PEOPLE

NICK CRASNER – FOUNDER & CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER

Mr. Crasner is Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Crasner Ventures. He is responsible for deal origination as well as the strategic direction of the platform.

Above all, Mr. Crasner is a passionate and longstanding advocate for gender equality, and for diversity and inclusion.

He has quietly and consistently championed DE&I across his main businesses – Crasner Capital, an investment bank and Crasner Consulting, a pre-eminent retained search and management consulting firm – over the past decade. He has also dedicated over 400 hours a year, every year, to charitable initiatives and mentoring, over the same period.

In addition to his successful career as an investment banker, consultant and entrepreneur, Mr. Crasner, has a successful venture capital track record, achieving  significant return on investments that he has made, to date – including a 30x multiple on his inaugural investment via Crasner Ventures in 2016.

Mr. Crasner is widely published on venture capital and angel investing and has been called a “pioneer of DE&I led investing in early-stage businesses”. He has spoken at many industry events, including, but not limited to:

London Business School Africa Day 2019, where he spoke on Entrepreneurship (with a particular focus on Emerging Markets investing ecosystems and the role of strong governance and DE&I in business in Emerging Markets), and the 2021 Accelerating Investment in Start Ups and SMEs Conference, where he moderated an insightful all female founder panel on innovation and investment across the tech start-ups ecosystem.