Founder-led capital · Europe & beyond

Back founders early.
Stay useful afterwards.

Purexs is my personal investment platform. I’ve built companies, taken two to IPO and backed around 300 startups. Today I’m focused primarily on helping the companies I already back, while occasionally investing or advising where the fit is exceptional.

Start a conversation How I work
30+years building and investing
2companies taken to IPO
~300startup investments
1person making the decision
My approach

I know what it feels like to build something from nothing. So I respect founders’ time, speak plainly and avoid adding process where it isn’t needed.

I started my first company at 22 and my first early-stage fund at 27. Since then, I’ve co-founded two listed businesses—including Intec Telecom—and invested across software, AI, deep technology, climate, health and frontier infrastructure.

I’m most useful when the stakes are high and the answer is not obvious: finding product-market fit, shaping a round, making a critical introduction or thinking through a strategic turn.

Built before backingFounder at 22; later co-founder of two listed businesses, including Intec Telecom.
Perspective across cyclesAround 300 startup investments, from first rounds through growth, exits and difficult resets.
Practical founder supportRound timing and structure, relevant introductions and calm judgement when the obvious answer is wrong.
01

People before pitch decks

I back unusual, driven founders with a clear view of the problem and the honesty to keep learning.

02

Selective, direct decisions

No investment committee and no theatre. When I engage, you get straight questions, useful feedback and a clear answer.

03

Help without interference

Founders lead. I stay close enough to be useful and far enough away to let them build.

Selected backing

A broad portfolio.
A consistent belief.

From category-defining software to climate, health and deep technology. I look for founders tackling hard problems with the potential to build something that matters.

Current highlights

Phoenix TailingsCritical materials
Flow EngineeringEngineering software
OkloClean energy
BlinkEmployee experience
LunasondeSubsurface intelligence
Luminate MedicalHealth technology
AegiqQuantum technology
AppFactorLegacy modernisation
Founder spotlight

AppFactor

Keith Neilson and his team are building an agentic platform that discovers, modernises and maintains the enterprise software businesses still depend on—with engineers governing every step.

I backed AppFactor because modernising the world’s legacy software estate is an enormous, unavoidable problem—and AI changes what is possible.

Explore AppFactor
Founder spotlight

AIWorkify

Eugenio Zucal is building a different approach to enterprise AI: helping organisations become AI-native while retaining control of their data, systems and operating knowledge. He is an unusually imaginative founder, and someone I am very pleased to support.

Explore AIWorkify
Founder spotlight

Greenpixie

John Ridd and his team are making the environmental cost of cloud and AI infrastructure measurable and actionable. Greenpixie gives organisations granular intelligence to reduce carbon, water and cost as their computing needs grow.

Explore Greenpixie

Track record

Selected earlier backing and portfolio successes.

ZendeskSoftware
TessianCybersecurity
OneLoginIdentity
BraveConsumer technology
CognismSoftware

Indirect investments

Held indirectly, rather than as direct shareholdings in these companies.

OpenAIIndirect investment
AnthropicIndirect investment
CanvaIndirect investment
OverwolfIndirect investment
TechWolfIndirect investment

Venture ecosystem

I hold an equity stake in HomeDAO, an early-stage founder incubator in Oxford, and I am an LP in Acadian Ventures, a specialist US early-stage fund backing the new architecture of work.

HomeDAOFounder incubator
Acadian VenturesLimited partner

Selected investments, past and present. Indirect exposure does not imply a direct founder, advisory or board relationship. Company names do not imply endorsement.

Where I help

Useful at the moments that matter.

01

Product and market

Pressure-testing the proposition, the customer and the route to product-market fit.

02

Fundraising

Positioning, pitch preparation, investor introductions and honest negotiation advice.

03

People and network

Thoughtful introductions to operators, customers, future hires and other investors.

04

Strategic moments

A calm sounding board for pivots, boards, partnerships, acquisitions and difficult decisions.

“The best founders don’t need another person telling them how to run their company. They need someone experienced, honest and available when it counts.”
Tom James · Founder, Purexs
Start a conversation

A difficult decision, an ambitious company or a useful connection?

My priority is the companies I already back. For an exceptional fit, a short, direct note is enough to start a conversation.