We’re in your corner.

Nic is the founder and CEO of Forward Partners. He has worked in venture capital in London and Silicon Valley for over 20 years. Prior to founding Forward in 2013, he was a founding Partner at leading venture capital firm Draper Esprit. Before entering the venture capital industry he worked as a strategy consultant for Gemini Consulting and at London based startup Operis Group plc.

Outside of Forward he’s a proud husband and father of two teenage kids and a long-time season ticket holder at Chelsea Football Club. He’s developed a keen interest in mindfulness and philosophy that’s proved to be a great asset at home, at work and as a supporter of the aforementioned club.

Matthew used to work on trading floors at Lloyds and BarCap before seeing the light. Following an MBA at SDA Bocconi and before joining us he became an entrepreneur and investor in his own right.

Matt splits his time between investments and working across the portfolio.

Jasel runs the team delivering value-added services to our partner companies, from early-stage idea through to launch and anywhere in between. This includes product strategy, customer experience, brand development, technology services, growth marketing, talent, PR and more (breathe). He has a background in building and running teams developing innovative products and experiences for some of the world’s most celebrated brands. This included 13 years at AKQA on clients including Audi, Coca Cola, Nike and Nissan.

When not working, J’s a proud father of two, loves to travel and watching his favourite football team.

Luke joined Forward Partners from REV Venture Partners, a corporate VC, where he was responsible for deal origination, investment due diligence and portfolio reporting. He was previously a consultant with the strategy consultancy Oliver Wyman, where he worked across the retail, aviation, healthcare and FMCG sectors.

Luke originally planned a career in science and he holds a PhD in biochemistry. His focus at Forward Partners is on sourcing and executing new investments.

Megha is an investor at Forward Partners. She started her career as a tech & media coverage banker at Goldman Sachs in New York, which is where she says she “caught the tech bug”. She also worked as a generalist M&A banker for several years at Goldman Sachs London.

Prior to Forward she built her own startup Earthmiles which provided a B2B2C gamified wellbeing platform to SMEs in the UK and internationally. 

Outside of Forward she has a huge passion for wellbeing and the quantified self, and spends her free time on word puzzles, pilates and reading everything she possibly can.

Ella joins Forward following VC fellowships at Hummingbird, Verve, and Common Ocean. She draws upon her institutional experience in Sales and Trading at Goldman Sachs and Management Consulting at KPMG to help founders grow dreams into reality.

Moving from New York and completing the Master of Finance at the University of Cambridge she’s now made a home in London. Apart from Forward, Ella is an information and music junkie and can be found jogging along the canal around 6:15am most weekdays. On other days she watches Netflix while waiting for singularity to happen and reminiscing on the sound of dial-up Internet in its days of infancy.

Joshua is an Investment Associate at Forward Partners.  He is responsible for originating, evaluating and closing investment opportunities across all sectors and devising fund strategies for Forward Partners.  Joshua is a well-rounded finance professional with experiences in Private Equity at Cinven Partners, TMT Investment Banking at Trillium Partners and Leveraged & Acquisition Finance at Citibank.  He holds a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Nat is Head of People & Talent at Forward. Nat has previously worked in start ups, scale ups and larger corporates in a People/Talent and Employment capacity. Nat has previous VC experience working for Kindred Capital VC and been a founder herself in HR Tech. Nat is passionate about nailing the basics for companies when it comes to their People and is on a continual train to move away from traditional HR and move into impactful people projects with a heavy slant on psychology within the workplace and beyond, allowing people to be their best self always.

Growth wrangler. Marketer. Customer champion.

Jared has spent his career building great customer experiences. He's started up. Sold. Built new things, including a newspaper. A robot dog. An omni-directional wheelchair. The most visible screen in London. And for a time, the world's biggest picture. Before Forward he led marketing and growth for Marketplace business Plentific, helping them to pivot, scale their business across Europe and raise a $30m round.

Kent has had a career in technology for over two decades, working with large international corporates as well as co-founding and running multiple start-ups. He has deep expertise in applied AI/ML and has more recently focussed on building face-paced and impactful tech organisations.

Kent's prior roles include Global Director of Engineering at Juice Plus, CTO and Co-Founder of GoSweat, as well as research positions at Warwick and Exeter Universities.

At Forward, Kent is on a mission to level up the development arm of Forward's studio, offering development and strategic support to our portfolio. He is passionate about the vibrant tech community in London and the UK and will be growing the Forward contribution in this space.

Josh is a Product Designer in the Studio team helping Forward's portfolio companies design products, craft brands and test their ideas. Formally educated in software development he took the decision to follow his passion rather than his education and has since helped Google, YouTube and Moneybox build their products.  He finds happiness in helping founders realise their potential and creating value with their products.

He loves everything design from physical products to interiors and architecture but spends too much time thinking about eSports, consumerism and crypto.

