About Us

Ms. Johnson has a long and distinguished career as founder/co-founder of such space ventures as SES ASTRA, SES Global, Loral-Teleport Europe, Europe Online, as well as having played critical roles in bringing about space sector leaders including Iridium and ILS. An experienced venture capitalist and investor, Ms. Johnson has been a member of the Strategic Committee of Iris Capital for the past decade and until recently has served as President of the European Business Angel Network, now President Emeritus.  Ms. Johnson serves and has served on the boards of a number of emerging space leaders including NorthStar Earth and Space and Kacific.  She is also the founding president of the VATM, the Association of Private Telecom Operators, co-founder of the Global Telecom Women's Network (GTWN) and co-founder of the Middle East and North Africa Business Angel Network (MBAN) and the African Business Angel Network (ABAN). 

Kit is Seraphim Capital’s Chairman and a Managing Partner with over 25 years of early stage investment experience. He is also Managing Director of the The Summit Group. Kit was responsible for growing The Summit Group into a diversified financial group encompassing vendor finance, property investment and services, structured finance and insurance – many of which commenced as start-up operations. Previously he was with JP Morgan in London and New York. He has an MA in Law and Natural Sciences from Cambridge University.

Mark is Seraphim Capital’s Managing Director and has 18 years of venture capital and technology investing experience. He is also on the board of Cavendish Capital. Prior to Seraphim he was at YFM Equity Partners serving on their main board for a number of years and working on the British Smaller Company VCT 1 and 2. He initially trained as an equity analyst and fund manager at Williams de Broe and Brewin Dolphin before moving into venture. He has a Degree in Accounting & Finance, MA in Economics & Finance from the University of Leeds and a range of professional investment qualifications.

James joined Seraphim shortly after its launch in 2006. He has participated in all the investments Seraphim has made to date. Previously he worked at Burlington Consultants, a boutique strategy consultancy that was acquired by Deloitte & Touche. At Burlington / Deloitte, James worked on c.20 private equity transactions, conducting commercial due diligence across a wide range of sectors. He holds a first class degree in History from University College London where he specialised in the history of science and medicine.

Anthony has 20 years of early stage angel investment and venturing experience. He is Managing Director of Newable Private Investing (previously trading as London Business Angels) which is one of the UK’s longest established and most active angel groups. He is the former Chairman of the UK Business Angels Association, and President Emeritus of the European Business Angel Network.

Paul is a Managing Partner of Seraphim Capital and has 25 years of UK venture capital and private equity experience. He is also Managing Director of Pi Capital and on the boards of three Ventus VCT funds. Prior to joining Pi Capital, Paul spent 19 years at ECI, the London based mid-market buy-out house, where he was Managing Director. During his time at ECI, the firm invested in more than 100 companies, in investments spanning the gamut of start-up, early stage, development capital, buy-ins and buy-outs in UK private companies. Previously he was with Price Waterhouse, where he spent six years, latterly in corporate finance. He is a chartered accountant and holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Surrey.

Matt O'Connell is a recognised thought leader in the geospatial intelligence industry. Currently a Director of Space Flight Industries the next-generation space company enabling access to space through secondary payloads and redefining global intelligence. From October 2015 to July 2016, he was CEO of OneWeb, a telecom start-up seeking to build a constellation of satellites to provide affordable high-speed Internet access for the world's unconnected. Prior to joining OneWeb, he was President and CEO of GeoEye. In January, 2013, he concluded the sale of GeoEye to DigitalGlobe for $1.3bn. From 2003 he grew GeoEye from 60 employees producing $9 million of revenue per year to 760 employees producing $360 million (2012). Headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, GeoEye was a leading global provider of satellite and aerial imagery and geospatial information products and solutions. GeoEye was publicly traded on the Nasdaq exchange and listed on the Russell 3000 index.

Michael is widely recognised as a leading authority on the commercialisation of earth observation data gathered by satellites. As inventor of Clip Mapping and cofounder/CTO of Keyhole Corporation – which Google acquired in 2004 – Michael shepherded the technology that would go on to become Google Earth. He subsequently spent more than a decade in senior leadership roles at Alphabet / Google with billion-user products as CTO of Google Maps, Google Earth, and Local Search, and more latterly as Google’s Chief Technology Advocate. Michael has also previously held senior roles at Wearality and Silicon Graphics.

