Awards judges
Sutin Yang
Managing Partner - The Fundraising Accelerator & SeedLegals Angel of the Year 2025
In the 12 years spent at J.P. Morgan investing for a $12.5B fund, Sutin learned not only how the world’s best investors think, but what it is that separates ideas that get funded from those that don’t. Equipped with this knowledge, she went on to found her own startup before launching The Fundraising Accelerator, a 7-week programme designed to help entrepreneurs master the investor mindset and close rounds in record time.
Jonathan Keeling
Partner - Haatch
Jonathan is the ex-Chief Growth Officer of Crowdcube, where as an early employee he helped scale the business to £14 million in annual revenue and 150 staff, working with brands including Monzo, Revolut and Brewdog. At Haatch he drives fundraising across the firm's funds and also founded edge, a growth consultancy for consumer startups; a two-time TEDx speaker and active early-stage investor, he's passionate about the early-stage ecosystem.
Shruti Iyengar
Investment Director at Future Planet Capital
Shruti is an Investment Director at Future Planet Capital, leading Space-tech investments within the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund and sitting on the Blue Ocean Mandate's Investment Committee. With 10 years in early-stage investment, she judges deep tech panels including the Economist Space Summit and London Tech Week, and previously invested at climate tech fund Sustainable Ventures, managing a 36-company portfolio and its Accelerator Programme.
Karl Rego
Chairman at London Executive Advisors
Karl is a Chairman, Advisor and Investor with 25 years' experience in impact investing, having founded, funded, scaled and exited multiple businesses and deployed $150 million+ for impact ventures. He is Co-Chair of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of the UK, whose ~60 investments include the $2.3 billion Rover (Dogbuddy) acquisition and the £385 million Pension Bee IPO, and he began his career at Johnson & Johnson.
Kristina Pereckaite
Founder - South East Angels
Kristina is the Founder and Managing Director of South East Angels, an award-winning members club for angel investors. Since launching in 2021, the group has deployed £2M+ into startups annually, earned recognition from UKBAA as "Most Active Investor in the Regions" (2024), and been named a finalist for Angel Group of the Year two years running.
Roderick Beer
Managing Director - UKBAA
Roderick's 17-year career spans founding and growing angel groups and investment platforms that have collectively deployed over £100m across 500+ startup and scaleup businesses. He started at Beer & Partners, the UK's first major angel group, and later helped build a corporate finance firm as COO; he now leads the UK Business Angels Association, representing 220 organisations that deploy over £2bn a year.
Helen Chorley
Investor
Helen Chorley, an angel investor on Sky TV's Property Elevator, is a respected analyst with over 20 years in finance. She began at JPMorgan before moving into real estate and venture capital, where she now mentors and invests in high-growth startups, and she co-founded Property Sisters to support women in real estate investing while speaking widely on funding and startup challenges.
Engin Yenidunya
Investor & Founder - 21x21
Engin is the Founder of 21×21, an angel investment collective of 21 lifelong friends spanning 13 countries. Currently CFO and COO of Zunou AI, he previously served as CFO of MUBI after an 18-year career in global banking across New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo, has invested $1 billion in equity and raised $55 million for startups, and holds a B.A. from Yale, where he now serves as Club President.
Denise McQuaid
Co-Founder & Director of Investor Relations - AwakenAngels
As co-founder and Director of Investor Relations at AwakenAngels, Denise is dedicated to supporting and investing in internationally scalable, women-led companies. She helps founders refine their value proposition, prepare for global expansion, and connect with the right investors and commercial partners to scale with confidence.
Shosh Shetty
CEO - Thim Ventures
Shosh brings over a decade of fundraising experience across angel syndicates, VC, startup operations and investment banking, having worked on £1 billion+ in financing deals. As Founding Partner of Thim Ventures, he leads an angel network that has deployed up to £2 million into UK early-stage companies while giving UK investors access to opportunities in India, and he mentors new angel investors through Thim Advisors.
Jennifer Hoffman
Founder and CEO - Unstoppable
Jennifer has 20+ years as a marketing leader and startup executive focused on B2B SaaS, building startups, tech solutions, communities and brands while fostering high-performing teams. She now serves as a Fractional CMO and growth adviser for early-stage tech startups, and is also Founder & CEO of Unstoppable, supporting female founders with resources, networks and capital.
Quentin Preuvot
Angel investor
An active business angel investor behind startups including Abby, Equali and Yneuro, Quentin backs founders who think big and move fast. Drawing on 15 years of leadership experience, he focuses on win-win partnerships, transparent growth, and mentoring the next generation of leaders.
