London-based Eric Collins is a serial entrepreneur, investor, technology executive and host of Channel 4 business show, The Money Maker, which sees him offer both his expertise and capital investment to British businesses, all hoping to turnaround their fortunes and secure their future. The format is based on the highly successful US show The Profit on CNBC.

September 2022 sees the publication of Eric’s debut book We Don’t Need Permission.: How Black Business Can Change Our World, published by Transworld, a division of Penguin Random House. In the book Eric argues that investing in Black and underrepresented entrepreneurs is the surest, fastest socio-economic game changer there is.

Eric has spent much of his career building the value of digital companies through innovative strategies at public and private companies including AOL, TimeWarner, Tegic/Nuance Communications, MobilePosse, SwiftKey/Microsoft, and Touch Surgery, where he was COO.

In 2018, he was part of a prominent group of black European and US serial entrepreneurs, institutional investors, investment bankers, corporate leaders and entertainers to found Impact X Capital Partners.

The company is a double bottom-line venture capital firm that invests in under-represented innovators in Europe, focusing on growth stage companies in three distinct sectors: digital and technology, health, education and lifestyle; and media and entertainment.

Eric, who holds degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, is also a sought-after board member and advisor in the technology space. He sits on the board of companies in San Francisco and London, including Tech Nation, acts as an advisor to companies in the US, India and the UK and supports several civic activities. In London, he serves on the board of Autograph ABP and Southwark Cathedral’s Council. In the US, he was formerly a board member of Washington Performing Arts.

President Obama appointed Eric to the Small Business Administration’s Council on Underserved Communities and as an evaluator for White House Fellow applicants.

Eric also donates time and resources to many other contemporary causes, including the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of African-American History and Culture; The National Museum of African Art; Toronto’s Power Plant Gallery; and Philomena’s Chorus, a programme that helps under-represented voices, especially young, black British women, produce films.

In November 2018, The Financial Times named him among the UK’s top 100 BAME leaders in technology. In 2019 and 2020 he was voted one of the most influential black people in Britain on The Powerlist.

Eric is an in-demand speaker whose opinions have appeared in the Financial Times, The Times, CNN, Dow Jones, Bloomberg, BBC TV, BBC Radio 4, and several national and local radio stations and podcasts.