Changemakers: Hussein Kanji

Hussein Kanji MBA2007 is a US-born, London based venture capitalist who backs tech start-ups to become “giants in their field”, as he puts it. His success in doing so has made him a giant of his own.

Companies he has backed financially, providing seed funding at an early stage, include online takeaway service Deliveroo, cyber-security specialists Darktrace and pioneering AI data analysts Behavox.

All are now market leaders, prompting the UK national newspaper The Daily Telegraph to name him Europe’s most influential technology investor. A cheque from Hussein Kanji is more than a cash injection – it’s an endorsement that turns heads and opens doors.

He is, of course, extremely selective when it comes to opening that chequebook. Hoxton Ventures, which he co-founded in 2013, is currently invested in 13 companies with a collective market capitalisation of about $4.4 billion (£3.3 billion), having made 17 investments out of the first fund and having had four acquisitions).

Its success is good news for Europe in the race to keep up with the tech giants of Silicon Valley and China, and especially good news for Britain, where most of the 13 companies are based. Kanji has also advised the UK Government in establishing east London’s Tech City as the largest technology cluster in Europe.

Every year, he sees up to 2,000 hopefuls, eager not only for a cash injection but for the kudos that association with Hoxton Ventures brings; but out of all those bright young things there’s “probably only one or two [who] really matter”. The way tech works, he explains, is that “the three leading companies in any new field make most of the economic gains, but particularly the number one. Look at social networking. Facebook is a $300-$400 billion (£230-£300 billion) company. Nothing else is even close to it. So it pays to win the category.” It also pays to spot that winner early on and to have the wherewithal to back it.

So, what’s his strategy? The short answer is: “We focus on a new market and try to find somebody in Europe where we think they have a likely shot at being number one in that category.” For example, the Hoxton Ventures-backed company Babylon Health is currently working on an AI doctor: “You read about it in science fiction books, but it doesn’t exist as a consumer service. They’re building that now.”