Future Fifty

Brent is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Founders Factory (global venture studios, seed programmes and accelerator programmes), Founders Forum (global community of founders, corporates and tech leaders), and firstminute capital ($320m seed fund with global remit, backed by over 120+ unicorn founders). Previously, Brent co-founded made.com in 2010 which went public last year with a valuation of $1.1bn, and lastminute.com in 1998 where he was CEO from its inception and sold it in 2005 to Sabre for $1.1bn.

Brent has backed nine unicorns at Seed stage and technology businesses Brent has co-founded have raised over $1bn and include Karakuri (provider of robotics, AI and automation systems), Founders Intelligence (entrepreneur-powered consultancy – recently acquired by Accenture), EQL:HER (network taking action to change the underrepresentation of women in technology), Founders Keepers (technology executive search firm), Founders of the Future (network that identifies and supports aspiring entrepreneurs), Founders Pledge (community for entrepreneurs committed to finding and funding solutions to global challenges), Grip (AI-powered event networking solution), 01 Founders (a network of free-to-access coding schools with a job guarantee), Founders Law (full-service tech law firm), Founders Makers (a creative partner for challengers and forward-thinking corporates), and Polygo (graduate talent accelerator).

Brent sits on the advisory boards of Google Cloud, The Tessa Jowell Foundation, the UK Government Digital Service and the WEF Digital Europe Group. He was also a founding Champion of Change for The Global Tech Group, has been an advisor to four UK prime ministers and in 2015 was awarded a CBE for his services to entrepreneurship.

Joanne Dewar has been firmly at the centre of the Fintech revolution as CEO of Global Processing Services (GPS), now Thredd, where she took pride not only of what the company achieved in enabling the fintech ecosystem, at home and overseas, but also in her values based leadership. Fintechs enabled by GPS included Revolut, Starling, Monzo, and Curve. Since exiting, Joanne enjoys following her passions of advocating for embedding ESG, championing disability inclusion and mentoring female and minority ethnic CEOs on their scale up journeys. Recognition includes Businesswoman of the Year at the 2022 UK Tech Awards, Director of the Year at the 2022 UK Fintech Awards and Payments Leader of the Year at the 2023 European Women in Payments Awards.

Hussein is a partner at Hoxton Ventures. He currently represents Hoxton on the boards of Avantia Law, Baseimmune, BeyondRisk, Biocortex, Biotx, DruidAI, Finesse, Fy!, Giraffe360, Kbox, Kitt, Luminary, Peptone, PillSorted, Raptor Supplies, Really Clever, Rensair, Replai, Replan, Skin Analytics, TourRadar and XYZ Reality, and serves as a board observer on Behavox and Karakuri. He previously served on the boards of Babylon Health (NYSE:BBLN), bd4travel (acquired by Dnata), Campanja (acquired by 24/7 Media), Darktrace (LSE:DARK), Deliveroo (LSE:ROO), Panakeia, SOCOS (acquired by Sophos), Yieldify (acquired by Publicis) and Vidya Health.

Hussein serves on the board of UCLB, the commercialization company of UCL and also sits on the advisory board of GTO Partners, a tech mid-market buyout firm, and Landscape, a venture capital review site. Previously he served on the board of Tech Nation, a UK quasi non-governmental organization. In a personal capacity, he is an angel investor in Apex:E3, Builder.ai, Callaly, GoCardless, Mellizyme, MyGlamm, Reachdesk and Signpost.
While forming Hoxton, he helped Eros STX Global develop ErosNow, an online streaming video platform for Bollywood. Prior to Hoxton, Hussein was an associate with Accel Partners. He joined Accel from Microsoft Corporation. Earlier in his career, he worked with three startups, Safe-View (acquired by L-3), Radiance Technologies (acquired by Comcast) and Studio Verso (acquired by KPMG).

Hussein holds an MBA from London Business School and did his undergraduate studies in Symbolic Systems at Stanford University.

Stan Laurent is a partner at Highland Europe. Prior to their current role, they were the president and CEO of PhotoBox Group, a European consumer print-on-demand service. Stan has also served as the chief operating officer of AOL Europe and the managing director of AOL Germany.

Stan Laurent’s educational career includes a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science from ESCP Business School.

Pranav Sood is the Executive General Manager, EMEA at Airwallex. Based in London, Pranav is responsible for all aspects of Airwallex strategy and operations across EMEA. As part of the global leadership team, Pranav also plays a key role in supporting Airwallex’s global strategy. Pranav started his career at Bain & Company, working in the firm’s London, Mumbai and Mebourne offices. Prior to joining Airwallex, Pranav spent five years at GoCardless, including roles leading the firm’s International and Global SME businesses.

