, she has played a prominent role in the European tech ecosystem and has played influential roles and was acclaimed as the youngest woman in the House of Lords. Also, Fox founded Doteveryone, which is a think tank championing responsible technology.

Sherry Coutu

Sherry Coutu, the founder of Interactive Investor, an online investment platform is one of the active angel investors out there. She led the company until its IPO in 2000. She is a member of the board at various companies including ScaleUp Institute, universities and charities. Sherry Coutu is known for over 60 angel investments including Topia, Duedil, Perkbox, Matr, Lookk, and more.

Reshma Sohoni

Reshma Sohoni is the founding partner at Seedcamp, which is a leading startup accelerator in Europe. Previously, she worked at Vodafone and 3i as well. During her period at Seedcamp, Sohoni headed a team picking up 4,000 pitches each year choosing a bunch of startups that will get up to £500K investment. The recent investments made by angel investors include Saberr, Tanaza, POQ, FishBrain, Krak and more.

Saul Klein

Saul Klein is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded a slew of notable tech companies. He co-founded Lovefilm, which was sold to Amazon for £200M. It was a part of the original executive team at Skype, which is owned by Microsoft right now. He also co-founded Seedcamp, which is a leading startup accelerator in Europe. Besides this, Klein is a partner at LocalGlobe, a VC fund co-founded along with Robin Klein, his faster and a notable investor in Europe. Notable recent investments made by Saul Klein include At-Bay, Figma, Graphcore, Raisin, Cuvva, and more.

Brent Hoberman

Brent Hoberman co-founded lastminute.com alongside Martha Lane Fox in 1998 and sold it to Sabre for $1.1B (nearly £0.82B). Also, he co-founded an online furniture shop, Made.com and a slew of other startups including Grip and SmartUp among others. Currently, he is the co-founder and chairman of Founders Factory, an incubator and accelerator. Hoberman completed almost 50 angel investments in two years with the recent investments including Owkin, Onfido, Feedr, busuu, Hungry Marketplace and others.

Eileen Burbridge

Eileen Burbridge is originally from the US and moved to the UK in 2004. She has worked for Skype as head of product development and also served product roles at tech giants Yahoo! and Apple as well. Currently, Burbridge is a partner at Passion Capital, which is an early-stage London-based venture capital fund. Eileen Burbridge’s recent angel investments include Adzuna, Lendable, Pusher. Wickr, TruckTrack, and others.

Oliver Jung

Oliver Jung founded Entory AG, an e-commerce consulting company in 1997, which was sold to Deutsche Boerse Group in 2001. He has served as International Lead at HotelTonight, Managing Director at Jung Miropolski and consultant at Airbnb and Houzz. Since then, he has been an angel investor and has pumped in funding to startups such as Adyen, Airbnb, Bulb, Nubank, Revolut, WeWork and others.

Do you think we missed some other active angel investors in Europe? Then write to us on [email protected].