Gary has been building digital experiences for over 10 years now - working for a number of digital agencies; building products and services for clients ranging from Google, Nike, and the US Navy. He is passionate about digital and technical innovation, agile ways of working and being a practical programmer!

Adam has over 5 years experience working as a Product / Project Manager creating sites that recieve millions of hits a day for the likes of Google and Saatch & Saatchi. Most recently he worked at BabylonHealth developing a globalised product that used AI and Machine Learning to provide accessible, affordable healthcare. He loves solving problems and brings a diverse skill set to the table.

In former life, Adam was also a commercial pilot and completed degree in software engineering.

Ruben has a background in technical marketing. Before joining the studio team he was the Head of Growth at Seneca Learning helping them scale to over 6 million students and expand internationally. Combining his engineering and marketing skills he both enjoys digging into SQL datasets and building his own web apps, as well as engaging with customers and finding the most efficient ways to bring new products to market.

Ann-Marie has almost a decade's worth of experience building and scaling startups in the UK tech industry. From luxury travel and corporate events to robotic process automation, she loves challenger brands with a killer idea. Passionate about ESG initiatives, Ann-Marie has implemented many programmes in her previous roles to support charities tackling homelessness and helping young people and women into careers within the tech sector.

At Forward, Ann-Marie is responsible for our brand and building experiences that founders love, whilst supporting the growing businesses in our portfolio via the Studio.

Allen is a seasoned Chartered Accountant qualifying with Grant Thornton. His early career was spent in the booming telecommunications sector of the 90's. He then undertook numerous Interim Finance Director roles focused on Private Equity backed companies where he was involved with start-ups, company turnarounds and M&A work. Following the successful trade sale of his last company Allen has joined Forward Partners to assist the company on its next exciting phase.  

Dahlia joined Forward Partners in 2018 as Financial Controller. Following qualification as a chartered accountant, Dahlia has over 10 years experience in providing professional services across a broad range of finance areas including compliance, tax, business process, audit, financial reporting and M&A. Prior to joining Forward Partners, Dahlia has worked across startups, SMEs and larger corporates; holding senior finance positions within the Real Estate, Tech, Aeronautical & Transport and Education sectors.

Mo works as a Team Coordinator and PA to Nic Brisbourne. Mo is passionate about creating a fun and inclusive working culture, creating events and supporting the team at Forward. She joins us from the brands Ecover and Method and has previously worked in the arts and events. At Ecover & Method, she supported the leadership team, managed the office and created events.

Hasam is the Managing Director of Forward Advances. After spending 4 years in the British Army, he progressed through the ranks at Bank of America and Paypal, and founded 2 startups before joining us at Forward Partners. Hasam is passionate about re-imagining business lending for entrepreneurs and society-at-large, and is using his expertise to help lead and scale our new revenue-based finance offering.

Tom is Head of Partnerships at Forward Advances. He joined Forward as an Investment Associate after completing his MBA at Cambridge University. Prior to his MBA he was Country Manager for Spain at Leverton, an Applied AI startup in the legaltech space and has also previously worked at Cybersecurity Saas firm Mimecast. He started his career in Corporate Finance at Deloitte where he qualified as a chartered accountant.

Maddie is the Growth Manager at Forward Advances. Maddie’s inherent passion for nutrition and sustainability was cemented during her time at the University of Edinburgh, where she obtained her BSc in Biomedical Sciences. After a year abroad in the US, she decided to further her career with a number of early stage and high growth plant-based food start-ups. With a desire to form her own entrepreneurial path, Maddie is currently enrolled on the NEF program, run by the Centre for Entrepreneurs.

Joe joined Forward Partners from Barclays, where he completed the graduate scheme before moving into Credit Portfolio Management. He was responsible for the pricing and structuring of debt facilities across the Retail, Tech & Media, and Real Estate sectors. Joe is also passionate about the mental health of young people, and a trustee of The Wolfpack Project charity.

Before joining Forward Advances, Jamie spent time in Iraq with the United Nations before moving to London to work at Private Equity International specialising in EMEA and APAC fund managers. When Jamie isn't out looking for the UK's next best start-up, you will often find Jamie nestled in the corner of a pub wearing his Irish rugby jersey

Tara has worked in both corporate and start-up environments across a range of Financial and Fintech spaces, including private markets investment platform CoInvestor, leading insurance provider Suncorp New Zealand and most recently, revenue-based financing with Forward Advances.

Tara is passionate about working with innovative SMEs with a particular love for burger start-ups.

Sam studied Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham. During this time, he began to explore his entrepreneurial interests, utilising his passion and knowledge for fashion to launch a fashion re-marketing business.

Sam has spent time in the corporate, start-up and scale-up space and joins us from the commercial team at JustPark, where he helped establish the fastest-growing EV charging network in the U.K alongside his participation on the NEF+ program.