Ariadne Capital Announces Three New Senior Advisors

LONDON, March 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

• CMO and CIO in Residence in London and California-based Senior Advisor  
• Expansion to help Expanding Portfolio and Ecosystem Economics™ Fund 

Building on the announcement of the £150 million AUM Ecosystem Economics™ Fund on 22 January 2016, Ariadne Capital is announcing the expansion of its Senior Advisors to the Investment Platform with the appointment of Ilona Simpson, CIO in Residence, Pete Pastides, CMO in Residence, and Jamie Finn, Senior Advisor, based in San Francisco.

Ariadne Capital's Ecosystem Economics™' Investment Methodology provides investors with an understanding of how Digital Enablers are transforming large, non-technology traditional businesses into Platforms which have the capacity to organise the business models of their industries by monetising data, building ecosystems and developing digital revenues.

Since December 2000 when Ariadne Capital was founded by Julie Meyer who invited 62 leading technology entrepreneurs to co-invest with her and Ariadne Capital, Ariadne has completed more than £350 million of transactions and investments.    Ariadne backs young, fast-growing businesses at the point of early revenues but pre-profit, and works to provide them significant support as they go to market.    Ariadne helps entrepreneurs to articulate the strategic value that they provide to the large enterprises that they are both selling into and whose operating models they are transforming.

These three Senior Advisors have significant experience in their sectors, geographies and functional areas working successfully with fast-growing technology-led businesses.    Their collaboration with the Ariadne Capital Investment Platform will extend Ariadne's ability to work with more companies as it increases its investment capability with the new Ecosystem Economics fund from which it will invest in more than three dozen new businesses.

Each of these Senior Advisors is also a Limited Partner in the Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs Fund, vintage 2012, which backs late stage seed deals based in Europe.   This fund has backed Autograph, BloomyDays, Moneydashboard, Orson & Co, Quill, Shopitise, SoundOut and Teads.

Through 15 years or working with some of the leading European successes, Ariadne Capital has devised a well-worn process which enables founders and investors to agree on the key de-risking milestones which need to be achieved as at young company goes to market.    Ariadne's CIO and CMO in Residence will work systematically with their portfolio, adding to the early stage management teams and providing contacts, strategy and feedback, thereby giving them their best chance of succeeding as business.

Commenting on the announcement, Julie Meyer, CEO of Ariadne, said:

'Ariadne has during the past 15 years benefitted from the strategic input of senior executives and entrepreneurs who have worked with us and our portfolio companies very closely.    They have  helped our companies win.   We are confident that Ilona, Pete and Jamie will add tremendous value to our portfolio companies and our platform.'

Amit Pau, Managing Director at Ariadne and Partner in the Ariadne investment platform, commenting further:

'We are delighted that Jamie, Pete and Ilona are key team members of Ariadne Capital. Their expertise, track record and network complements Ariadne's proven established track record of identifying, investing, nurturing high growth investment opportunities. Thus further enhancing the strength of the investment opportunity to our new fund.'

About Ariadne Capital  

Ariadne Capital is the investment firm founded by Julie Meyer and 62 leading entrepreneurs in 2000.   They pioneered the model of 'Entrepreneurs Backing Entrepreneurs' early in the new millennium, are known for backing (investing and / or advising) European game-changers such as Espotting, Skype, Zopa, Monitise, host the Follow The Entrepreneur Investor Summit at the Four Seasons, Hampshire, UK annually, and own and operate the EntrepreneurCountry Global platform.

More information at http://www.ariadnecapital.com

About Ilona Simpson  

Ilona brings strong track record in building, right sizing, turning around and spinning off IT capabilities. She worked with corporates like Accenture, Porsche, DHL and Aston Martin and served on two ExComs. She knows how to run IT as a P&L.    She built operations of a technology start-up, growing the business whilst refining the product and getting VC funding. She is a start up mentor with Virgin Start Up and an angel investor.

About Pete Pastides 

Pete's entire career as been at the sharp end of sales & marketing in the fast-paced technology sector, which started with the launch of the IBM PS/2 in 1987.

His entrepreneurial expedition started 10 years later in 1997 when he formed Continuous Insight, a business that he later sold to Next 15 Plc in 2014. 

For almost 30 years, Pete has worked in Entrepreneur Country, we didn't know it as that then, but we do now - he's worked with Industrial Giants such as IBM, BT, Tata, Gillette, Fujitsu and Hitachi and been an entrepreneur running his own business - cash flow, positive, with no debt, profitability for 17 consecutive years. 

Joining the Ariadne Capital team as CMO in Residence allows Pete to work with a diverse and exciting portfolio of companies, whilst helping to communicate the value of bringing Digital Enablers to Industrial Giants to help them shape their future business states through Ecosystem Economics. 

About Jamie Finn 

Jamie Finn is an experienced Marketing, Product and Business Development executive who has worked in 6 countries with startups and corporates. Jamie has successfully launched new products and businesses in Germany, Spain, Argentina, Mexico, the United Kingdom and America.  During his more than 15 years of experience, he has participated in more than $500m worth of transactions including Kontera, Sansa Security, Jajah, Tokbox, RingRing Media and Zingy. 

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