Augmentum Team

Meet our experienced Board of Directors and Portfolio Manager

The Board of Directors

The Board of Directors are responsible for the determination of the Company’s investment policy and strategy and have overall responsibility for the Company’s activities including the review of investment activity and performance and the control and supervision of the Company’s service providers, including the Portfolio Manager.

All of the Directors are non-executive and are independent of the Portfolio Manager and the other service providers.

The Directors will meet at least four times a year to, inter alia, review and assess the Company’s investment policy and strategy, the risk profile of the Company, the Company’s investment performance, the performance of the Company’s service providers, including the Management Team and the AIFM, and generally to supervise the conduct of its affairs. The audit committee will meet at least twice per annum.

Augmentum Team

Neil England

Chairman of the Board and of the Nominations Committee

Bio
Augmentum Team

Karen Brade

Chairman of the Audit Committee

Bio
Augmentum Team

David Haysey

Chairman of the Management & Remuneration Committee and of the Valuations Committee

Bio

Portfolio Manager

The portfolio is managed by Augmentum Fintech Management Limited, a specialist fund management and advisory business whose experienced and entrepreneurial management team has a strong track record in fintech venture capital. The Portfolio Manager is based in London and is authorised and regulated in the UK by the FCA.

The Portfolio Manager has entered into service agreements with each of Tim Levene and Richard Matthews, the Co-Founders and Principals of The Portfolio Manager and whose biographies, along with information on the rest of the Augmentum Fintech Management Limited team, are set out here. The Company leverages The Portfolio Manager’s years of experience, expertise and networks in the fintech sector to drive value creation in its investee companies.

In addition, The Portfolio Manager consults with an advisory panel of individuals with particular industry expertise (the “Advisory Panel”). The key members of the Advisory Panel can be viewed here.

Modern Slavery Act 2015: As an investment vehicle, the Company does not provide goods or services in the normal course of business and does not have customers. Accordingly, the directors consider that the Company is not required to make any slavery or human trafficking statement under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Read about the anti-bribery and corruption policies here.

Read about the Company’s zero-tolerance approach to the criminal facilitation of tax evasion here.

Tim Levene

Tim graduated in Russian Studies from The University of Manchester and joined Bain & Company in Moscow, Boston, Sydney and London. Tim embarked on an entrepreneurial path and left Bain in early 1998 and created a new retail concept when he opened his first Juice bar (Fresh n Smooth) in 1999 in Canary Wharf. The business has since evolved into a 31-store business across London called Crussh.

In the summer of 1999, Tim joined 3 former colleagues from Bain & Company and launched Flutter.com. Flutter became one of the highest profile internet businesses in the UK after it merged with Betfair.com in 2001. Tim became the Commercial Director of the newly merged business and launched Betfair globally.

In 2010, Tim returned to London to start his next venture. He founded Augmentum Capital with the backing of RIT Capital and Lord Rothschild. The team focused on finding talented entrepreneurial teams in the Fintech industry that were bringing fundamentally disruptive products or platforms to the European market.

In 2018, Tim and Richard successfully launched Augmentum Fintech on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, in the process becoming the first publicly listed Fintech fund in the UK.

Tim was made a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2012 and for several years advised The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry on digital strategy and innovation. Tim was elected in March 2017 to The Court of Common Council in the City of London to represent the Ward of Bridge (as an Independent). Tim is also a Governor of The City of London School.

Outside of the office, Tim has a young family and has been a Chelsea FC season ticket holder since 1979. He remains a keen footballer, golfer and skier although operating at a more sedate pace than in recent years.

Richard Matthews

Richard has 17 years venture capital and private equity experience in the technology, retail and leisure sectors on both sides of the fence. Having studied economics at the University of Manchester, Richard started his career as a Chartered Accountant at Coopers & Lybrand before leaving in 1999 to join Tim at Flutter.com (now Betfair) as CFO.

