Virtual Fintech Lunch 2020

Anthony is a keen supporter of North West Business Community, being a Director and former Chair of pro-manchester, and member of the pro-manchester Fintech committee. Anthony is also a board director and investor in a number of businesses in the region with specific focus on financial services and technology.

Anthony co-founded OpenMoney and is passionate about making financial advice accessible and affordable to everyone. He has considerable experience of the financial services industry, most recently as a founding partner of Tatton Asset Management plc. Previously, he was a consultant at both Arthur Anderson and KPMG, specialising in regulatory, performance and strategic issues for the life and pensions sector.

Jess Jackson is an investment manager at Praetura Ventures and is responsible for identifying and managing investment opportunities for our EIS Growth Fund and the GMC Life Sciences Fund By Praetura. Jess boasts a wealth of experience working with startups across multiple sectors, including businesses with a social impact focus and is a well-known figure in the North’s investment scene. She is a founding member of Fund Her North – a collective which champions investment opportunities for women – and regularly gives talks around this subject and the early-stage investment market. Prior to joining Praetura Ventures, Jess managed fund deployment at GC Angels and HNWI Capital.

Leon is chief executive officer and founder of PollenPay, with a mission to create financial solutions that promote financial responsibility.

Having worked 15 years in Engineering and Project management, Leon understands the need for responsible financial decisioning. Through understanding today’s current financial market and emerging technologies, Leon saw areas for potential improvement in which he started PollenPay with a vision to solve problems in today’s payments ecosystem.

Deepbridge Capital is a northwest-based investment manager with over £200m of investments in the disruptive technology, life sciences and renewable energy sectors.

Andrew is a growth specialist, with two decades of experience helping companies develop their brand reputation, deliver financial results and develop sales & marketing functions, within heavily regulated environments.  Andrew has worked with numerous companies, across multiple industries, but has predominantly focused on professional and financial services, and has been working with financial professionals throughout his career.

Andrew joined Deepbridge in 2014, becoming a Partner in 2015, is a Member of The Chartered Institute of Marketing and holds a BSc in Business Economics and Marketing from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Andrew is also a patron of the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation.

Carrie is responsible for sourcing and analysing new deals, due diligence on potential investments, managing deal execution processes, and monitoring and advising portfolio companies.

She previously oversaw investments in logistics, security, education and agriculture at specialist seed funds Breed Reply and Mustard Seed. Prior to this, she began her career in corporate investigations firm Kroll.

Carrie has lived and worked in the US and Europe and has an MBA from INSEAD and a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Greg Cox is a Fintech Entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Quint Group and Co Founder & Charimain of Acquired.com.

Quint now owns and operates fintech and consumer finance businesses in the UK, USA, Poland and Australia. As CEO he spends the majority of his time working with his team on overall direction, operational excellence and strategy.

In addition to this Greg also enjoys working on the development of new opportunities, tech and products within the Group and the wider sector.

David is a Director at Deloitte LLP, a professional services firm. David works within the Audit & Assurance practice specialising in FinTech and Financial Services and has more than 14 years’ experience.  His portfolio includes PensionBee, TotallyMoney and Tide and he is also a member of the FinTech Wales advisory panel.

Mark Robinson is an Insurance Broker specialising in the Technology, Financial Risk and Online Gambling sectors. He works closely with companies to understand their risk profile and ensure exposure to loss is mitigated via a range of specialist insurance products.

Mark has worked with major Blue-Chip organisations across Europe to design and develop specialist insurance policies tailored to their individual needs. This has included Cyber/Data Insurance programs.

A graduate from the University of Manchester, Rachel joined MIDAS – Manchester’s inward investment agency in 2014. She is currently Business Development Manager for the Financial, Professional and Business Services sector and specialises in FinTech, recently working on projects with Fibonatix, Intrapay/Tappit and Wonderbill.

Through her work, Rachel has a strong awareness and understanding of what FinTech companies are looking for when setting up or expanding into Manchester.

Rachel sits on the pro-manchester FinTech committee.

With over 20 years’ experience working in the UK banking sector, Jonathan specialises in electronic money issuance, payment services, cryptocurrency compliance and regulatory & operational risk management. He is the Director of Compliance and Board member of Marq Millions, an FCA regulated EMI specialising in e-money services. He is also Head of Compliance at eToroX, a GFSC regulated Distributed Ledger Technology Provider.

Will joined Mercia in 2018 as an Investment Manager. He’s primarily focused on the origination and execution of deals for the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, in particular the provision of growth capital to trading SMEs with ambitious and innovative management teams.

Previous experience

Will spent more than six years in corporate finance as an M&A specialist with KPMG in Leeds and The McLean Group in Washington DC. Whilst in the US he was typically working with tech-focused, mid-market companies delivering solutions to public sector customers, namely in aerospace, defence and government services, and healthcare. In his last year at KPMG, Will was seconded to NorthInvest, where he developed an angel investor network and support ecosystem for tech startups across the North of England.