The Department of Finance hosted its inaugural Venture Capital Pitch Day on Thursday 15th March 2018.
Investor panel, left to right: Tara Reeves (LocalGlobe); Andrei Brasoveanu (Accel) Thomas Reubens (DN Capital); and Felda Hardymon (Bessemer Venture Partners).
The event, co-chaired and curated by Professor Felda Hardymon and Professor Daniel Paravasini, saw eight start-up companies pitch to a panel of four renowned investors from venture firms Accel, DN Capital, LocalGlobe and Bessemer.
As well as an opportunity for start-ups to meet investors, the Pitch Day was a chance for theory to meet practice for students of the FM476 Entrepreneurial Finance course who were tasked with observing and grading these real-life company pitches as part of their final course assessment. Attended by 92 students from across the Departments of Finance, Accounting, and Management, the event provided a unique insight into the world of venture capital and a chance to see what makes a successful pitch.
Yau Lim from the MSc Finance said, “this gives us direct, first-hand experience of something students have not seen before: real business.”
Global Master’s in Management student, Lale Erel, added, “this is a chance for us to see the real application of what we covered in the course. I’ve never seen real interaction between VCs and start-ups before.”
Each seven-minute pitch was followed by four minutes of Q&A from the investor panel, made up of Andrei Brasoveanu (Accel); Tara Reeves (LocalGlobe); Thomas Reubens (DN Capital); and the Department’s own Felda Hardymon (Bessemer Venture Partners).
The start-ups taking part included tech companies focused on areas as diverse as travel, pharmaceuticals, media and security.
The full list of start-ups and CEOs who took part in the event includes:
Iain Griffin (Seatfrog)
Sohrab Jahanbani (Bidvine)
Jason Lacombe (Veratrak)
Jake Schofield (Labstep)
James Pringle (Suggestv)
Ben Hookway (Relative Insight)
Alex Housley (Seldon)
Sergio Pozo Hidalgo (Intelliment Security)