Following his early career at KPMG in London, Emil has spent 23 years in venture capital, through the dotcom cycle and the financial crisis. He has garnered decades of expertise working at board level with more than 40 companies, and is adept at advising startups on strategy, leadership, organisational structure, finance, and fundraising.
Emil holds a BA (Hons) degree in European Business Administration and is a Fellow of the ICAEW (FCA).
Tell us about yourself
Hello, I’m Emil, a partner in the investment team at Albion. I focus on B2B software companies raising their Series A round of investment, when they have proven products in the market and are looking to scale up commercially.
Explain your role at Albion
My role is to find start-ups that have real potential to scale rapidly and drive value for our investors. I specialise in working with earlier stage, fast-growing companies and support them to achieve their objectives. I have a particular focus on B2B software, including infrastructure software, data management software and fintech.
What do you think is most important when building a relationship between Albion and a company founder?
It sounds like a cliché, but the key thing is trust and openness. We see our role as partners to the founding team and we are here to help in any way we can, but we can only do so if we can have open and honest conversations around the challenges the founders face, whatever they are, and if we are given an unvarnished version of the truth. This starts from the very first interactions, during the fundraising process.
Are there new areas/ sectors Albion is keen on/ looking to invest in?
Despite the turbulence in the technology markets in the past 18 months, software remains one of the most exciting sectors to invest in. In addition, new software based services and new business models are being created to disrupt existing industries and create new ones. Some specific areas we are excited about include the data observability, governance and management space, environmental risk management and embedded finance.
What have been your biggest learnings whilst being a board member with some of the portfolio companies in the VCTs?
It is the nature of early stage investment that almost every successful company goes through a period when things don’t go to plan. This makes the clarity and alignment of objectives absolutely paramount.
Firstly, the executive team and investors should spend time agreeing what the key strategic objectives are, what the short and medium term targets are to achieve these objectives, how to measure progress and assign clear responsibilities. We do this every time we back a new company, in a systematic way.
Another key lesson is that founders should not waste time in building a high calibre C level team as soon as they take on investment. It takes time to find the right people, bring them on board and allow them time to make a material contribution.
Lastly, we operate in fast moving markets and those who win embrace agility and speed of execution, so we focus on founders with these qualities.