Company Involvements

I’m an investor in several business (and mentor to some) which include:

DevicePilot – Chair

Service Assurance is a key activity in the Telecoms world but the Internet of Things hasn’t quite reached the same level of maturity yet and many IoT services are quite poorly maintained. DevicePilot is correcting this with their world-leading service.

Pilgrim Beart (CEO) is an exceptional (serial) entrepreneur and together with Keith Reed (with whom I worked at Actix) they are bringing Service Assurance to IoT.

Float – Director

Failure to manage cash is one of the top reasons for failure of small and medium sized businesses according to the NY Times and Evan Carmichael. Float is one click away from providing you with an up-to-date cash view on your business. Setting a budget and managing your business cash-flow on a day-to-day basis has never been easier. It’s integration with Xero and FreeAgent means you and your advisors are always on the same page.

Colin Hewitt founded Float and I’ve been an investor and director since 2013. I have been involved with many businesses but I haven’t seen a single one that couldn’t improve it’s management of cash. Float is beautifully clear in it’s presentation of basic facts about the business and I’d strongly recommend it to any small / medium business.

Singletrack – Director

The Singletrack Edge platform was designed to help sell capital markets side-firms deal with regulation including MIFID II and gain competitive advantage. With the focus on helping customers maximise revenue, votes and overall client satisfaction in a climate of market and regulatory change.

I first met Paul Dyson and Stuart Berwick via mutual friend Chris Greening. They founded Singletrack soon afterwards and I served as Chair until handing over to Michael Berman in 2014.

Southbank Sinfonia

Every year, Southbank Sinfonia brings together 32 young musicians for an experience that will change their lives.

I was a trustee of SbS for 8 years and remain an active supporter.

Research Space

eCat is one of the leading single-user Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) and Research Space and have a superb collaboration product for biotech, commercial and academic researchers.

RadioOpt is now part of Vodafone

RadioOpt has several hundred-thousand mobile apps deployed on smartphones all around the world. Their software provides insights into smartphone performance and allows users to take control of their data plans. It also provides anonymized data on operator coverage and quality that helps decision making about network choices.

Johannes Huebner founded RadioOpt following his successful sale of his previous company to Actix – the company I founded. I was honoured to be asked by Johannes to serve on his new company Advisory Board alongside Prof. Gerhard Fettweis. Sadly Johannes died in 2013 and the business was run very ably by Ernesto Zimmerman and Rene Habendorf until its sale to Vodafone in 2016.