In 2002 following the merger with Betfair he left to join Benchmark Capital Europe (now Balderton Capital), one of the early investors in Betfair. At Benchmark he worked on early stage technology investments both in the investment phase and assisting the investee companies post funding. He then joined Manzanita Capital in 2005, where he spent 5 years investing in the retail and leisure sectors globally before leaving to form Augmentum Capital. In 2018 Richard and Tim successfully launched Augmentum Fintech on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, in the process becoming the first Fintech focused public VC in Europe.

Away from the office Richard enjoys spending time with his family, watching Arsenal and playing golf, though in the case of the latter 2 the word “enjoys” is used in its loosest sense.

Augmentum Team

Perry Blacher

Perry is a fintech specialist with 25 years’ experience in building and operating online businesses, and has spent the last decade as an investor in, and advisor to, numerous fintech businesses.

Perry graduated from both Cambridge and Harvard before starting his career at McKinsey & Company. In 1998 he left to join Microsoft, before later moving to become a founding Principal of Chase Episode 1 Partners.

Perry later followed the route of the entrepreneur when he went on to become founder and CEO of two businesses, both of which sold to public companies (Serum in 2002, and Covestor in 2007). More recently, Perry has been a Venture Partner at Amadeus Capital, and holds advisory or non-executive roles with Barclays UK, Google, Onfido, Transfergo, Clearscore, CDC and other fintech businesses.

Augmentum Team

Martyn Holman

Martyn has nearly 20 years of experience as an operator, advisor and investor in tech and growth spaces.

Martyn’s early career was spent as a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, consulting to FTSE 50 clients across consumer, energy, financial services and heavy industry. Since this time he has accrued 15 years of experience as both an operator and investor in the tech/VC space. He was a key member of the early Betfair team, the UK’s first true Unicorn, and later co-founded LMAX Exchange which has since featured as the number 1 Times Tech Track Growth Company.

Most recently Martyn spent nearly 5 years as an investor and partner in UK venture capital where he helped raise a £60m early seed fund. Martyn is a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge University, from where he graduated in 1996 with a first class degree in engineering, and has an MBA from the Said Business School in Oxford, gained with Distinction in 2001.

Martyn now joins Augmentum Fintech as a Partner.

Learn more about Martyn in his ‘Meet the Investor’ feature here

Augmentum Our Team

Edward Wray

Co-founded Betfair, which later floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2010 valued at £1.4 billion, and has twice won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Having stepped down from his role as chairman of Betfair in 2012, Edward continues to invest in Fintechs and currently holds directorships at Funding Circle, LMAX, Property Partner and Prodigy Finance, and is a trustee of Nesta, TheMix and Mental Health Innovation.

Augmentum Our Team

Phillip Riese

Prolific Fintech investor and Former president of American Express Consumer Card Group and Chairman of American Express Centurion Bank

Augmentum Our Team

Josh Hannah

Co-founder of Flutter.com and Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor. Former general partner at Matrix Partners

Augmentum Our Team

Bronek Masojada

CEO of Hiscox since 2000 and Deputy Chairman of Lloyd’s 2001-2007

Augmentum Our Team

Chairman of the Board and of the Nominations Committee

Neil England

Neil has extensive international business expertise in a career spanning public and private companies varying in size from start-ups to global corporations. His career started in manufacturing and he has held leadership roles in sales, marketing and general management across sectors including food, FMCG, distribution and technology.

Neil was a Vice President of Mars Incorporated; Group Chief Executive at The Albert Fisher Group plc and Group Commercial Director at Gallaher Group plc. Additionally he started two technology businesses and has advised on others. Neil has been Chairman of a number of companies, most recently ITE Group plc, Blackrock Emerging Europe plc and three private businesses. Neil is Chairman of Schroder British Opportunities Trust Plc.

Augmentum Our Team

Chairman of the Audit Committee

Karen Brade

Karen has extensive experience in project finance and private equity. She started her career at Citibank where she worked on various multi-national project finance transactions. Karen worked at CDC (Commonwealth Development Corporation), the UK’s development finance institution, where she held a variety of positions in equity and debt investing, portfolio management, fund raising and investor development.

