Charlie Songhurst is a prolific technology investor and former Head of Corporate Strategy at Microsoft, having personally invested in nearly 500 companies across AI, deep tech, fintech, biotech, and quantum computing. He is Founding Partner of Katana Capital, a long-short equity hedge fund, and runs the Songhurst Group, which holds assets in various private companies.

Charlie graduated from Oxford University in 2001 with a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE), then worked as an analyst at McKinsey & Company in London before joining Microsoft in 2005. He served as General Manager and subsequently Head of Corporate Strategy at Microsoft, where he led over 80 acquisitions and played a pivotal role in Microsoft's $8.5 billion Skype acquisition and Yahoo commercial deal.

Charlie serves as Board Member at Meta Platforms and holds board positions at Invisible Technologies, Beauhurst, CodeSignal, and Infinity Constellation. His investment portfolio includes six unicorns: Rigetti Computing, Formlabs, Convoy, Tractable, Karat, and Side, with ClassPass and Grove Collaborative having already exited.

Charlie focuses on edge-of-knowledge investing in uncompetitive markets, with a sweet spot of $100K investments and an average round investment of $4 million. He is active mainly in seed, Series A, and early VC investments, with 90% of his investments spread across the US, UK, and continental Europe.

As one of the most prolific US investors in Europe, Charlie is currently an active shareholder in over 85 private UK tech companies and backed 39 new startups during 2020-2021. He was named one of the top European fintech angel investors by Sifted in 2020 and is recognized as one of the seventh most active US investors in Europe.