About the event
An exclusive evening for Founders, Senior Leaders & Investors
To mark the release of this year’s Capsule Scale‑Up 50, we brought together more than 170 founders, investors and senior operators in London to celebrate the companies and the people shaping the UK’s most compelling scale‑up stories.
Following the publication of the 2026 cohort, the evening centred on a candid conversation about Scaling in the Age of AI: what it really takes to build strong teams, deploy capital effectively and separate the tools that drive real progress from those that don’t.
If you joined us on the night, or are catching up now, explore the key moments below.
The panel
Moderated by Seb Johnson from Scaling Europe, the panel brought fresh, honest perspectives from across the scale-up journey, from first-time product-market fit to Series C and beyond. They went over hiring, fundraising, operational discipline, and what it’s really like leading through genuine growth in the industry.
Seb Johnson
Seb Johnson founded Scaling Europe to tell the stories that matter in European tech. Through his podcast, newsletters and content, he's built one of the most engaged audiences in the ecosystem and interviewed many of the founders and investors in the room.
Christian Owens
Serial entrepreneur and Thiel Fellow. Built Paddle into a global SaaS payments leader valued at $1.4B, then launched FinTech, Clove in 2025.
Bethany Ayers
Bethany has built and scaled go-to-market engines at companies including Peak AI, NewVoiceMedia and Codility.
Franky Athill
Sanjay Bowry
15+ years in high-growth tech. The kind of CFO who builds businesses, not just manages them - with $200m+ raised and US/EU expansion under his belt.
Event highlights
In partnership with
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Capsule Events
The UK scale-up scene is a thriving space of innovation, knowledge and community. That's why at Capsule, we love to bring together people from across the industry for a wide range of events, dinners and networking opportunities.
What's coming up?
Keep up to date with all of the events we have coming up on our events page!
Contact us
Take your next step.
If you’re interested in how we can help or just want to introduce yourself, get in touch. We’re always happy to talk. Alternatively you can book a meeting with one of the team using the Capsule Calendar.