Rishi Khosla OBE

Rishi Khosla is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and investor. He is the CEO and co-founder of leading financial technology company,OakNorth, which is focused on helping SMEs scale.

This vision led Rishi to build his first business,Copal Partners(which later became Copal Amba) in 2002 with his business partner, Joel Perlman. Together, they grew the business to 3,000 employees across 11 markets, beforeselling it to Moody’s Corporationin 2014.

In 2015, they launched OakNorth with the aim of empowering high-growth businesses struggling to access fast, flexible finance, what OakNorth calls the ‘Missing Middle’. OakNorth developedON Credit Intelligenceto transform commercial banking, making it more granular, data-driven and forward-looking. The neobank, which began as an entrepreneurial vision, has supported the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs across the UK, and is helping tackle theUK’s housing crisisthrough supporting the development of tens of thousands of new social and affordable homes.

Rishi promotes the culture of entrepreneurship through his involvement in initiatives such as a‘Mentorpreneurship’ Programme,in partnership with the London School of Economics.

Through his family foundation,Rishi and Milan Khosla Foundation, he supports work to nurture agency, creativity, and curiosity in early childhood development that will enable people to unleash their potential later in life, as well as supporting medical research into rare diseases, and initiatives which support female empowerment.

Rishi is an early-stage investor inPaypalandIndiabulls, with other investments including About Energy (battery technology), Spiracheck (biotech), and Xometry (3D printing and manufacturing).