John Lewis has revealed its list of mentors for its JLab technology incubator which hopes to find the next big thing in retail technology.
The winner of JLab will receive up to £100,000 investment and a chance to supply John Lewis.
The founder of confused.com Sara Murray OBE will join tech entrepreneur Stuart Marks and various investors to advise and judge entrants. The panel will also be joined by a team of John Lewis leaders who will provide further guidance.
Paul Coby, IT Director at John Lewis, said: “The mentors represent some of the UK‘s finest entrepreneurial minds, and we‘re delighted to welcome them to JLab. Working alongside John Lewis, they‘ll advise each JLab finalist during the development process helping to tune them to the needs of retailers and providing invaluable insight into making their ideas a success.”
Stuart Marks, technology entrepreneur, said: “I believe a fundamental part of JLab‘s success will be down to the quality of mentoring that the companies receive, both from this external team and the John Lewis mentors.”
The news comes as John Lewis opened its first store of 2014 in York last week.
See the full list below:
Luke Johnson, Chairman of Risk Capital Partners
Sara Murray OBE, founder of confused.com and Buddi
Graham Clempson, Managing Partner of Quartic Capital
Dr. Stephanie Hussels, Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at Cranfield University
George Berkowski, Entrepreneur, author of ‘How to Build a Billion Dollar App‘ and former Head of Product at HAILO
Bindi Karia, Vice President Entrepreneur banking at Silicon Valley Bank
Shaa Wasmund, Technology Entrepreneur and Founder of Smarta
Paul Coby, IT Director at John Lewis
Andrew Murphy, Retail Director at John Lewis
Simon Russell, Director, Retail Operations at John Lewis
Peter Cross, Communications Director at John Lewis
Craig Inglis, Marketing Director at John Lewis.
