Simon Blakey

Originally a biochemist by training, Simon is on the Board of Cambridge Angels and for the last 5 years has chaired the Investment Committee at Playfair Capital, a pre-seed/seed fund currently investing from its $50M Fund III. He is has been a full-time angel investor since 2000 and has personally invested in more than 100 funding rounds - so has ample opportunity to see the good, bad and ugly of early-stage funding.

He has over 30 companies in his personal portfolio including businesses such as Ventrata (ticketing software), Shop Circle (E-commerce tool aggregator), Aerocloud (airport operations software) and Xampla (plastics replacement). Simon also sits on the management board of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, is Treasurer of the Ian Parry Photographic Award and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.