Julia Prada

Before Atomico, I was the Head of M&A Strategy at Farfetch. Having joined its newly formed Corporate Development team in 2018, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to partner with the company’s management team to execute its New York Stock Exchange IPO and all its subsequent follow-on capital raises. 

The majority of my career has been focussed on executing mergers and acquisitions.

I started out as an investment banker at Lazard, advising corporates across a number of sectors on M&A. I applied those learnings in my role at Farfetch, where I was at the core of the team leading on its highly acquisitive phase of growth. We completed 10+ acquisitions during my tenure and I got to build partnerships with founders across many different verticals and geographies. Whilst not without its challenges – there were certainly a lot of curveballs – it’s been the highlight of my career.

Helping businesses reach their full potential is one of my favourite parts about this job.

I am most inspired by the grit and determination demonstrated by founders and their teams when executing against their vision. At Atomico, I am able to sit behind the scenes and support them with what are often times disruptive processes, such as capital raising and M&A, and enable them to focus on their long-term plan with even more conviction.

My comfort zone is in nature, not cities.

I was born in the Dolomites and spent my childhood skiing from the first snow day of the season, swimming in mountain lakes and hiking after school. I love London but life here (despite its 3,000 parks and green spaces!) has taken some getting used to.

Despite my start in a mountain village, I’ve had my fair share of exposure to different European ecosystems.

As well as growing up speaking Italian, English, German and Hungarian, I've lived in four different countries across Europe. Having had exposure across the continent, I'm enormously excited about the opportunity and potential for European tech.