Playfair Capital

Henrik Wetter Sanchez is Partner and Head of Portfolio at Beringea, where he works on investment decisions and portfolio management. He holds the IMC qualification and has more than ten years of experience in the field.

Federico Pirzio-Biroli is an angel investor who has backed over one hundred early-stage companies since 2011, both independently and through Playfair Capital, a venture capital firm he founded in 2013. As chairman and LP of Playfair Capital, he oversees a portfolio of more than 80 investments across multiple sectors, with the firm currently deploying its third fund. Based in Kenya since 2017, Pirzio-Biroli focuses on digital technology and community-building ventures with a global investment perspective.

Michael Ives is a Principal at Playfair, where he leads pre-seed investments. He previously worked as a professional poker player.

Donald Smith is an early-stage angel investor in the UK with 26 years of experience, focusing on pre-seed and seed investments in B2B and deep tech ventures across the UK and Europe. Trained as a biochemist and management accountant, he has invested in more than 100 funding rounds, with holdings including Ventrata, Shop Circle, Aerocloud Systems, Polaron, and Epoch Biodesign. He serves as a Venture Partner and Senior Advisor at Playfair Capital, sits on the Investment Committee of the Angel CoFund, is a board member of Cambridge Angels, and serves on the Management Board of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia.

Co-founder of Avonmore and one of the UK's most experienced angel investors, running the firm since 2013. He is a board member of Cambridge Angels, a Venture Partner and Senior Advisor at Playfair Capital (having previously chaired its Investment Committee), and has served on the Investment Committee of the UK Government-backed Angel Cofund since 2014.

Anouska Moss is a General Partner at Playfair, where she invests at pre-seed stage across Europe with a focus on the UK and Ireland. She was previously a founder and has worked as an angel investor. Her investment experience is concentrated in areas including AI, SaaS, and Industry 4.0.

Deanne Saunders is a cybersecurity founder focused on application security, having co-founded Security Journey and Devici, both of which reached exits, and previously served as Chief Security Advocate at Cisco. She is currently building a new company in the application security and AI space, which remains in stealth. Saunders co-hosts The Application Security Podcast and maintains Kerr Ventures as a small investment vehicle.

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.

Alex Jundi is a Visiting Analyst at Playfair with prior experience at Deliveroo across finance, strategy, and product functions. He has worked in strategy consulting and holds a first-class bachelor's degree in International Business with Spanish from Warwick Business School and a master's degree in Innovation, Strategy and Organisation from the University of Cambridge. Jundi is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Matt Schmidt is a Visiting Analyst at Playfair, with prior experience in strategy consulting and at Deliveroo across finance, strategy, and product roles. He holds a BSc in International Business with Spanish from Warwick Business School and an MPhil in Innovation, Strategy and Organisation from the University of Cambridge, and speaks English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

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.