Betfair was founded in 1999, when online betting was virtually unknown. Today Paddy Power Betfair is a FTSE 100 company, valued at £7 billion.
Tim Levene joined Betfair in 2001 and was instrumental in its success. But he left in 2010 to set up a new venture, Augmentum because he believed that the financial services sector would, over time, be transformed by the internet, in much the same way as the betting industry has been.
Augmentum has expanded significantly over the past eight years by investing in fast-growing financial technology companies, including Zopa, the world’s first peer-to-peer lending platform and Seedrs, the successful crowdfunding venture.