Alex Leigh

Alex is an Investment Director at Future Planet Capital. He primarily focuses on the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund where is actively deploying the Defence & Security fund into pre-Seed+ deeptech startups. Alex also supports the Blue Ocean Fund that invests at Series A+.

He began his career in high-tech start-ups and large engineering facilities in South Africa across R&D, Manufacturing, Effluent Treatment, Robotics, Marine and Renewable Energy. Concurrently he started and ran numerous entrepreneurial ventures ranging from a software development boutique to an international e-commerce business.

In 2013, Alex pivoted into investments, working on private equity buyouts in Johannesburg. Upon relocating to London, he transitioned into operational improvement private equity and various transformation roles, including a stint at a FTSE 250. He now applies this operational knowledge across all the start-up Boards upon which he serves.

While start-ups and investing were always part of Alex’s career, in 2018 he focused solely on tech venture capital, coming back full circle on his early entrepreneurial and engineering roots. He is active in the start-up/VC world through his blog/vlog/podcast (The Tippy Top), mentoring, running webinars and training programmes, serving on panels and regular social media activity.

Alex graduated as a Mechatronics Engineer at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He also holds an MBA (with distinction) from the University of Cape Town, and London Business School.