Nationality British Name Simon Murdoch | Role Venture capitalist | |
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Occupation Venture capitalist and investor, partner at Episode 1 Ventures | ||
Alma mater University of Cambridge | ||
Simon Thomas Murdoch (born June 1961) is a British entrepreneur, engineer and managing partner at Episode 1 Ventures, a venture capital firm he co-founded with Adrian Lloyd and Damien Lane in October 2013.
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Early life
Simon Thomas Murdoch was born in June 1961 in Dorchester, England although spent most of his childhood in Leeds. Educated at Froebelian School in Horsforth and then Bradford Grammar School from 1972-1978, Murdoch won a scholarship to Trinity College, at the University of Cambridge and studied Natural Sciences (Physics) from 1979-1982. Before and after Cambridge, he worked at GEC Marconi in Chelmsford, then from 1983-1986 studied a PhD in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) at Brunel University London.
Career
In 1987 Murdoch joined Triptych Systems, then an independent software company. He began as a Project Manager, within three years became Managing Director and focused the company on developing systems for bookshops in EPoS, stock control and customer ordering. This background led him to founding and launching online bookseller Bookpages.co.uk in 1996. In 1998 he sold the business to Amazon and then as VP Europe at Amazon, he launched Amazon.co.uk. In 2000, he left Amazon to become a professional investor and was an early backer of Betfair, LoveFilm, ScanSafe, Shazam and Zoopla. In May 2010 he joined Octopus Investments as a senior investment partner.
He co-founded Episode 1 Ventures with Adrian Lloyd and Damien Lane in October 2013. It was created with a mixture of public and private money. It is one of the UK Government's Enterprise Capital Funds – set up to support fund managers who invest in small, high-growth businesses. The £12.5 million of private investment was matched with £25 million of public money.
In 2015, Murdoch announced a £1.5m investment in eMoov, which is owned by former Dragons' Den star James Caan.