Brent Hoberman

Co-Founder & Executive Chairman at Founders Forum

Speaker

Brent is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Founders Factory (a corporate backed incubator and accelerator), Founders Forum (an invite-only, global community of founders, corporates and tech leaders) and firstminute capital (a $100m seed fund with global remit, backed by Atomico, Tencent and over 30 unicorn founders). Previously, Brent co-founded lastminute.com in 1998, was CEO from its inception, and sold it in 2005 to Sabre for $1.1bn.

Technology businesses he has co-founded have raised over $650 million and include Karakuri (a provider of robotics, AI and automation systems), made.com (a leading European direct-from-factory consumer homewares retailer with $137m funding to date), Founders Intelligence (a specialist digital consultancy), accelerateHER (a network taking action to change the underrepresentation of women in technology), Founders Keepers (a technology executive search firm), Founders of the Future (a network that identifies and supports aspiring entrepreneurs), Founders Pledge (a community for entrepreneurs committed to finding and funding solutions to global challenges), Grip (an AI powered event networking solution) and most recently Founders Academy (a new type of business school for a changing world).

Brent is an advisory board member of The Oxford Foundry, The Royal Academy, and the UK Gov Digital Advisory Board. He also co-chairs the Prime Minister's Business Sector Council for Small Business, Scale-ups and Entrepreneurs, is a Male Champion of Change for The Global Tech Group, and in 2015 was awarded a CBE for services to entrepreneurship.

Previous advisory board roles include LetterOne Technology (a $16bn investment fund), TalkTalk, TimeOut, The Guardian Media Group, Shazam Entertainment and The Economist. In 2017, Brent chaired The Royal Foundation Taskforce on the Prevention of Cyberbullying for The Duke of Cambridge.