Playfair Capital

Chris Smith is Managing Partner at Playfair and a Kauffman Fellow (Class 25) who invests in pre-seed opportunities across the UK and Europe, with particular focus on robotics, autonomous transportation, automation, HealthTech, and B2B SaaS. Previously, he spent five years at plan.com in senior operational roles including Sales Director and Head of Product Development, where he built the sales function and oversaw platform development as revenues grew to £60 million. Smith has executed 15 angel investments since 2008 with six exits including SuperAwesome, Compology, and Bidstack, and earlier spent nearly a decade as a transactional lawyer at Weil advising on acquisitions and restructurings for private equity and venture capital firms.

Matt Gill is Chief Financial Officer at Playfair Capital, where he leads the finance and operations functions across the firm's three funds. His background includes CFO and senior leadership roles at venture capital, private equity, and credit investment firms, including a multi-billion-dollar credit platform and a climate tech venture capital fund manager. He has experience operating under FCA authorization for investment managers, including MLRO responsibilities.

Michael Ives is the Founder and President of Clocktower Equity. He works as a software executive, advisor, and investor, focusing on helping companies scale and grow. His background includes involvement with companies that reached valuations exceeding $1 billion.

Donald Smith is a two-time graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, holding a BS in Accounting and an MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. He is the founder of two technology companies, serving as CEO of the HR tech startup WorkTalo and Executive Creative Director of the clothing company Founder Moda, and is currently an AI in Population Health Research Fellow at the AIM-AHEAD Consortium. He is active in the Birmingham technology and business community through organizations including Innovation Depot and Birmingham AI, and mentors portfolio companies at the Atlanta-based non-profit Goodie Nation.

Henrik Wetter Sanchez is a General Partner at Playfair, where he invests in pre-seed companies across Europe with a focus on the UK and Ireland. He has experience as a founder and angel investor, with particular interest in AI, SaaS, and Industry 4.0.

Matt Schmidt is the Founder and CEO of Peoplelogic, a talent management platform. He has previously worked as an entrepreneur and operator, building and launching products and growing businesses.

Susan Cook is Chief Executive Officer at DAS42 and has held CEO, advisory, board, and chief revenue officer positions across enterprise technology companies. Her background includes leading sales and go-to-market organizations at Oracle and IBM, with experience spanning startups of fewer than 200 employees and under $20M in ARR to global organizations of more than 1,000 people and over $500M in sales. She also advises and mentors startup entrepreneurs and women in technology leadership roles.