About Ed:

​Edward Keelan is a Partner at the venture capital firm Octopus Ventures. At Octopus, Edward leads a £500m venture capital fund focused on high-growth software companies. His responsibilities include team management, overseeing new investment activity and representing Octopus Ventures on various boards. He is also an occasional angel investor.

​His career has seen him invest into a multitude of sectors from international sports teams to renewable energy. His career started in San Francisco at the British American Chamber of Commerce, before joining Rolls Royce, the startup KorteQ and finally joining Octopus Group in 2008.

​Criteria:

​- B2B software (including SaaS and Enterprise AI)

​- Companies with PMF (usually £0.5m+ ARR)

​- Companies with UK operations.

​- Cheques of between £2-20m.

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​Outside of his work at Octopus, he has a passion for entrepreneurship. He is a regular speaker at Said Business School, Oxford University, on topics surrounding early-stage investment and business strategy. As well as mentoring various small businesses through fundraising and strategic decision making.

​He has been an advocate for social mobility, participating in several mentoring programs, running the highly successful Octopus Ventures work experience week, and was awarded Career Ready mentor of the year in 2020.

​In 2020, was awarded a distinction in his Executive MBA from Said Business School. Following his graduation he decided to share a blog called “The Dyslexic Investor” mapping his journey from the remedial huts at school to Oxford University graduate. Since writing the blog he has regularly spoken and blogged on dyslexic thinking, and in 2024 he was featured in Jamie Waller’s book “The Dyslexic Edge”.

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​About InvestorHours:

​InvestorHours are exclusively for Level39 members. These form part of the weekly curriculum offered to our 180 technology businesses who call Level39 home. For more information, email the team on members@level39.co