About us
Ballpark Ventures is a small, boutique fund investing in early stage technology
startups. Our partners are all successful entrepreneurs and at this stage,
investing our own money.
We're looking for European startups that we can help accelerate to success by applying a judicious mix of deep sector knowledge, influential personal network and a healthy dollop of been-there-done-that. Plus the knowledge that in exponential times, speed to market and speed of decision-making are crucial factors for success.
Take a look at our partners' experience
Our team
Ollie Bishop
He founded STEAK in 2005, built it into an award winning, global business and sold it to media giant Dentsu a few years later.
Russell Buckley
In 2006, he was the first employee of mobile ad network, AdMob, which was sold to Google for $750m a few years later.
Harry Dewhirst
Harry is the young one with the beard. He founded and sold RingRing to Amobee in 2008, which he then sold to SingTel in 2012 for $320 million.
Charles Canning-Smith
Based in Australia these days, having launched mobile startups in LATAM, New Zealand, South Africa, Scandinavia and the UK.
Jeffrey Cooper
Jeffrey is our money man and a founding partner of Cooper Murray. He specialises in the retail space and has been FD for some well known names.
Eric Newnham
Eric built up and sold one of the world’s largest Out of Home media specialists (billing €4.4 Billion).
Investment criteria
Our investment criteria are very simple. We ask "Can we add significant incremental value to this venture?".
Given the wealth of our experience in sectors like mobile, retail and media, these tend to be our sweet spots.
Find out more