The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2017 - Capitalisers: Entrepreneurs

Dumi Oburota

Founder, Disturbing London

Now one of London’s most successful music promoters, Dumi Oburota still remembers the days when he and his young protégé Tinie Tempah used to struggle to raise the price of a round of drinks. Now, with Tinie and a string of London grime acts thriving under his management, money is the least of Oburota’s worries. His Disturbing London business has now extended its reach to fashion and he’s even designing interiors for Mercedes. To top off his career, he won entrepreneur company of the year at the Evening Standard Business Awards.

Michael Acton Smith

Founder, Mind Candy

One of Tech City’s best-known entrepreneurs, Acton Smith will go down in history as the creator of hit kids’ game Moshi Monsters and web browser, Firefox. But not one to rest on his laurels, he’s broadened out with a new mindfulness app, Calm. The Londoner calls San Francisco his home now but his unruly hair and natty dress sense still mark him out as an eccentric Brit genius abroad.

Giles Andrews

Chairman, Zopa

Giles co-founded Zopa, a peer-to-peer lender, in 2004, became CEO three years later and then moved to executive chairman in 2015. He’s been named one of most powerful names in digital banking, leading the vanguard of tech entrepreneurs changing the way we borrow money. Away from the firm, the 50-year-old chairs Bethnal Green Ventures, a platform to help fund start-ups that have a big impact on society and the environment. He received an OBE last year.

Alice Bentinck

Co-Founder, Entrepreneur First

Despite being only 31, Alice Bentinck is fast becoming a veteran of London’s tech scene. The co-founder of Entrepreneur First, the business that helps smart young technology companies get off the ground, she began her working life in Tony Blair’s private office before a stint at McKinsey. Entrepreneur First targets smart computer science graduates and encourages them to set up their own businesses. Earlier this year, Bentinck hired new management to free herself up for a more global strategic role.

Tim Berners-Lee

Inventor, World Wide Web

The inventor of the internet still plays an active part in the online world. He is a director of the World Wide Web Consortium, which develops standards for the internet. Sir Tim has been vocal in opposing plans to reverse net neutrality, which gives consumers more freedom to browse the web. He is also the founder of webfoundation.org, which also aims to influence government policy on the internet.

Tom Blomfield

Founder, Monzo Bank

The founder of smartphone-based digital “challenger bank” Monzo started his career with the distinctly “analogue” job of handing out leaflets in the rain for his local estate agent. The Oxford-educated law graduate set up his first business while still at university and launched Monzo in 2015 with the aim of becoming “the Google or Facebook of banking”. It received its full banking licence in April this year.

Eileen Burbidge

Partner at Passion Capital

Dubbed “the queen of British VC” by Fortune, Burbidge is one of the most recognisable names in London’s tech start-up scene and chairs the UK’s Tech City body. The former Skype, Yahoo and Apple veteran has made a string of investments from her venture funding vehicle Passion Capital while also becoming a passionate advocate of keeping UK tech at the forefront of Brexit negotiations. She added an MBE to her credentials in 2015.

Sophie Cornish and Holly Tucker

Co-Founders, Notonthehighstreet.com

After notonthehighstreet.com was founded from their kitchen table in 2006, Cornish and Tucker’s online marketplace for independent businesses has taken the fight to traditional retailers. Armed with an extra £21 million, they watched the business empire they started together grow further last year. The entrepreneurs are strong supporters of creative start-ups. Tucker, a UK business ambassador for small creative businesses, now runs Holly & Co, providing advice to small business-owners and artisans.

Samir Desai

Founder, Funding Circle

The Brexit vote did nothing to halt the growth of Samir Desai’s peer-to-peer lender, which is one of London’s fastest-growing companies. Funding Circle got a $100 million cash injection at the start of the year, led by venture capital giant Accel, putting it among the UK’s most highly valued startups. It also received full authorisation from the financial watchdog this year, putting it on track to launch its own ISA.

