StrictlyVC – London
May 21, 2024 — London
Speakers
Saul Klein
Co-Founder Phoenix Court
Luciana Lixandru
General Partner Sequoia Capital
Raluca Ragab
Managing Director – Head of UK and DACH Eurazeo Growth
Victor Riparbelli
Co-founder & CEO Synthesia
Frederic Court
Founder and Managing Partner Felix Capital
Saul is a serial tech entrepreneur, operator and investor with nearly 30 years experience starting, building and exiting global companies in the UK, US, Israel and Europe. As co-founder and managing partner of Phoenix Court, Saul backs entrepreneurs building global businesses based on innovative science and technology, to have the maximum positive impact on society. Phoenix Court, founded in 2015, is the home of LocalGlobe, EMEA’s number one venture fund (source: Dealroom Investor Prominence Ranking 2023) as well as Latitude and Solar, supporting companies at the breakout and scaleup phases. Phoenix Court also invests in over 60 emerging managers in the US, EMEA and APAC through its Basecamp programme. Phoenix Court’s mission is to be a good long-term neighbour and help people realise their full potential. To achieve this, 10% of profits of the management company and 2% of carry in all funds are allocated to the Phoenix Court Works foundation supporting organisations across Somers Town, one of the UK’s most deprived neighbourhoods, close to St Pancras and Kings Cross. Before founding Phoenix Court, Saul spent eight years as a General Partner at Index Ventures from 2007 until May 2015. He was co-founder and original CEO of LoveFilm, as co-founder and original CEO (acquired by Amazon in 2011) and part of the original leadership team at Skype (acquired by eBay in 2005). He co-founded Platoon (acquired by Apple in 2018). Saul was also co-founder of Seedcamp (2007), Europe’s first accelerator with seed investments in companies such as Revolut and UiPath; co-founded Zinc with LSE (2018) and Newton Venture Program with London Business School (2020). In 2012, David Cameron appointed Saul to be the UK’s first Technology Business Ambassador to Israel and he was awarded an OBE in 2016 for services to business. He is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, advising the Prime Minister on science and technology policy issues across government since March 2020 and in April 2023 was appointed a founding NED on the board of the new Department for Science, Technology and Innovation. Saul serves on Camden’s STEAM Commission and the London borough’s Economic Renewal Commission. He works closely with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on its regional innovation strategy. He was also a trustee of Comic Relief for six years. As his Twitter handle notes, Saul is first a husband and second a father to three children aged 17, 15 and 9, before being a founder, operator and investor. Saul is serial entrepreneur with two decades of experience building and exiting companies in the US, Israel and Europe. He has a passion for working with seed and early stage businesses. Most recently Saul co-founded Kano and Seedcamp, as well as a co-founder and original CEO of Lovefilm International (acquired by Amazon). He was also part of the original executive team at Skype (acquired by eBay).
Saul's Sessions
Europe Inc. – A conversation with two key European investors
Luciana Lixandru is a Partner at Sequoia, where she focuses on enterprise and consumer technology companies across Europe and co-leads Sequoia’s early-stage investment business in the US/Europe. She works closely with companies like Pennylane, Veed, Robco and Tacto and is passionate about helping founders unlock their potential and think on a global scale. Prior to becoming Sequoia’s first partner in Europe in 2020, Luciana worked at Accel for eight years, where she led investments in UiPath (PATH), Deliveroo (DROOF), and Miro, among others. Luciana has also held positions at Summit Partners and Morgan Stanley. She has a B.S. in Economics and Mathematics from Georgetown, and resides in London.
Luciana's Sessions
Hands across the water – Unpacking the European VC playbook
Raluca is Managing Director and Head of UK and DACH at Eurazeo Growth Fund. Previously, Raluca was Managing Director with Vitruvian Partners, based in London and Venture Partner with Key1 Capital, a late stage growth equity fund based in Israel. Raluca started her career as an investor 21 years ago with Goldman Sachs Investment Partners in New York in 2003 and spent 13 years at the firm, becoming a Managing Director in 2011. Raluca graduated from The University of Chicago with a degree in International Studies and a degree in Economics in 2003 and obtained an MBA from INSEAD in 2009.
Raluca's Sessions
Europe Inc. – A conversation with two key European investors
Victor Riparbelli is the CEO and co-founder of Synthesia, the world’s leading AI video communications platform for enterprises. More than 55,000 businesses, including half of the Fortune 100, use it to communicate efficiently and share knowledge at scale using AI avatars. Synthesia is headquartered in London and makes video creation, collaboration and sharing easy for everyone. Victor has been involved in technology entrepreneurship for the past 10 years and co-founded Synthesia in 2017 together with prof. Matthias Niessner, prof. Lourdes Agapito, and Steffen Tjerrild. Combining technical, academic, and entrepreneurial excellence, Victor and his team are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible using AI, while striving to pioneer the field in an ethical and responsible way.
Victor's Sessions
Fireside Chat with Victor Riparbelli, Co-founder and CEO of Synthesia
Frederic is Founder and Investor of Felix Capital (“Felix”), a London-based venture capital firm operating at the intersection of technology and creativity. Felix manages over $600m of venture and growth capital, with a strategy to invest in digital lifestyle, backing new digital brands and related enabling technologies. The investment strategy is in line with Frederic’s track-record in these markets with investments such as Farfetch (a global online marketplace for the fashion and luxury industry, where he was the first investor), Zong (mobile payments, sold to eBay for $240m), Vitrue (social media marketing SaaS, acquired by Oracle for $310m), Dailymotion (online video platform, now part of Vivendi), and Peloton (a fitness technology company, NASDAQ:PTON). At Felix, Frederic works closely with Mirakl, Mejuri, goop, Peloton, The Business of Fashion, Highsnobiety, Yoobic, Moonbug, Creative Fabrica, NoIssue and PerfectStay. Frederic was named “Investor of the Year” in Europe by his peers at the 2012 and 2019 Investor All Stars event. Frederic has been on the Midas List Europe each year since 2017.