Saira Gill
Investor at Technology and property companies
Saira Gill
Investor at Technology and property companies
Amsterdam, North Holland
Overview
Work Experience
Advisor (PE and VC)
2015 - Current
Strategic consulting and fundraising for PE and VC, as well as working with select portfolio companies, for example on growth, strategy, fundraising and hiring.
Venture Partner
2022 - 2023
Sector agnostic pre-seed and seed investing. Capital fundraising for Global Antler funds.
Associate Partner
2019 - 2022
Early stage Venture Capital, investing in over 10 countries, with over 280 investments made to date. I joined when we were in 4 locations with 45 investments and have helped expand geographically and increase our value proposition, in order to support thousands of founders to start their own businesses. My role involves: - in charge of our investments globally; - global Investment committee member; - delivering fund returns; - leading Antler’s strategy globally; - developing, implementing and rolling out new processes as we scale globally into 6 new locations per year; and - fundraising (large-ticket investors). About Antler Founded in Singapore in 2017, Antler (www.antler.co) is a global startup generator and early-stage VC that is building the next big wave of tech. With the mission to turn exceptional individuals into great founders, Antler aims to create thousands of companies globally. They select the world’s most brilliant and determined people, help them find the right co-founder and connect them to a top tier network of advisors and experts worldwide. Antler breaks the barriers to entrepreneurship by providing funding from day one and building strong teams from the ground up, while enabling founders to rapidly launch and scale their ideas.
Member
2016 - 2023
Founders of the Future is an invite-only community of the most promising entrepreneurial talent in technology in Europe. It is made of talented young individuals who may not be currently founders or recognised leaders in the technology ecosystem, but exhibit strong signals that they will be someday. Founders of the Future grew out of Founders Forum which believes in the power of technology, entrepreneurship and collaboration to make the world a better place.
Founder
2017 - 2018
Zinc builds new tech companies that solve the developed world’s toughest social issues. The Zinc Programme brings together 55 bright minds for 6 months to find their co-founders and build new commercial businesses from scratch. Each programme has a single mission, to solve a social problem which affects at least 100m people.
CEO and Co-Founder
2017 - 2018
Fast-tracking people to their desired state of mind, on demand and using music. Zone composes new music that adapts to the user. Created with innovative musicians. Powered by science and artificial intelligence. Sign up for the app and events at http://zonenow.io To learn more about Zone: https://medium.com/@SairaGill/introducing-zone-change-your-mood-state-at-the-touch-of-a-button-bbe95c6fdc88
Investor
2017 - 2017
Balderton is Europe’s leading early-stage venture capital investor, focused exclusively on European founded technology companies. Balderton invest in companies with the potential to disrupt huge industries, and the ambition to scale globally. A great track-record of backing breakthrough companies ranging from MySQL to Betfair, and The Hut Group to Yoox Net-a-Porter. Primarily focussed on the Nordics and the UK, I worked on 4 deals, deal sourcing, deep dive research and working with the portfolio companies.
Entrepreneur In Residence
2017 - 2017
Supported the 2017 London Cohort on their summer programme, including through workshops, mentorship and advice, Techstars is the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Each year, we choose over 300 companies to join our three month mentorship-driven accelerator, investing $120K and providing hands-on mentorship and access to the Techstars Network for life. We also offer startup programmes and offer corporate innovation to our corporate partners. Power of the Techstars Worldwide Network: You will be part of the Techstars community for life. Grow your business and expand your network with access to over 1,500,000 founders, investors, mentors, and industry leaders
CEO and Co-founder
2015 - 2015
Promptu is a SaaS tool that simplifies office management, reducing the time spent on admin so that companies can focus on what drives them. Organise, fulfil and track tasks in one place including ordering food and supplies. Automate recurring tasks, set approval levels and transparently track spend.
Head of the Nordics
2013 - 2014
Responsible for group P&L, £60m pa budget, lead a 150+ team; reported to VP Northern Europe. - Restructured and integrated all Nordic operations (Sweden, Denmark, Norway) to increase productivity, profitability and employee satisfaction. - Grew and lead a 150+ international team: introduced Groupon’s best practice whilst being sensitive to cultural differences and tailored approach accordingly; coached and mentored. - Managed overall sales process, targets, KPIs and incentives. Managed sales teams and created sales presentations for global use. - Aligned local markets to international standard and best practice, where appropriate and feasible. - Business Development: managed key customer relations and closed strategic business opportunities. - Determined strategy to enter new geographies and verticals (e.g. travel and brands). - Product development of website, sales and marketing tools. - Worked with country MDs across EMEA to share expertise and sign international deals. - Approvals for higher risk opportunities and resource management including marketing and CRM. - Oversaw special projects involving working with local lawyers, HR, unions etc such as during the HQ office move, closing down an office, management changes, redundancies and disciplinaries.
Director
2011 - 2012
Responsible for growth strategy, management of division and sales, reported directly to UK MD, based in London. - Launched new offices – including Groupon Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle. - Responsible for entire deal process – sourced, structured, negotiated, executed and reviewed. - Developed relationships with key partners; helped sales reps close key accounts. - Responsible for risk assessment of businesses – credit rating, reviews, sustainability. - Oversaw market/deal analysis – deal metrics, consumer behaviour and competitor activities. - Managed 30+ team – hired, trained and managed sales, analytical, operational and cross functional teams. - Training: Appointed by the key investor to train new international Managing Directors. - Ambitious – due to exceptional performance, promoted from entrepreneur in residence to Director in 9 months, Head of Region within 2 years. - Entrepreneurial – designed various novel operational, compensation and training processes; some so successful and profitable that they were rolled out internationally, including co-designing “Perfect Pipeline”, a new planning and management strategy that was implemented globally.