
Mark Advani
Investment team
“I feel blessed to have a job that allows me to indulge my passion.”
I head up one of the Funds at Livingbridge.
Looking back over 23 years, the investments have been fascinating but the fun has been about the people I have worked with. Many of the managers and founders of our investee companies have become multi-millionaires and many are now faced with the problem of where to park the yacht. Yacht envy is not an issue for me and I am proud to count a number of ex-investees as personal friends.
It’s hard to pick a favourite investment but I think I learned most from our time with Wiggle. It was an early mover into e-commerce and had an opportunity to turn the cycle retail industry on its head. Over five years we worked with a terrific founder, then professional team, to make what we could of a great market opportunity, and the business grew almost tenfold. What Wiggle was doing was really novel so we were at the bleeding edge of cross border e-commerce for many years.
I grew up in Newcastle and read economics at Nottingham. I’ve been with Livingbridge since 1999, following a secondment some years earlier. My career is probably more engaging presented on a map than in a biography – I’ve spent spells working in all of London, Birmingham, Manchester, New York, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Boston. Entrepreneurs seem to be wired up the same everywhere.
Outside of work I enjoy running, hiking, and skiing. I love travelling but don’t much like hotels so ‘invested’ in a campervan last year – I love it but break something new every trip.