Award Winners
Winners of the Awards were announced on 2 November 2011 in London, UK.
Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner 2011
Wonga solves urgent cash flow problems with a short-term solution. We offer UK consumers small loans in fast and convenient way. We have developed the only automated loan processing platform and consumers can apply 24/7. We are passionate about responsible lending; based on transparency, flexibility and our sophisticated decision technology.
Errol, 39, is a global entrepreneur and seasoned executive who loves building innovative businesses with inspirational people. In July 2008 he was named Credit Suisse Entrepreneur of the Year at the South East finals of the UK National Business Awards. He is the Founder and CEO of Wonga, a ground-breaking online lender backed by Balderton Capital. Prior to founding Wonga, he successfully built two other multi-million-dollar businesses; on different continents and in completely different markets. He was Founder and CEO of Supply Chain Connect Ltd, which he developed to become one of the world's leading providers of hosted supply chain collaboration solutions. With offices in the UK and US, the company serviced over 250 blue chip customers - including General Cable, Pirelli, Dow Chemical and DuPont - and was acquired by ChemConnect in 2005. Errol's first start-up experience was in Israel where, in 1997, he was part of the founding team at Barzelan Ltd. The business rapidly grew to over 100 employees and became a global leader in advanced steel wire production. Wonga is undoubtedly Errol's most ambitious project yet. The company is revolutionising the UK's huge consumer credit market by enabling people to manage their cash flow without the need for a long-term credit card dependency. Leveraging purpose-built, real-time risk and decisioning technology, Wonga became operational in 2007 and now provides short-term cash advances to thousands of customers every month - with unparalleled speed, convenience and flexibility. The company is committed to responsible lending and is a member of the FLA. Errol grew up in South Africa, before spending eight years in Israel. Following graduation from business school, he became an investment banker and, while helping entrepreneurs turn their dreams into reality, was inspired to switch roles and become the innovator. Errol lives in London and enjoys an active lifestyle in his limited free time, including marathon running, mountain biking, sea kayaking and skiing.
Schroders Innovation Award Winner 2011
SoundCloud is a platform built for the creators of sound content. Much like flickr does for photographers, SoundCloud provides a community for creators and excellent tools for them to collaborate and share their audio across the web, desktop applications and mobile devices.
Alexander Ljung is CEO and founder of SoundCloud, the leading social sound platform that enables anyone, anywhere to create and share their sounds on the web. Since its inception in 2008, Alexander has been responsible for all aspects of the site's strategic vision and business development. Under his leadership, SoundCloud has quickly gained a reputation for being one of the best platforms available for audio creators to share, broadcast, track and promote their sounds. Prior to SoundCloud, Alexander worked in sound design for feature films; co-authored a book on online sociology; co-founded a consultancy network and kept the dream of one day writing the perfect song alive. He also has a M.Sc. degree from The Royal Institute of Technology. Alexander was born in the UK, grew up in Sweden and the Middle East and now splits his time between Berlin, Germany and San Francisco, US.