Jean-Laurent Pelissier is a Managing Director and Head of Enterprise Software at HSBC Innovation Banking. He is based in London and is responsible for leading a team which supports venture-backed enterprise software companies with banking and lending solutions. Prior to running the Enterprise Software team, Jean-Laurent led the Strategic Capital team for HSBC Innovation Banking, focusing on providing growth- and late-stage venture debt and mezzanine solutions. He has been supporting the UK and European VC ecosystem for over a decade with experience as both a debt and equity investor. Jean-Laurent holds a BA in Economics and BS in Mathematics from the University of California, Davis, and a MSc Finance from the London School of Economics.

Tugce is passionate about the power of AI and the positive change it can bring to the world. As a serial entrepreneur, Tugce started a number of AI businesses including Streetbees where she served as the CEO for 8 years. She is currently working on Alchemy, a new dating service that brings executive matchmaking to the masses using GenAI tools to deliver hand-picked matches to its users.

Previously, Tugce was a strategy consultant at EY-Parthenon advising Private Equity houses on M&A and portfolio businesses. Tugce is a published author and a Cambridge economist, focusing on the use of technology to bolster economic development.

Chris is an entrepreneur, investor, and mentor. He is the Managing Partner of Outrun Ventures, and one of Europe’s most prolific investors in Fintech companies. After a ten year career at GE Capital, he co-founded a specialty finance company that became one of the fastest growing businesses in the UK. He and his partners sold the business to a NASDAQ listed entity and specialist buy-out fund in 2014. After exiting he turned his attention to venture investing and mentoring founders. He led the Techstars Fintech Accelerator for five years during which time he made 50 investments – making first cheque investments into Everledger, Cuvva, Cutover, Shieldpay and Seldon. He has also invested as an angel into a further 130 companies, many of them now notable, including Railsbank, Kuda Bank, Quant Network, Marshmallow, Smart Pension. Monese, and Atom Bank. He was named the UK’s Angel investor of the year in 2018/19 and Sifted named him the most active fintech angel in Europe in 2020. Chris formed Outrun Ventures to facilitate investment into the growth stage round of some of his most exciting portfolio companies.

Skyscanner’s CEO, Gareth Williams, became fascinated with computers as a teenager. Pursuing his love of code, he went on to study mathematics and computing at Manchester University, where he met Bonamy Grimes and then Barry Smith, who went on to become Skyscanner co-founders.

After leaving in 2019 he is now ‘funemployed’.

Chris is Co-Founder and CEO of what3words. what3words has divided the world into 3m squares and given each a unique 3 word address. It means that now people can refer to any precise location in just three words – from a delivery entrance in the city to a home in a settlement where addresses don’t exist.

Chris harnessed the idea having grown up on a farm where delivery drivers never found his house, then spending a decade running an international live music business where site entrances were unaddressed leading to widespread logistical challenges. Chris devised the what3words concept with two friends, a mathematician and linguist, the 3 went on to co-found the business together.

From Mercedes-Benz and Mitsubishi to Airbnb, DHL and the UN, today thousands of businesses use what3words to improve their efficiency, customer experience and even save lives. what3words is a team of over 100 based in London, with backers including Intel, Sony, & Ikea.

Chris is a TED speaker, winner of EY Accelerating Entrepreneur, Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Innovation, and a Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the World Economic Forum.

Richard is the founder and CEO of moo.com.

Launched in late 2006, MOO helps companies bring their brands to life in a sustainable way.

MOO is focused on disrupting the trillion dollar print and branded merchandise industry, with its unique approach to design, technology and operations. This has allowed it to sustain industry-leading NPS, gross margin and top-line growth for a business of its size. To date, MOO has served millions of customers in nearly 200 countries and employs around 500 people across 5 locations in the UK and USA.

Before founding MOO, Richard worked for the design company Imagination, other past companies also include sorted.com and the BBC. Richard has spend the last ten years on public company boards as a Non-Executive Director, first with Ladbrokes PLC between 2012 and 2016, and then with N Brown PLC between 2016 and 2023.

Richard has been featured in the ‘Wired 100’ and ‘Media Guardian 100’ lists, was named amongst the Telegraph Newspaper’s ‘1,000 Most Powerful People in British Business’, and was ranked in the Guardian Newspaper’s top 10 most influential people in digital media. Richard is also an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and the Young Presidents Organisation.

Richard was awarded an MBE for ‘Services to Entrepreneurship’ in the Queen’s 2015 New Year’s Honours.