Katie Mathias
Seed Stage Investing - Fuel Ventures
Katie is a seed stage investor at Fuel Ventures, where she has spent four years sourcing investment opportunities and executing deals for the core fund, backing over 10 companies a year. Before Fuel, she worked with startups in the venture debt space, giving her a grounded understanding of how early-stage companies access and deploy capital.
Manjit Mooker
Founder, Investor and Commercial Strategist
Manjit is a founder, investor and commercial strategist with 25+ years across healthtech, AI and digital platforms, having bootstrapped and exited his healthtech company to Craneware at a 20x EBITDA multiple. He is CEO & co-founder of Hype and Swagger, a platform turning audience attention into revenue for creators and brands, and advises startups on development, GTM and scale.
Aly Read
CCO - SeedLegals
Aly is a commercial leader with nearly a decade of experience driving revenue growth across FinTech and LegalTech. As Chief Commercial Officer at SeedLegals, she oversees GTM strategy across sales, account management, marketing and partnerships, helping enable over £2 billion of investment raised on the platform, and previously scaled teams to 60+ at Funding Circle, the UK's largest peer-to-peer lender.
Dan Bowyer
Partner - SuperSeed VC
Dan is a 4x exited entrepreneur familiar with the trials and tribulations of building a tech business. As co-founder and partner at SuperSeed, he invests £500k–£2m checks in early-stage tech businesses, helping them commercialise, operationalise and sell, bringing hands-on operator experience to every investment he makes.
Chris Elphick
Head of Venture Capital - UK Private Capital
Chris leads venture capital policy at the BVCA, working with members to promote the industry's role in supporting UK entrepreneurs and businesses. He sits on the Independent Advisory Board for Barclays Eagle Labs' Digital Growth Grant and advises the APPG for entrepreneurship, and has represented the BVCA on influential consultations and reports, including the Patient Capital and Khalifa reviews.
Greg Tufnell
Managing Partner - Prime Advantage Capital Partners
Having held senior board roles at Next as Trading Director, Arcadia as Managing Director and Mothercare as CEO, Greg has built a broad private equity and advisory portfolio across consumer, retail, hospitality and lifestyle. He now leads the Consumer sector at Prime Advantage Capital Partners, also working across Climate, Health & Life Sciences and Data & Technology.
Marc Cohen
Founding Partner - unbundled vc
Marc is the founder of unbundled vc, investing in pre-seed and seed European AI startups building for the US market, with early bets including Capdesk (acquired by Carta), Runna (acquired by Strava) and Ctrl Alt, which has tokenised over $1.4bn of real-world assets. Before venture capital he was an interest-rate swaps and AI-quant trader, a successful amateur poker player, and co-built what was then the world's best poker AI.
Michael Theodosiou
Portfolio Manager - SFC Capital
Michael is a Portfolio Manager at SFC Capital, where he drives value across portfolio companies and plays a leading investment role in the firm's EIS Fund. He previously spent several years at Aberdeen Group plc across Equity Investments and Alternatives, holds a degree in Financial Mathematics from the University of Hertfordshire, and is currently pursuing the CFA designation.
James Church
Author, Investable Entrepreneur
James is an award-winning fundraising consultant and author of the Amazon best-selling book Investable Entrepreneur, whose approach has helped startups raise over £200m in early-stage funding. Awarded Business Advisor of the Year at the Growing Business Awards, he's been featured in Entrepreneur and Forbes, and works with founders on compelling investment cases while mentoring, lecturing and speaking internationally.
Mo Aldalou
Programme Director - Baltic Ventures
Mo is Programme Director at Baltic Ventures, an early-stage tech accelerator and angel syndicate backing founders across the Liverpool City Region and the UK. Over three years he has led its Accelerator programme, deploying £1 million+ into 30 startups that have since raised £15m+ in follow-on funding, having previously led founder and investor relations at Tech Nation and its Upscale programme.
Laurent Laffy
Investor Entrepreneur and co-founder of SeedLegals
A former VC and serial angel investor, Laurent has made hundreds of startup investments and co-founded SeedLegals. His successful exits include lastminute.com, Graze, Tails and CultBeauty, and his current portfolio includes Secret Escapes, Skin&me and Papier, spanning consumer brands from early bets to household names.
Anthony Rose
Co-founder and CEO - SeedLegals
Anthony is CEO and Co-Founder of SeedLegals, and a serial entrepreneur who has built and sold startups spanning 3D graphics, P2P music, internet video, social TV and online communities. He's also the man behind BBC iPlayer: from 2007 to 2010 he launched and ran the project, running his team like a startup to make it one of the broadcaster's biggest successes.