London Board and Investor Dinner 2023

Last week, Up hosted its ninth annual London Board and Investor Dinner, bringing together 250 fantastic Chairs, NEDs, CEOs, and Investors from a variety of funds and companies across the UK and Europe.

The evening’s special guest speaker, Jody Ford, CEO of Trainline, shared some thought-provoking insights about the role of the CEO and Boards, and questioned Europe’s level of ambition in tech versus the US in particular.

We felt honoured to host executives from such an array of top-tier funds and tech companies. These included:  Adyen, Back Market, Birdie, Bumble, BUX, Busuu, Cazoo, Cherry Ventures, Curve, Dott, Eight Roads, Entain, EQT Ventures, Eurazeo, ECI, Farfetch, Farewill, Flutter Entertainment, Frontline VC, Graphite Capital, Highland Europe, Hedosophia, Hoxton Ventures, iwoca, Index Ventures, Kinnevik, Keywords Studios, Lyst, ManyPets, Messagebird, MMC Ventures, Moneybox, MoneySupermarket, Moonpig, Northzone Ventures, Octopus, Ocado, Olio, OMERS, Personio, PROfounders Capital, PPRO, Rightmove, Future plc, Seedcamp, Sequoia Capital, Skyscanner, Smedvig Capital, Soldo, Sprints, StrideVC, Superbet, TA Associates, Trustpilot, Uswitch, Vinted, Virgin Money, Wayve, Wonderbly, Zopa, and Zoe.

Feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive, some of which is shared below…

“Another outstanding dinner last night, so thank you. It absolutely achieved its purpose for me of making new contacts, reconnecting with older ones, and seeing friends”.

 “Brilliant as always. Your yearly dinner is an ‘institution’ these days”.

 “These events feel like they have almost systemic importance for UK tech now!”

“What an incredible group of people last night, it was amazing. Game-changing for me with many new doors opened”.

“A great platform for excellent networking”.  

“Thank you for seating me next to two people I really wanted to meet - and I also loved the movement between tables”

“Excellent table arranging - wizardry!”

“I had a number of fascinating conversations with people I’d never met before, as well as seeing some recognised faces”.

“Thank you! It was great, as always”.

“It was my first dinner and I was so impressed by the quality of guests you assembled”.

“It was amazing as ever - thanks so much to you and your team.  Really appreciate you doing this for the tech community every year”.

“Another outstanding dinner last night, so thank you. It absolutely achieved its purpose for me of making new contacts, reconnecting with older ones and seeing friends”.

“A really enjoyable evening and some interesting follow up conversations coming out of it”.

“Many congratulations on the momentum you have achieved in bringing together this community”.

“Thank you for assembling such a stellar group”.

“I thought it was excellent. I have completed the survey. 5*s throughout”.

“I met new and valuable connections that have already reached out regarding potential non-exec opportunities”.

“Thanks for including me. I made some really useful contacts”.

“Wonderful event.  Met many friends and two new connections that I am following up with”.

“I very much enjoyed the evening and the concept of rotating guests at tables was great for meeting more people”.

“I met several great people with whom I'm now talking about various business matters - these dinners truly are of great quality and unique in London! Thanks so much for putting them together and inviting me!”

“It must have been one of the best cohort of leaders in London at the moment.”