Patrick Drake

Co-Founder, HelloFresh

The ebullient co-founder and head chef of fast-growing “cooking kit” delivery firm HelloFresh gave up his career as a high-flying City lawyer to pursue his true love. He once blagged some work with Heston Blumenthal with the words: “If I could come and peel potatoes at The Fat Duck it would be the greatest honour of my life.” It worked. He is also known for his online cookery school called the 60 Second Chef.

Jonnie Goodwin

Co-Founder, Lepe Partners

The tech community set up by Goodwin and lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman is still going strong more than a decade on and Goodwin is well- known as the founder of Lepe Partners, a boutique merchant bank that helps businesses unlock growth potential. Lepe’s portfolio includes Festicket, which sells travel and accommodation packages for festivals, online auction house Paddle8, and online pharmacy Chemist Direct.

Brent Hoberman

Co-Founder, Founders Factory

Hoberman may be something of a granddaddy of London tech, but he’s still innovating and creating new businesses at the old age of 48. The Etonian smoothie is these days running tech incubator Founders Factory from a base near his Kensington home. This year he branched out by raising nearly £50 million from investors for a Brexit-proof pan-European fund. His Founders Forum annual gathering has become one of the big society events of the London summer, putting tech tycoons together with A-listers from the arts and architecture to fashion and the City.

Marta Krupinska

Co-Founder of Azimo

Named as one to watch in Forbes’ 30 under 30, the 27-year-old has made waves this year with Azimo, the money transfer business she co-founded in 2012. The Polish expat set up the firm to help nationals living abroad to send money home. So far the business has raised €40 million of seed funding — making it one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in Europe.

Mike Laven

Founder, Currency Cloud

As the elder statesman of the fintech sector, Laven has kept pace with younger pioneers to create one of the UK’s most disruptive cross-border payments systems. The five-year-old business raised £20 million from Google’s venture capital arm this year, taking the backing so far to £44 million. Before taking his helm at the vanguard of the tech revolution, Laven worked for the United Nations in Asia and several other aid organisations.

Jo Malone

Founder, Jo Loves

Founder of Jo Loves and the Evening Standard’s former small business agony aunt handing out insightful and practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. Jo Malone founded her first much-loved perfume business in 1983 and then went on to sell it to Estée Lauder in 1999. Her passion for retail means that she is building another luxury business, Jo Loves, which taps into the trend for personalisation all over again. She remains one of London’s most inspiring businesswomen and the creative force behind one of the city’s most popular and much-emulated brands.

Natalie Massenet

Chair, Farfetch

When Natalie Massenet stepped down in 2015 from Net-a-Porter, the company she founded 15 years earlier, fashion fans wondered where she’d end up next. Massenet, who was made a Dame after the online luxury site merged with Yoox, resurfaced this year as chairman of Farfetch, the rival fashion site. She is also chairman of the British Fashion Council — a post previously held by retail veterans Harold Tillman and Sir Stuart Rose — and has just had a baby.

Kathryn Parsons

Co-Founder, Decoded

Parsons’ mission is to make sure tech luddites don’t miss out on the digital revolution. She is the founder of Decoded, which teaches professionals about new and exciting technologies, whether it’s how to create an app or even learning how to hack into a bank (all for pretend, of course). Parsons, who is on numerous tech advisory boards, is a champion of coding in the curriculum and of women in business and technology.

Will Shu

Co-Founder, Deliveroo

Despite all the noise surrounding the “gig economy”, Shu, a former investment banker, managed to convince investors to hand over $275 million at the end of last year to fund the expansion of Deliveroo. The restaurant delivery service is now galloping towards unicorn status, while Shu has made Deliveroo one of the most-popular apps in London.

Emma Sinclair

CEO, Enterprise Jungle

The “serial entrepreneur” became the youngest person to float a company — Mission Capital — on the London Stock Exchange at the age of 29. Her business career began as a young child when she read the FT to find out the share prices of her father’s portfolio. The Unicef business mentor, who says she was inspired by Beyoncé, now heads a human resources software company.