Jonathan Keeling

I saw that I crossed 15,000 followers on LinkedIn the other day. Given how many people are starting their careers this month, I thought I would put together a timeline of my journey to date. It is never a straight line, so please share this with someone who may need a little inspiration this week! 1 - I started my career at EY in Corporate Finance. It was work hard, play hard. And while I did well there, I knew it wasn't for me long-term. So I took the brave decision to leave my safe corporate job and pursue my startup dreams. 2 - I started Pouch with a friend from school Ben Corrigan and an amazing developer Vikram Simha that we'd been introduced to. We got into an accelerator program, which really pushed the business forward. 3 - We did things that didn't scale at first, like trade shows. Anything to just get the business out there. 4, 5 - Pouch got a lot of press, both in the startup publications and mainstream media. This eventually led us to going on Dragon's Den. We got five offers, the third time in the show's 15-year history. 6 - Building the business was fun but a grind. I don't have any photos from this time because it was incredibly stressful, but we had an investment opportunity with News UK that collapsed on the day of signing. We thought the business was going to fail, but three months later, we'd had an offer from a company in Germany to buy the whole business. And of course, we accepted. 7 - I loved working for Atolls. It was one of the happiest times of my life. I learned so much, earned well, and got to travel for work for the first time. 8 - Then COVID happened. Fortunately, as I worked in e-commerce, my job wasn't affected. In fact, we were doing better than ever, and I was lucky that I could work remotely. 9 - After three years, I knew it was time for me to have another go. I had all the confidence that I could make a success of myself again, and I just needed to find the right opportunity. 10 - I reconnected with Adam Knight and James Campbell 甘吉, whom I had met at a conference years earlier. We conceptualized YASO to help Western brands scale in China on the new social commerce channels. 11 - In 2022, I quit my job and started fundraising for YASO. It was one of the hardest years of my life. Fundraising was really difficult, with loads of ups and downs. It was a real struggle. 12 - Eventually everything clicked, and in late 2022, we raised £2m from Playfair and others. 13, 14, 15 - From there, we continued to grow over multiple trips to China, expanding the team and the business. 16 - In 2025, we started raising for a Series A round. It was difficult, but with a fast-growing business & all the experience I gained over the last 10 years, we managed to raise over $11 million in venture funding led by Puma Growth Partners 17, 18 - Now, in 2026, I am working harder than ever! But grateful for the work I get to do every day and the people I do it with!

BREAKING: Monzo is in discussions to get acquired by Nubank for £8-10bn! This is big news. Discussions are still early but this would be amazing news for early investors, employees and crowdfunders. If it does get acquired it would be the latest UK tech scaleup to get acquired by a large foreign company, however without functional capital markets here there seems to be no alternative. It would also give Nubank a very strong foothold in Revolut’s home market. The company is also exploring an additional fundraise at an £8bn+ valuation instead of being acquired. Monzo has long been one of the UKs most loved tech companies. It’s great to see it continue to thrive. VERY exciting - we will see what happens 👀 Interested in European tech? Sign up to my newsletter to make sure you don't miss anything: https://lnkd.in/eH5_y5aq

Created the LEAP 2026 soundtrack in the morning. By the evening I was closing the Mainstage with the one and only Daniel Bedingfield singing it LIVE Is this where creativity is going? Daniel “Hooks” Bedingfield LEAP Informa Tahaluf #leap #keynote #music #ai #ksa

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ♥️ Cymru, dyma ni! Proud to have built Sync Savings in Wales (thanks to the talents of Sam Rogers and team!) and now we've made it official by moving our HQ to West Bute House, Cardiff! Come and see us soon! Thank you to our friends at FinTech Wales Sarah Williams-Gardener OBE Sarah Jones Lee Phillips MBE Development Bank of Wales Mentra Ventures iungoworks Michelle Sutton ChMCIPPdip, FHEA 🟡🔴/🟢🔵 and many others for the warm welcome!

Why wellbeing is integral to financial planning. First Wealth | Certified B Corp founder and managing director Anthony Villis joins Professional Adviser news editor Isabel Baxter to discuss the importance of considering wellbeing within the financial planning process. Check out Isabel Baxter's latest article 👇 https://incm.pub/4jn3uf9 #financialadviser #investment #investmentmanagement #finance

It’s a real privilege to be advising HenrieUK, a startup with an ambitious vision: to become the operating system for the UK home energy transition — the trusted intelligence layer that helps homeowners, installers, energy suppliers and lenders plan and deliver the upgrade of 29 million homes. Henrie’s founder, Stephane Lee-Favier, is a serial entrepreneur I first had the pleasure of collaborating with back in 2019 on the pioneering “Maximising Grid Services from EVs” innovation project between ev.energy and GenGame Ltd, a previous business he successfully exited. It’s exciting to reconnect and see the ambition he is now bringing to one of the UK’s biggest decarbonisation challenges. The quarterly board advisory meetings are far more than just a nice lunch. Stephane has brought together an impressive group of advisors and investors with a breadth of experience and perspectives that I learn a great deal from simply by being in the room. The quality of discussion, constructive challenge and shared commitment to helping the business succeed make it a particularly rewarding group to be part of. Having experienced a startup journey from Seed to Series B, I have enormous respect for founders. I appreciate the courage it takes to invite others to constructively challenge something you are so financially and emotionally invested in. I’m also conscious of the difference between offering “have you thought about…” advice and the nitty-gritty execution required to turn strategy into market traction. My hope is to contribute practical experience, useful connections and a different perspective, while continuing to learn from Stephane and the wider team. HenrieUK is already backed by Haatch and a number of experienced angel investors, and the team is beginning to explore a Seed round over the next 3–6 months. If you’re an investor interested in the home energy transition, or know a fund that could be a strong fit for Henrie’s ambitions, I’d encourage you to reach out to Stephane for an introductory conversation. ------- Please note: This advisory role is undertaken in a personal capacity and is separate from my work at EY.

Just wrapped filming at Oxford’s Saïd Business School where we captured two milestones for Caplia on 🎥. First, the announcement for Phronel, our sovereign, private intelligence model for early-stage company decision-making. Built on research and frameworks developed with Professor Thomas Hellmann and his researchers at Oxford Saïd, it felt fitting to tell that story from where the work began. Second, we’re expanding Caplia’s rollout to another Oxford programme, Oxford Stage, with Ahmed Adel Saad. It's always a pleasure introducing Caplia to new innovators and their programme owners - both of which are defining the future. We’ve just opened our Seed round. DM me if you want to hear more about what we’re building at Caplia. Paul Dodd Daniel Hafezi Richie Smith

I was wrong about AI. I’ve got my chat GPT to scan every email in my inbox at 8am each day and if it detects it’s written by AI… If it detects it, it goes straight into my junk. AI saving me from AI. The irony