Brent Hoberman

Brent is Co-Founder & Managing Partner of firstminute capital, Founders Factory and Founders Forum.

Brent is Co-Founder and Managing Partner as well as co-founder of Founders Factory (global venture studios, seed programmes and accelerator programmes) and Founders Forum (global community of founders, corporates and tech leaders). Previously, Brent co-founded Made.com in 2010. He left before it went public in 2021 at a valuation of $1.1bn. Brent also co-founded lastminute.com in 1998 where he was CEO from its inception and sold it in 2005 to Sabre for $1.1bn.

Brent has backed nine unicorns at Seed stage and technology businesses Brent has co-founded have raised over $1bn and include Karakuri (provider of robotics, AI and automation systems), Founders Intelligence (entrepreneur-powered consultancy - recently acquired by Accenture), EQL:HER (network taking action to change the underrepresentation of women in technology), Founders Keepers (technology executive search firm), Founders of the Future (network that identifies and supports aspiring entrepreneurs), Founders Pledge (community for entrepreneurs committed to finding and funding solutions to global challenges), Grip (AI-powered event networking solution), 01 Founders (a network of free-to-access coding schools with a job guarantee), Founders Law (full-service tech law firm), and Founders Makers (creative partner to leading challengers and corporates).

Brent sits on the advisory boards of Google Cloud, The Tessa Jowell Foundation, the UK Government Digital Service and the WEF Digital Europe Group. He was also a founding Champion of Change for The Global Tech Group, has been an advisor to four UK prime ministers and in 2015 was awarded a CBE for his services to entrepreneurship.

Previously, Brent was Chairman of the Oxford Foundry advisory board from its inception, chaired Karakuri, and The Royal Foundation Taskforce on the Prevention of Cyberbullying for The Duke of Cambridge, and further former board roles include The Royal Academy, TalkTalk, TimeOut, The Guardian Media Group, Shazam Entertainment, Eton College, Imperial College Innovation Fund and The Economist.