Eileen Burbidge founded investment fund Passion Capital in 2011 with Stefan Glaenzer and Robert Dighero. Since then, Passion Capital has invested in a series of successful London companies including DueDil, GoCardless, GoSquared, and Smarkets.
Burbidge was given an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in June for her services to business. And in July, Burbidge was named the UK Treasury’s special envoy for fintech, a type of technology that London is particularly good at due to the tech sector’s close proximity with banks and politics. She was also named as one of Prime Minister David Cameron’s group of business advisors.
But the biggest news of 2015 for Burbidge was when she took the job of Chair of Tech City UK, the organisation that works to promote the UK’s tech startups, in September. She’s the new public figurehead for the organisation.
2015 was the year when Burbidge really became the face of London tech: she’s been profiled in The Guardian, The Evening Standard, Techworld, Fortune, and The Sunday Times.
Prior to founding Passion Capital, Burbidge worked at Apple, Yahoo, Skype, and Sun Microsystems.
Read Business Insider UK’s interview with Eileen Burbidge about her appointment to Tech City UK »
Total amount raised: $129 million (£89.5 million)
Headcount: 12
Twitter: @eileentso