Bindi Karia

Bindi Karia, Startup expert, Connector and Advisor

Bindi is incredibly passionate about all things startup in Europe and connecting the dots between Investors, Founders and Corporates, and as a result has worked in and around technology startups for most of her career. The entrepreneurs have influenced her so greatly over the years, that she's now left, and is currently in the process of setting up a new venture, focussed on…connecting…of course.

Having devoted much of her career in and around the startup ecosystem, most recently as Vice President at Silicon Valley Bank, she focussed on building out SVB's early stage banking efforts in Europe as well as driving the Bank's relationships within the Corporate and Emerging VC segments. Prior to that, she was Venture Capital/Emerging Business lead at Microsoft UK where for five years, she lead BizSpark in the UK. (now, Microsoft Ventures) She focused on how Microsoft could drive success for early-stage technology companies as well as partnering with the UK Investor Community. She sits on many Industry Advisory Boards including Startup Europe, Tech London Advocates and Up Global Europe. She’s an active mentor at top London Incubators including Seedcamp, TechStars, Startupbootcamp, WAYRA, JLab, Microsoft Ventures & Level39.

Her previous role at Microsoft was as a Business Productivity Advisor for FinServ C-Level Execs. Bindi also worked as Associate Director in Interregnum; as BizDev Manager at Trayport, a commodities trading technology start-up; as Strategy Mgmt Consultant at PwC Consulting; and Senior Business Analyst at Datamonitor.

In late 2015, Bindi was named Asian Women of the Year at the UK Asian Achievers Awards. In 2014, London Evening Standard named Bindi as part of the Silicon 60 and Top 1000 Influential Londoners, and GQ Magazine named her in Britain’s 100 Most Influential Women List. In 2013, The Guardian named her as one of the Ten Women in Tech to meet; Tech City News named her as one of the 25 faces behind the success of Europe’s fastest growing Tech Cluster. Bindi has been on the Wired UK Top 100 Digital Power Broker list from 2010 - 2012, on 2012 Girls in Tech Euro 100 Women's list, one of the Six Most Connected Women in the UK (IoD) in 2011. She is a regular speaker and judge at Technology Events across Europe.

Bindi was born in the UK, raised in Canada, her entire family is from Kenya, but the lure of Europe bought her back and kept her there!