Karen has been an adviser to hedge funds, family offices and private equity houses for a number of years. She is currently Chairman of Aberdeen Japan Investment Trust PLC and Keystone Investment Trust plc. Karen is also a Non-Executive Director of HeiQ plc.

Augmentum Our Team

David Haysey

Chairman of the Management & Remuneration Committee and of the Valuations Committee

David has extensive experience in the investment business, working on both public and private equities, and asset allocation. He started his career as a stockbroker, and held a number of senior positions, including as head of European equities for SG Warburg plc and Deutsche Bank AG and CIO and co-CEO of Deutsche Asset Management’s European Absolute Return business. David previously worked for RIT Capital Partners plc, where he was a board member and head of public equities. He joined the multi-strategy firm Marylebone Partners from its launch as head of liquid strategies. Since his retirement he has been a non-executive partner and member of the firm’s investment committee.

Georgie Hazell

Georgie heads up engagement at Augmentum, which involves supporting portfolio companies, engaging with investors and the wider fintech ecosystem (including marketing and events), and supporting the team internally.

Georgie has worked in a number of startups across people, strategy and growth leadership positions. Following her MBA and a consultancy project with Crowdcube, Georgie moved into venture capital.

Passionate about diversity and inclusion, particularly in VC and entrepreneurship, Georgie founded women in tech network Elevate, led on UK expansion for Her Campus Media, volunteers with Diversity VC and mentored with The Girls Network.

Ellen Logan

Ellen is an Investor at Augmentum. She previously worked at OC&C Strategy Consultants and at HR analytics startup Bunch, after studying Economics at the University of Edinburgh. Ellen has a particular interest in emerging technologies such as the digital asset economy and alternative payment methods.

Outside of the office she spends her time practicing yoga, experimenting in the kitchen and exploring the art galleries of London.

Learn more about Ellen in her ‘Meet the Team’ blog here

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Sofia Wiecko

Sofia oversees the financial and administrative operations at Augmentum and has over 15 years’ experience in financial accounting.

Believing in giving back to the community, Sofia is active in a number of local charities.

Hayley Manning

Hayley is Augmentum’s Office Manager and PA. Prior to working at Augmentum, Hayley worked at law firm Stephenson Harwood.

Nigel Szembel

Nigel leads Public Relations and Investor Relations at Augmentum. Nigel has had an international career in corporate affairs, communications and investor relations which, over 30 years, has included responsibility for UK, regional (EMEA and Latin America) and global functions; covering high-profile public companies, private companies, prominent individuals and public bodies, primarily in the financial services sector but also taking in consumer/fashion, planning policy, arts and the environment.

Akash Bajwa

Akash is an Investor at Augmentum Fintech. Prior to joining Augmentum, Akash worked at the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, Barclays Ventures and Deloitte. Akash studied Accounting and Finance at Cass Business School.

Outside of work, Akash enjoys writing a blog on trends in technology and venture capital, runs ‘The European Tech Club’ on Clubhouse and volunteers with networks that support more investment in impact-driven companies in the private markets. Akash always looks forward to reading great books and playing tennis with friends as a way to unwind.

 

Learn more about Akash in his ‘Meet the Team’ blog here.

Reginald de Wasseige

Reginald (Reggie) is an Investor at Augmentum Fintech. Reggie started his career in private equity in Belgium (his home country), at Cobepa, and went on to explore entrepreneurship through founding a software company focusing on document security for large organisations. Off the back of both experiences, VC was a natural evolution and Reggie joined ABN AMRO Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Dutch bank, and relocated to Amsterdam. This first VC position introduced him to the world of fintech and was also the start of his international adventure.

Learn more about Reggie in his “Meet the team” feature here

Fareedah Daranijo

Fareedah is Augmentum’s Digital Marketing & Operations Assistant.

Prior to joining Augmentum, Fareedah studied Business and Management at university and conducted various placements across sales, marketing and project management, including with Bosch in Germany.

Outside of work, Fareedah enjoys travelling, learning about different cities and cultures, and volunteering in the local community.