Top 0 Asian Stars in UK Tech - JOOMAG version Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech 2015 | Page 13

Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech 2015

Faisal Butt
Founder & CEO - Pi Labs
Faisal Butt is a serial entrepreneur who works with founders and management teams to scale
up high-growth ventures. He also invests private equity to execute a partial or full buyout
in more stable SMEs through his personal investment vehicle Pere Ventures. Faisal is the
co-Founder & CEO at Property Innovation Labs (Pi Labs), Europe’s first property innovation
accelerator programme. Located in the iconic Second Home building in East London, Pi Labs
has a strategic partnership with Venture Capital firm Spire Ventures and global real estate firm
Cushman & Wakefield.
Faisal is also Founder & CEO at Spire Ventures, a private equity and venture capital house that
historically focused on property related businesses and now manages a multi-sector mandate
on behalf of its investors. A BA in Business Economics & Computing graduate of UCLA, Faisal
completed an MBA in Finance from University of Oxford - Said Business School before launching
a 13-year career trajectory, living and working on three different continents, returning in 2009
to set up a base in London.

James Caan
Chairman - StartUp Loans
In May 2012, James Caan CBE was appointed Chairman of The Start Up Loans Company, which
supports entrepreneurs with funding and mentoring to start their own business. He is best
known as a former investor on the BBC television program Dragons’ Den, in which he was
one of the Dragons from 2007 to 2010. He is the founder and CEO of Hamilton Bradshaw. The
company was established in 2004 and specialises in buyouts, venture capital, turnarounds, and
real estate investment in the UK. James is a Board Director of number of invested companies
including being Chairman at Bluebox Corporate Finance Group; Advisor to Sons & Co.;
Partner at eMoov.co.uk, Leadership and Management Ltd, Euromedica; Ivy Gate, The London
Management Company, Voyage Global Energy, SF Group, Acouster Group and Star Capital
Resourcing.
In the mid 1980’s, James began a successful career in recruitment. He founded Alexander
Mann, a UK recruitment business which he successfully grew to £130m turnover with 30 offices
worldwide. During the same period, he