Chris Adelsbach
Chris is a London-based entrepreneur, fintech investor, and mentor. He is founder and Managing Partner of Outrun Ventures, a leading investor of early stage fintech companies. He is also a Venture Partner at Techstars. Previously, he helped found and led Europe's leading fintech accelerator in partnership with Techstars and Barclays Bank.
Chris spent the majority of his professional career in the United Kingdom. After graduating from Ross in 1995 and then from GE's Financial Management Program in 1997, he moved to the United Kingdom to join GE Money. At GE Money, he held a number of leadership roles before departing in 2006 to co-found Marlin Financial Group, a specialty finance business, that became one of the UK's fastest-growing privately held companies. In 2014, Chris and his co-founders sold their business to a NASDAQ listed entity and a large U.S. Private Equity group.
Subsequent to the sale, Chris has been an active private investor and advocate of entrepreneurship, focusing primarily on disruptive fintech companies. In 2022, Sifted named Chris the most active fintech angel in Europe. In 2022, Business Insider named Chris the number one seed investor in Europe and in 2018, Chris was named the Angel Investor of the Year by the UK Business Angel Association.
He is the first/early investor in a number of, now, iconic growth stage companies such as Railsr, Monese, Smart Pension, Kuda Bank, Atom Bank, Sharegain, and Marshmallow, to name a few.
Chris also serves on the board of advisors of Crowdz (""supply chain financing as a service""), Twig (""bank for the circular economy""), Quant Network (""blockchain ineroperoperability with 5 lines of code"") and Railsr ('banking as a service').
Chris has remained active with the University of Michigan since graduation. He is a member of the Ross Alumni Board of Governors, a founding board member of the University of Michigan International Alumni Board, and President of the U of M Alumni Association (U.K.). In 2020 Chris was awarded the Bert F Wertman Alumni Service Award by Michigan Ross School of Business.
Chris and his wife, Emily have three children and live just outside London where they enjoy exploring the British countryside. The whole family enjoys regular visits to Ann Arbor where they let him indulge in life back on campus!