Boardwave

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Boardwave
Formation2022
Founder Phill Robinson
Website https://www.boardwave.org

Boardwave is a London-based impact-led organisation founded by Phill Robinson in April 2022. Boardwave was established as a community of European software entrepreneurs, Founders and CEOs to enable them to work together to accelerate their business growth and to improve the overall position of Europe as a home for global software companies. It has a launched in the UK, Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Boardwave had 2,000 members as of February 2025, [4] with 575 mentors pledging over 4500 hours of pro bono mentoring time. Boardwave’s female founder network included 350+ members across Europe. It has hosted dedicated events, such as Cash not Croissants about funding and scaling. [5]

On 10 October 2022, it held the first Boardwave dinner debate in London on the topic of Winning big against Silicon Valley, and 270 members immediately signed up as Boardwave Mentors. [6]

On 28 September 2023, Boardwave announced Jonathan McKay, Leo Apotheker and Elona Mortimer-Zhika as new board members. They join Phill Robinson, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) at Boardwave, along with Kath Easthope, as co-founder and chief operating officer (COO), and are supported by an advisory committee and team of high calibre founding patrons. [7]

In March 2024, Boardwave launched a whitepaper, authored by Phill Robinson, titled “How the UK & Europe can lead the global software industry by 2034”. [8]

Boardwave officially launched in Italy in May 2024. [9] In September 2024, Boardwave officially launched in Spain at an event with senior Spanish figures in the software industry including Alberto Torres, Senior Advisor at McKinsey and Sarah Harmon, ex-CEO at Sngular. [10]

On the 18th September 2024, Boardwave announced a partnership with You.com, a community for 1,700+ European software leaders, to adoption of AI in the European software industry. [11]

As of February 2024, Boardwave is working to address the AI skills and knowledge gap along with its partner, Mindstone. [12] [13]

In December 2024, Boardwave launched a paper alongside the BVCA and Future Governance Forum titled ’Seizing the Scale-Up Moment’. [14]

Charity

European Software Leaders; Ceos, Founders, Chairs are eligible to join at no cost. Boardwave offers them a programme of networking, debates, events, mentoring, inspiration. The organisation is pan-European, and has run events in the UK, Germany, France, Belgium & Netherlands.

Each year, profit that is surplus to Boardwave's cash flow requirements is donated to medical research at Cure Parkinsons. [15] [16] To date Boardwave has donated £250,000 to Cure Parkinson’s, and has helped raise awareness of Parkinson’s by funding the first two series of the popular "Movers & Shakers" podcast, hosted by : Rory Cellan-Jones (also a Boardwave Patron), Jeremy Paxman, Mark Mardell, Paul Mayhew-Archer, Sir Nicholas Mostyn, Gillian Stacey-Solymar. Boardwave is also promoting the launch of the paperback edition of music legend, Tony King’s book, "The Tastemaker".

Boardwave supports the Movers & Shakers podcast series which peaked at №3 in the UK podcast charts in March 2023 and is produced by Rory Cellan-Jones, Jeremy Paxman, Mark Mardell, Sir Nicholas Mostyn, Paul Mayhew Archer, and Gillian Lacey-Solymar. [17]

Background

The organisation is backed and financed by international brands, including Advent International, Apax Partners, Bain & Co, Bank of America, Blackstone, General Atlantic, Heidrick & Struggles, Index Ventures, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Bain Consulting and Rothschild & Co. As of 2023, Boardwave has 80 funding partners. [18]

List of Founding Patrons

References

  1. Macaulay, Thomas (2 March 2023). "To challenge big tech, European startups need their own Nasdaq". TNW | Ecosystems. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  2. "Creating powerful relationships that aim to transform Europe into a software superpower". Agent3 - Home. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  3. "Why Europe's 'lonely' tech entrepreneurs need help". BBC News. 3 July 2023. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  4. Staff, Entrepreneur UK (3 December 2024). "Scaling UK Software Startups Globally with Phill Robinson". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  5. Randall, Kim-Adele (3 July 2024). "The Gender Funding Gap: Understanding the Disparity for Female Founders | Authentic Achievements" . Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  6. "If Sunak wants us to be the next Silicon Valley, CEOs need a much stronger community around them". www.managementtoday.co.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  7. Boardwave. "BOARDWAVE APPOINTS ITS FIRST BOARD OF DIRECTORS, AS IT REACHES 1,000 EUROPEAN MEMBERS MILESTONE IN FIRST 18 MONTHS". www.prnewswire.co.uk. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  8. Coulter, Martin (27 March 2024). ""Exclusive: Software industry calls for more UK government support". Reuters. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  9. Upliift (4 March 2024). "Boardwave Launch Event in Milan - Upliift" . Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  10. "Pensar a lo grande o por qué Europa igualará a Silicon Valley". La Razón (in Spanish). 29 September 2024. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  11. "You.com Announces Partnership with Boardwave To Bring AI-Powered Productivity To The European Software Industry". Yahoo. 18 September 2024. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  12. Wood, Anna. "Boardwave and Mindstone partner to address AI skills and knowledge gap in software". Startups Magazine. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  13. Ferretti, Paul (29 February 2024). "To create a masterpiece: Boardwave partners with Mindstone to address the AI skills and knowledge gap in the software industry". Maddyness UK. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  14. Holloway, Charlotte (12 December 2024). "Seizing the scale-up moment". Future Governance Forum. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  15. Murray, Kirsten (17 January 2023). "European Software Industry helps fund research to cure Parkinson's". Cure Parkinson's. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  16. "Advancing Health Equity Through The CMS Innovation Center: First Year Progress And What's To Come". Forefront Group. 11 May 2023. doi:10.1377/forefront.20230509.277096 . Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  17. Cellan-Jones, Rory (18 March 2023). "Movers and Shakers - a Parkinson's podcast". Rory’s Always On Newsletter. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  18. Allen, Patricia (12 December 2022). "Supercharging European software success through community | Interview with Boardwave founder Phill Robinson". EU-Startups. Retrieved 20 July 2023.