We play fair by founders

Giving you an unfair advantage, to take you from where you are to where you want to be

We’re a sector agnostic fund with a contrarian approach to pre-seed investing

92% of our portfolio recommend working with us

Story

We look for visionary founders, with hustle, heart and humility, who see the world, not as it is, but as it could be

78% of our companies have successfully raised a Series A round

Portfolio

We combine financial capital, emotional intelligence and a willingness to do whatever’s required

Because we know it takes more than funding for a startup to survive and thrive; the right support goes beyond writing cheques

Thesis

We’re an ecosystem player here for the long-term

It’s a step towards the tomorrow we all want to live in

Content

We’re committed to readdressing the gender imbalance in venture, by breaking down barriers and opening doors

Collaboration is Queen: Our female founder network has collectively raised £600m

Female Founders

We believe that access to VC should be open and based on merit, we review each and every application

It’s never too early for an initial conversation

Pitch us

We play fair by founders

Giving you an unfair advantage, to take you from where you are to where you want to be

We’re a sector-agnostic fund with a contrarian approach to pre-seed investing

92% of our portfolio recommend working with us

Story

We look for visionary founders, with hustle, heart and humility, who see the world, not as it is, but as it could be.

78% of our companies have successfully raised a Series A

Portfolio

We combine financial capital, emotional intelligence and a willingness to do whatever’s required.

Because we know it takes more than funding for a startup to survive and thrive; the right support goes beyond writing cheques

Thesis

We’re an ecosystem player here for the long-term

It’s a step towards the tomorrow we all want to live in

Content

We’re committed to readdressing the gender imbalance in venture, by breaking down barriers and opening doors

Collaboration is Queen: Our female founder network has collectively raised £600m

Female Founders

We believe that access to VC should be open and based on merit, we review each and every application

It’s never too early for an initial conversation

Pitch us

Back to Team

Chris Smith

Managing Partner

Chris is Managing Partner at Playfair Capital, a Kauffman Fellow (Class 25), a Contributor to Forbes and helped found our D&I initiative - Female Founder Office Hours (FFOH) - in 2019.



He focuses his investing activities on pre-seed opportunities in the UK, Europe and Israel. Chris is particularly interested in autonomous transportation, business and industrial automation (especially through AI, ML and computer vision), HealthTech (except diagnostics and therapeutics) and B2B SaaS. He loves finding companies operating in unloved/overlooked sectors that are ripe for disruption.

Prior to joining Playfair, Chris was an operator at plan.com where he held senior roles including Sales Director, Head of Tech/BI and Head of Product Development. He was the 8th member of the team and over a 5 year period built an award winning sales team, introduced new products (organically and through acquisition) and led the roll out of version 4 of the platform. Revenues grew to £60m in 2018 and the company ranked #1 in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100.

In addition to his roles at plan.com, Chris worked on the re-launch/re-branding of Vannin Capital (another Bramden Investments portfolio company which was acquired by Fortress Investment Group LLC in September 2019).

Chris executed 15 angel investments across the UK and US from 2008 to 2018 with six exits to date including SuperAwesome (acq. Epic Games), Nearbuy Systems (acq. RetailNext), Compology (acq. RoadRunner Recycling) & Bidstack (LON:BIDS). He is passionate about investing in tech companies and supporting founders using his extensive operational and legal experience.

In his previous life, Chris spent nearly a decade in the City as a transactional lawyer. He has worked with some of the world’s leading private equity and venture capital funds on predominantly international acquisitions, disposals and restructurings. At Weil, he spent time on secondment to the Silicon Valley office’s patent litigation team, UK-based food manufacturer Premier Foods and the Asset Protection Agency.

He was also the founder of a telecoms business in 2001 offering discounted international calling from 14 countries which he partially exited via an MBO in 2005.

When not working, you’ll find Chris hiking in Dartmoor or kayaking on the River Dart with his wife, watching rugby or traveling and eating (ideally at the same time).


Areas of interest


B2B SaaS

HealthTech

Industry 4.0

Infrastructure

Construction

Mobility

Portfolio companies