Meet the Investors: Liverpool

Usman Ali

Partner - Venture Debt, Salica Investments

Usman Ali is a partner at Salica Investments pan-European venture debt fund.

With over 13 years of experience and an impressive track record of investing more than £100m in 30+ growth stage technology companies across the UK and Europe, Usman brings unparalleled expertise to the table. His recent investments include innovative companies like Shift, Apperio, Administrate, Virtualstock and FullCircl.

Lilly Chatwin

Eco-System Manager, Liverpool Eagle Lab

Lilly leads the Eagle Labs ecosystem in Liverpool, fostering collaboration between startups, scale-ups, corporates, and the wider tech community. With a focus on innovation and growth, Lilly works closely with founders and partners to provide access to resources, expertise, and networks that accelerate business success. Passionate about driving regional tech development, Lilly champions initiatives that support emerging technologies and strengthen the North West’s position as a thriving hub for digital and fintech innovation.

Helen Cross

Cluster Lead - Digital & Creative, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Helen is the Cluster Lead for Creative Industries at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Her role spans many aspects including inward investment, business growth and ecosystem development. She sits on advisory boards for STFC's Digital Tech Cluster, Baltic Ventures, and Music Futures (UKRI Creative Cluster) and is secretariat for the LCR Creative Industries Board and the LCR Games Board. She champions and promotes the growth of an inclusive and innovative creative ecosystem fuelled by technology, ensuring that initiatives involve a range of partners and have long lasting community impact. 

Jason Druker

Chief Commercial Officer, SFC Capital

As Chief Commercial Officer of SFC Capital, Jason drives commercial growth and business development. He oversees sales strategy, marketing, investor relations, and portfolio management, focussing on value realisation, including fundraising, secondary sales and full exits. Before SFC, Jason held a corporate development role at Britvic PLC and founded his own M&A consultancy. He holds an MBA and is also a qualified corporate lawyer.

Delyth Edwards

Senior Network Manager, British Business Bank

Delyth represents the British Business Bank’s UK Network in North West England as Senior Manager. She focuses on working closely with funding delivery partners, business development agencies and other organisations across the region to help the Bank to understand and overcome the challenges smaller businesses face in their access to finance journey, and to improve their access to financial support. Prior to joining the British Business Bank, Delyth spent over 15 years supporting tech entrepreneurs to grow and scale across North Wales and the North West, working in academia, the private sector and more recently, UK Research and Innovation at the Sci-Tech Daresbury Campus.

Katie Nicholson

Investment Director, Gateway Angels

Katie joined Gateway Angels to lead its work supporting early-stage founders and angel investor community across the region. She previously spent four years as Founding Director of Petra Consulting, working with start-ups and established organisations across the private and public sectors.

Prior to launching Petra Consulting, Katie gained over 10 years’ experience in senior marketing and operational roles at PDMS, Paddy Power and KPMG, where she launched and managed the Bridge Angel Network in the Isle of Man, supporting early-stage investment and founder growth.

Katie holds an MBA from Liverpool John Moores University. She is a member of the UK Business Angels Association Angel Group Advisory Board and the Liverpool City Region Female Founder Regional High-Growth Board.

Rachel Siner

Operations Manager and Angel Syndicate Lead, Baltic Ventures

Rachel is the Operations Manager and angel syndicate lead at Baltic Ventures - a Tech Accelerator based in Liverpool that has recently been voted one of the top accelerator programmes in Europe. Baltic Ventures gives early-stage tech start-ups the coaching, connections and funding they need to take their businesses to the next level and since it's inception has helped their portfolio raise over £8m in follow on investment.

David Walters

Investment Director, River Capital

David is an Investment Director at River Capital and leads the North’s first dedicated AI fund that launched in October 2022. Through the fund he focuses on investments in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science.

David has over 10 years of experience combining investment and operational roles and prior to joining River Capital, held leadership positions that allowed him to develop deep expertise in AI and technology-enabled businesses. He has also served as an award winning Chief Technology Officer for a number of private equity-backed, tech-enabled companies

With his unique blend of investment, operational, and technical experience, David is well-positioned to identify and nurture promising AI and data science companies through fund:AI across the North of England.

Rupert Wingate-Saul

Manager, Liverpool City Region Seed Fund

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