The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order): Thomas Bussey, HSBC Strategic Innovation Investments
Thomas Bussey works for UK-listed bank HSBC’s corporate venturing unit, Strategic Innovation Investments, having joined the team shortly after it was set up about four years ago.
Oreoluwa Adeyemi, himself promoted to managing director and head, Strategic Innovation Investments, North America, since his own listing as a Rising Star last year, said: “Thomas Bussey is on the fast track, has grown tremendously as a leader and has proven to have not only the trust of his colleagues, but our portfolio founders and executives, and founders in the industry. He is highly technical, and a confident negotiator. He is a superstar.”
Bussey said: “We look to invest in technology businesses which can bring strategic value to the wider HSBC group through that equity commitment. Each member of the team has an area of focus, mine being retail banking and wealth management, but as a small team of five people we all generally muck in and work together on most investments and work with portfolio companies wherever any one of us can add value.
“It was particularly rewarding for me to lead our investment in Quantexa, which has since gone on to start fulfilling the significant potential we saw, while a number of our portfolio companies have gone on to raise new rounds led by great investors, including Vizolution, Tradeshift, Kyriba and Quantexa to name just a few. Our portfolio is up to around 20 companies now.”
Before joining Strategic Innovation Investments, Bussey spent three years at the bank advising private equity clients.
