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Team

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Chris Adelsbach
Partner

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Entrepreneur with 9 figure exit. Angel investor with private portfolio of 140 companies that have had >£1.5bn of follow on investment. UKBAA Angel Investor of the year 2018/19. Chris led the leading FinTech accelerator in Europe as Managing Director of Techstars, investing in an additional 50 FinTech companies with a 5X return to date.

 

Co-founder of Marlin Financial Group which featured in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 in 2009/10/11/12/13 as one of the top 100 fastest growing privately held companies in the UK. After Marlin exited to a NASDAQ-listed company in 2014, he made the transition from entrepreneur to venture investor and startup mentor.

Read his 2021 End of Year letter here:   

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Tariq Khan
Partner

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Tariq is a financial services regulatory and transactional lawyer turned entrepreneur, startup advisor and investor. On the legal team at GE Money he helped create new consumer finance products and negotiate their distribution through large retailers. In 2006 he left GE for the founding team of Marlin Financial Group, helping operationalise an innovative, data-driven, customer-centric strategy. Marlin closed some of the largest deals in its sector, raising a £150m bond and partnering with hedge funds, and became regarded for its niche, highly profitable approach. During this time, Tariq was voted to the Board of their trade association by its c. 400 members, working closely with regulators and the industry to ensure proportionate, workable regulation. In 2014, Marlin was acquired for £295m.

Tariq has since applied his own training and experience as an advisor and investor in the fintech and regtech startup communities, whilst mentoring on accelerator programmes such as Barclays Techstars where he was Entrepreneur in Residence. He has a number of Board and advisory board seats spanning the fintech, regtech, digital asset and blockchain infrastructure sectors. He likes to work closely with these companies, being active in their industries and levering his broad network to contribute not only to their success but also to identifying opportunities between them and anew. Tariq invests in smart, energetic founders with missions to serve a significant customer-base with products or services that provide a qualitative, ethical, tangible impact with the goal of becoming a valuable market leader.

Advisors

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Anthony Browne

 

Chairman of UK Government’s Regulatory Policy Committee. Previously: CEO of British Bankers’ Association; Board member of the International Banking Federation and the European Banking Federation; Head of Government Relations EMEA at Morgan Stanley; Economic Development Policy Director for the Mayor of London.

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Andrea cullen

MD of Brightlink Ventures. Ex-Director of Research at Ares Management, oversight of $1.7 billion leveraged loan, bond and CDS portfolio. Advisory board member at Courtsdesk, ForwardLane and Parcelly. 

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Martin Cass

 

Director, Barclays Private Bank Ireland. 20 years' experience advising entrepreneurs, ultra high net worth individuals and family offices. Irish fintech community leader. Advisory Board member of Courtsdesk and member of Barclays Private Bank & Overseas Services Innovation Forum.

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keith saxton

Ex-Director of Financial Services at IBM, Innovate Finance Ambassador, leading fintech, strategy and risk expert. Advisory board member at ForwardLane, Simudyne & Macrina Investment Management.

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