Saul Klein

Who they are

Saul Klein is Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Phoenix Court — founded LocalGlobe in 2002 and later co-founded Zinc, a fund backing mission-driven companies targeting impact at scale.

Person

Saul read for his MA at Cambridge (1989–1992), having come through St Paul's School in London. His early operating career ran through LoveFilm — the UK DVD-rental and streaming service — before he moved into policy, serving as a member of the UK Government's Council for Science and Technology. He founded LocalGlobe in 2002 as a pre-seed and seed fund, then in April 2015 built Phoenix Court from scratch as the umbrella home for LocalGlobe alongside Latitude, Solar, and Basecamp. He has co-founded three distinct vehicles beyond that: Zinc (2017, with Paul Kirby and Ella Goldner), a fund backing mission-driven companies aiming to impact over 100 million people; and Latitude (2018), an early-growth-stage fund whose portfolio includes Accurx, Automata, Monzo, and Zego. The through-line is consistent: he builds institutions, not just portfolios — from an operator turn at LoveFilm, through government advisory work, to constructing a multi-fund group ranked first in EMEA for seed-stage company-building. He posts actively on LinkedIn about seed-stage investing, European tech, and founder support — practical, ecosystem-minded content rather than macro punditry.

Company

The most recent development at Phoenix Court is a structural one: in 2025–2026 the firm converted to a shared-ownership model, with Phoenix Court Works — the firm's charitable foundation — holding the single largest shareholder stake, and all full-time employees receiving equity, profit share, and carry. That restructure came alongside a leadership shake-up in 2025, with four senior figures departing, including General Partner Suzanne Ashman, who left to lead the UK government's Sovereign AI fund. On the investment side, Phoenix Court led the $850K Seed round of Nia in 2025 and participated in a Series B round for Heidi in 2026. The firm's portfolio across its funds includes Cleo, Faculty, Melio, Motorway, Perk, Tide, Accurx, Automata, Monzo, and Zego.

Market

Phoenix Court operates across the full venture stack — pre-seed through public markets — and is headquartered in London. Dealroom data ranked it first among approximately 4,000 active VCs in EMEA for backing seed-stage companies that went on to generate over $100M ARR and $1B in valuation, and 13th globally, making it the only non-US fund in the global top 15. Its shared-ownership structure and charitable-foundation anchor differentiate it structurally from traditional partnership-model VC firms competing for the same European deals.

Network

Saul's closest named collaborators are Paul Kirby and Ella Goldner, his co-founders at Zinc. Beyond that, the departure of Suzanne Ashman — formerly a General Partner at Phoenix Court — to lead the UK government's Sovereign AI fund signals strong institutional ties to UK public-sector technology policy.

How they likely show up

  • Long tenure at Phoenix Court (co-founded April 2015, still Executive Chair in 2026) → thinks in decade-scale institutional arcs, not fund-cycle horizons.
  • Built multiple distinct vehicles (LocalGlobe 2002, Phoenix Court 2015, Zinc 2017, Latitude 2018) alongside each other → high appetite for parallel construction; likely runs several threads at once.
  • Converted Phoenix Court to a shared-ownership model with the charitable foundation as anchor shareholder → structural thinker who uses governance as a strategic lever, not just an admin function.
  • Prior stint as a UK Government Council for Science and Technology member → comfortable operating at the policy-institution interface; will read regulatory and geopolitical dynamics as part of his investment thesis.
  • Active LinkedIn poster on seed-stage investing and EMEA tech → publicly visible, comfortable shaping the narrative, likely responds well to direct engagement on ideas he's already put in writing.
  • Moved from operator (LoveFilm) to policy advisor to fund builder → values first-hand operating experience and brings that lens to founder support.

Conversation tips

  • → Reference the Phoenix Court shared-ownership restructure — it's a deliberate institutional bet and he'll have strong views on why that model is right for a long-hold VC.
  • → Engage on the EMEA seed landscape specifically; he's built his identity around European tech and will respond to precise questions about the region rather than generic global VC talk.
  • → Ask about Zinc and mission-driven investing separately from Phoenix Court — it's a distinct vehicle with a distinct thesis, and conflating the two will signal you haven't done the work.
  • → He speaks French and German, which may be worth noting if the conversation touches on continental European portfolio companies or deal sourcing.
  • → Bring a specific portfolio company or sector view to test — he posts publicly on these topics and will engage much more readily with a concrete position than an open-ended question.

Toolbox

Openers

  • Open on the Phoenix Court shared-ownership conversion — making the charitable foundation the single largest shareholder is an unusual structural choice that inverts how most VC firms are governed, and he made it deliberately.
  • Mention LocalGlobe's founding in 2002 — he was backing seed-stage European companies before 'seed-stage European VC' was a recognised category, and that long founding arc shapes everything Phoenix Court does now.
  • Reference Zinc — co-founded with Paul Kirby and Ella Goldner to back mission-driven companies aiming to reach over 100 million people — it's a separate fund with a distinct philosophy and signals where his values sit beyond financial returns.

Discovery questions

  1. The shared-ownership restructure puts Phoenix Court Works as the single largest shareholder — how does that change the fund's time horizon or decision-making when you're weighing a follow-on versus returning capital?
  2. You've backed Accurx, Monzo, Faculty, and Cleo across different vehicles — how do you think about the boundary between LocalGlobe's pre-seed mandate and Latitude's early-growth mandate when a company is moving fast through the stages?
  3. Suzanne Ashman leaving to lead the UK government's Sovereign AI fund is a signal of how close Phoenix Court sits to UK public-sector tech policy — how much does that policy adjacency shape which sectors you're actively seeding right now?

Avoid

Don't treat Phoenix Court as a single undifferentiated fund — it runs LocalGlobe, Latitude, Solar, Basecamp, and Zinc as distinct vehicles with distinct theses, and blurring them together signals you haven't engaged with the structure.

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Sources

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Generated by briefthecall.com from public web sources on June 5, 2026. Each claim is linked to its source above.

Automatically generated by AI from public sources. May be inaccurate or out of date. Remove or correct this profile →