Libra: Diversity Drives Innovation

Known as TFC to many, Tom is a serial entrepreneur who has helped build companies with a combined value of $5B – and he’s not done yet. His fourth startup, Lollipop, is looking to shake-up online grocery by creating an AI assistant that does the shopping for you.
Prior to that, he helped scale Monzo bank to 4 million customers as COO while building their multi-award-winning customer support service. He also co-founded Curve, an all-in-one card aggregator and was Founding COO of early London FinTech, Osper, a banking app for children.
Before catching the startup bug, he spent many long (and slightly boring) years in management consulting with Bain & Co and Accenture. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BA from New College, Oxford in Psychology, Philosophy & Physiology. In his (limited) spare time, Tom has also co-founded All In, a community of leading startups and scaleups who have pledged to move the needle on diversity and inclusion in the tech ecosystem.

Brianna Bao is an early stage deep tech investor at Simsan Ventures, a London and Seoul based venture capital firm. She is also the Co-founder and COO at Platin, an AI-powered professional networking platform. As a Forbes-featured VC specializing in early-stage deep tech startups, Brianna actively promotes DEI as well as democratization within the tech industry.

She demonstrates her commitment to supporting underrepresented founders and creating an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem through her mentorship roles at various accelerators, including Zinc VC, Google for Startup Black Founders’ Fund, and Tech Nations’ Libra Programme.

Brianna is the Diversity Lead at University of Oxford’s Founders & Funders, a highly curated community bridging the gap between science and business, where Brianna cohosted a Webinar Series on “Investing in Underrepresented Founders”.

Brianna holds an MBA from Cass Business School in London and a Master’s degree in Mathematics and Education from New York University, following a double major in mathematics and physics. Prior to embarking on her entrepreneurial journey, Brianna served as one of the earliest Math for America Fellows, teaching mathematics and coding to underprivileged students in New York City.

Currently, Brianna is involved in Girls Are Investors (GAIN) and is a passionate advocate for girls in STEM. She firmly believes in transformative potential of deep tech and actively promotes STEM education and learning throughout her career.

Andy Ayim MBE is a long-term investor in businesses that close gaps in society and for the planet. He is also the founder of the Angel Investing School (AIS).

Andy serves on the Board of Whering, Translate Culture, Treasure Tress, If We Raise and previously London Tech Week.

He has deployed over $3m into startups and alumni from AIS have invested over $5m in over 300 startups since 2021.

Passionate about Economic Empowerment Fintech and Climate Change.

Recently awarded Innovate Finance’s Standout Women in Fintech on Innovate UK’s Fintech Power list for being a Top Female Investor. Chenelle Ansah is an early-stage Venture Capital Investor investing in Climate Tech and Fintech in Europe and Africa.

In addition to being recognised as one of the UK’s leading female investors in Venture Capital, she is a speaker and holds a number of NED and Board Advisor positions.

Chenelle has worked in Financial Services for 16 + years and has spent the last 10 years working at the intersection of Fintech and Diversity. A Partner at Cornerstone Partners (the UK’s first black-owned investment firm), Chairwoman of the Investment Committee and Board Advisor at Crisis Venture Studio.

As a campaigner, Karl has spent the past decade of his life advocating for a fairer and more inclusive business ecosystem. Karl offers consultancy and advisory to high profile individuals, decision makers and corporates. His philanthropic efforts have helped raise millions for charities in the UK. A gifted orator, Karl is regularly invited to speak at corporate, public and charity events including TEDx Talks. He is also the co-founder and chairman on Black Seed, Europe’s first Black fund for Black founders by Black founders. A £10M fund and community providing black founders access to an extensive network whilst acting as a bridge between the city and community.

Dama Sathianathan (she/her) is a partner at Bethnal Green Ventures (BGV), Europe’s leading early-stage tech for good VC, backing ambitious founders using tech to tackle pressing social and environmental challenges at scale. At BGV, she leads on deal flow, community and networks, driving BGV’s efforts to act with integrity on diversity, equity and inclusion and fuel the broader tech for good movement across the UK.

Dama previously worked for international NGOs advocating for better human rights practices in global development and humanitarian response and has a background in international relations and human rights.

Dama sits on the steering committee of VentureESG, the world’s largest community of VCs and LPs stewarding better-shared learning and practices to integrate ESG and impact at the fund level and beyond. She’s also a Trustee at Chayn, a non-profit building open-source products and services for survivors of gender-based violence and domestic abuse.

Tom is an entrepreneur passionate about disruptive technology for societal and climate good. He was CEO and Founder of acquired fashtech scale-up Metail until 2019. Angel investor and policy change catalyst, he is also currently co-founder of research nonprofit Extend Ventures, and serves as Non-Exec Director for SPOKE, Verco and ‘Do Nation’ amongst others.

Gabbie is an Investment Manager at early stage consumer fund, Redrice Ventures. We support founders creating premium consumer brands and related B2B tech solutions from pre-seed to series A.

Lyubov is a Founding Partner at Blue Lake VC, investing and supporting the UK’s early-stage international founders with a global vision. Principal organiser of International Office Hours linking early-stage startups in or on their way to the UK and the leading investors within the local ecosystem.
The UK Global Talent Visa Recipient and Ambassador.

Dayo Koleowo is a Partner at Microtraction; an early-stage venture fund backing remarkable African tech entrepreneurs. His primary focus is pre-seed/seed investments across different sectors in Africa, portfolio support, fundraising, and the day-to-day operation of the fund.

He has a degree in Quantity Surveying and worked in the construction industry for 2 years before starting an online food delivery startup in 2015.

He is passionate about the economic growth of the African continent and believes her acceleration to economic sustainability will be achieved by empowering one of her biggest assets – the people.

Drew Currie has a passion for supporting small businesses and making entrepreneurship more accessible. Drew runs informative, ‘Show Me The Money’ grant funding events around the country, sharing guaranteed hints, tips and tricks to securing funding opportunities.

To date he has helped founders access over £7.3million of grants & Free Money programme funding.

Drew is a business founder, a mentor at NatWest Entrepreneur accelerator. Board member. Judge for Tech Nation. Ambassador for Birmingham Tech. UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Assessor.

Based in the W Midlands, his previous enterprises include, co-founding a nationwide chain of 9 laser hair removal and botox clinics. Currently Drew is launching hibretOne CIC. A revolutionising freemium Saas platform, delivering the most comprehensive business resources, tools, investment and opportunities, all in one place.

Maria is an operator turned investor, having scaled international technology startups to millions of users in leadership roles such as Country Manager, Uber Nigeria, and General Manager West Africa at Branch.co (a neo-bank that offered credit using AI/ML to credit score smartphone data).

She’s currently working on a new venture. Most recently, she was a fund manager who co-led a £10m European fund investing in European founders at pre-seed across B2B Software, Fintech and Digital Health and has invested in over 50+ startups across continents at pre-seed.

Maria has a BSC. in Computer Science from Covenant University, an MBA from Said Business School, University of Oxford, was the Managing Director of the Oxford Seed Fund. She is also a Certified Chartered Accountant, with Association of Chartered Accountant (ACCA) in the United Kingdom.

Maria personally finds backing and supporting ambitious founders early, even before day one, most impactful.