Frédéric is a seasoned deep technology venture capital investor. He's been on the board on 36 fast growth companies, made 30 exits & 40 M&A. Previously head of CISCO Investment International, he founded QUALCOMM Ventures in Europe, and is an APAX Partners alumni. Frédéric started his career with IBM, before co-founding BOUYGUES Telecom. Frédéric received his MBA from the Sorbonne University, and holds a Master of Engineering in Electronics (ECE Paris).

Rob has over 15 years technology Venture Capital experience in both Investment and operational roles from start-up through to early stage, growth, development and AIM floats.  Prior to Seraphim Rob was with YFM Equity Partners as an Investment Director working across London Seed Capital, The Capital Fund and the British Smaller Companies VCT plc. He has been Board observer or Director for over 30 portfolio companies including the World’s leading social listening company Brandwatch (14x Exit). Rob was also Investment Director for the London Business Angels Network.  In 2013 Rob successfully launched, as Co-Founder, a FinTech start-up raising £3.5m from leading Angel Investors, where he led the commercial engagement with the tier 1 banking community.  In his early career Rob worked in Silicon Valley for a boutique consultancy, working on new market entry for pre IPO companies and commercialisation strategies for University spinouts. He then went on to work as an Analyst for the University of Ulster’s new Ventures team UUTech. Rob holds a BSc(Hons) in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Glasgow and a Postgraduate Diploma in Information Technology Systems from the University of Strathclyde. He is also a Director of Capital Enterprise which is committed to making London the best place to start and grow a business. Outside of work he can be found walking his dogs in the countryside, following the exploits of the English rugby and cricket teams or indulging his passions in classic cars and cooking.

Daniel is an Investment Manager at Seraphim Capital focused on investments for the new Space fund. He has previous experience at a UK-based venture fund making investments in materials and deep technology in industrial supply chains. Prior to that he was a portfolio manager at a major UK retail bank delivering IT change in their web division as part of a KPMG team. Daniel has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Bristol, specialising in Nanomaterials, and a Bachelor of Applied Science and Engineering from the University of Toronto.  Daniel is an aspiring aviator and has flown a number of flight simulators over the years.

Conor worked with close to 100 space and drone start-ups during his time as Head of Business Strategy at the Satellite Applications Catapult, a technology and innovation company set-up by the UK Government to drive economic growth through the development of satellite applications. Prior to his post-graduate studies, Conor spent five years in the Prime Brokerage departments of two global investment banks and completed an internship with Space Angels Network, a global network for angel investors in the private space industry. Conor holds a First Class Honours degree in Business and Economics from the University of Dublin, Trinity College and an MBA from the University of Oxford. He is also an Associate Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society and holds a private pilot’s license, flying single and multi-engine aircraft in the US and Europe.

Josephine brings more than a decade of experience in investment/equity research following the aerospace industry. Her research coverage has included a wide range of small-to-mid cap Defence and Security Technology companies, such as space (DigitalGlobe and GeoEye), drones (AeroVironment) robots (iRobot), and threat detection. She worked most recently at the Benchmark Company, where she established a Washington D.C. office prior to relocating to Paris, France.  She began her equity research career covering Global Communications at JP Morgan. Josephine received her MBA from Georgetown University and bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Riverside.

Christiana is Seraphim Capital’s Executive Assistant, and joined the team at the start of 2017. She acquired over 15 years’ experience as a PA and Bookkeeper in the fashion industry before leaving in 2016 to work as an Executive Assistant at Deloitte. During her time at Deloitte, she supported Partners and Directors in the Human Capital and Financial Services departments within the Consulting division. In her spare time she is a keep fit enthusiast, enjoying regular spin and step aerobics classes.

Alain is an Investment Director with 16 years’ leadership experience in direct investment, M&A and boutique consultancy. Fluent in English, French and German, he has an extensive network of entrepreneurs, investors and specialist funds to originate and close investments as well as advising corporates and finance institutions on acquisitions, divestments and financing. He has rationalised and implemented large M&A transactions valued at €320M +, corporate carve outs of €140M +, and numerous seed funding, VC and Private Equity deals. Investing, he has realised 6 exits, achieving ca.3.5x money. Alain’s investing career is backed by over a decade of P&L leadership, strategic responsibility, corporate investing and project management for engineering and technology divisions of blue-chip multinationals Siemens AG and Schott AG. He has an MBA from London Business School and a BENG (Hons) in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Nottingham Trent University.