Welcoming seven new members to the Atomico Angel Programme
Our Angel Programme partners the next generation of European angel investors with the most bold and progressive early-stage founders. We’re proud to welcome seven more exceptional individuals to the 2022 cohort. These individuals are:
Kim Fai Kok
Kim is co-founder of angel collective Framtid. Prior to founding Framtid, Kim was part of the founding team at Truecaller where he served as Director of Communications, leading their marketing and communications from inception onwards. At Truecaller, he saw the company grow from a few thousand to 280 million active users globally and helped launch the app in 15 countries across the US, LATAM, Europe, Africa and Asia. Since 2018, Kim has been an active angel investor focused on both B2B and B2C opportunities and has advised many successful entrepreneurs and operators.
Kerstin Bock
Kerstin is the CEO and co-founder at Openers, a boutique communications agency in Berlin that partners with tech companies including Sorare, Pipedrive, Spotify, and Pleo as well as several other unicorns. She is an active mentor and advisor to several start-up initiatives including the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund — Europe's largest Deep tech fund. Kerstin invests as a hands-on angel in early-stage startups across sectors ranging from climate tech to food tech and health tech, always with a focus on diverse founding teams (including so far e.g. one.five, Hier Foods or The Climate Choice) which she plans on continuing with the Atomico Angel Programme.
Dharmesh Malam
Dharmesh is part of the founding investment team at Marcho Partners, a global technology hedge fund where he also manages their Foundation Fund-of-Funds investing in upcoming international seed funds, along with their Entrepreneur-in-Residence programme and community based in London. After several years of being a quant developer at Fidelity and Blackrock, Dharmesh co-founded and served as CEO at Y Combinator-backed BigCalc, a software company which specialised in algorithmic trading simulations. He later co-founded YC backed Octavewealth, a full stack 401k provider, where he served as CTO and now sits on the board. He's a generalist product and engineering led investor, but has particular affinity for fintech, crypto, & infrastructure.
Russell Smith
Having built a career in marketing at companies including Wise, Adobe, Monzo and BlockFi, Russell is now a dedicated angel investor with a focus on helping early-stage companies scale through advertising, positioning and product-led growth. During his time as Director of Marketing at Monzo, Russell ran Monzo’s first advertising campaigns, acquiring over 2.5 million customers in one year. Russell’s investments include Qatalog, LayerZero, and Oasis, and he is keen to bring his expertise to a new generation of mission driven start-ups.
Christina Caljé
Christina is a seasoned entrepreneur in the finance and tech sectors, having launched and scaled businesses across Europe and the US. After the acquisition of her video marketing technology company, Autheos, Christina expanded her focus to the investment space, where she addresses negative funding dynamics in the European tech ecosystem. She has directly mentored 40+ start-ups, invests as an angel and currently sits on the board of multiple accelerator programmes, venture capital funds, start-ups and government entities. Christina's investment purpose is to improve society from social and environmental perspectives, specifically around themes of financial empowerment, energy transition and climate protection.
Alec Dent
Alec co-founded Weezy, the UK’s first on-demand supermarket in 2019. Weezy raised >$20m launching its service in London, Manchester, Bristol and Brighton and successfully exited to Getir, in late 2021. At Getir, he led the French business as General Manager until recently joining its global strategy team as a Director. Alec joins Atomico’s Angel Programme with a career focused on operations, marketing and strategy in startups and scaleups including BlaBlaCar and Drover prior to Weezy and Getir. Alec is investing in consumer-focused companies, especially those leveraging the circular economy, as well as B2B services that make operators’ lives easier.
Faye Maidment
Faye is a culture researcher, metaverse muser and venture investor. With experience as an Associate at gaming fund BITKRAFT and pre-seed generalist fund Unshackled Ventures, Faye has led investments in areas such as virtual world platforms, digital fashion, web3 and virtual beings. She is also a co-author of High Tea internet culture newsletter. Faye is excited to be joining Atomico’s Angel Programme to continue investing in early-stage founders in Europe, with a special focus on companies enabling and augmenting expression within the metaverse (read more here!).
Our newest additions bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the 2022 cohort, and we are excited to welcome them to the programme as they help unlock the next generation of Europe's entrepreneurial talent.
Welcome Kim, Kerstin, Dharmesh, Russell, Christina, Alec and Faye!
