Ezechi (or as his friends know him, Ez) has been announced as one of Springs first transitional board members, bringing with him a wealth of knowledge in venture, tech and data. He is a tech founder with over 15 years experience in FinTech. Ez’s journey has taken him from Software Developer to Co-Founder and CTO to Venture Capital. He has also just been listed on the New Year’s honours list for 2022 to receive an MBE for services to diversity and young people.
He is currently a Founding Member, Principal and CTO in Residence at Impact X Capital Partners LLP a venture fund focused on supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs. He is also the Co-Founder of Code Untapped, a digital skills accelerator that helps companies find innovative product solutions by giving them access to diverse and underrepresented technologists through their innovation labs events.
He is a former Co-Founder of Neyber a multi-award-winning Fintech firm focused on financial wellbeing, where he was the founding CTO and held numerous roles during his tenure including brand ambassador and NED
Ez also advises a number of boards. He is currently an advisor to the board of UKITL (UK IT Leaders Network) and Albany Group. Ez is also a strategic board advisor for Venture Studio from Crisis who invest in, support and create ventures to end homelessness.
We took the opportunity to have a virtual tea with him and find out in more detail about him, his various roles and his hopes and ambitions for Spring.
Welcome to the Spring board! How did you find yourself here?
Hi there, through my work with Code Untapped and the Disruptive Innovators Network I was introduced to Nigel Watson (Northumbrian Water CIO). We originally talked about collaborating on a Leeds digital festival event and would have intermittent catch ups to discuss various challenges in the innovation space and how we could possibly support the Open Data bid. Eventually Nigel invited me to join the Spring steering committee.
What has been the most exciting project or role you’ve worked on to date?
That’s a hard question to answer! I’ve been involved in so many projects ranging from building risk and pricing systems during my investment banking tech career, to building a multi award winning startup at Neyber, to helping give underrepresented technologists a voice through my digital skills accelerator Code Untapped. But I would say my work at Impact X is the most rewarding to date, as a VC I’ve been able to get insights into so many different business models and work with many world class founders. Every day brings something new!
What aspects of your previous or current roles do you think will help on this board?
As a former fintech founder and a VC I bring a lot of knowledge and experience when it comes to harnessing innovation. I speak to literally hundreds of startups a year at different levels of maturity which gives me some significant insights into what works and what doesn’t when building startups.
What interests you about Spring?
Innovation is the space that I operate in and Spring is literally here to enable innovation in the water sector. We have seen major change and disruptive innovations in so many other sectors yet water a product we all need access to has seen relatively little. I’m hoping Spring can help change that.
What do you think the water industry can learn from other sectors?
The need for collaboration and that change can come from all sorts of places. The water sector is historically a place with very little diversity and group think is a problem. I think other other sectors especially the Fintech sector have demonstrated what can happen when you think outside the box.
Lastly, what did you want to be when you were younger?
Originally a vet because I loved animals, but then a video games designer. Whilst that didn’t happen, maybe one day I will invest in a video games company 🙂
You can find him here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ezechi-britton-452a893/
https://twitter.com/ezechibritton
