Rishi Khosla


Rishi Khosla is a British-Indian serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of OakNorth Bank, a fintech firm focused on enabling entrepreneurs worldwide to access customised mid-sized loans.

Education

Khosla was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from University College London, and a Masters in Accounting & Finance from the London School of Economics, where he was awarded a scholarship by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Career

After leaving the LSE, he started his career in banking at ABN Amro, before joining GE Capital’s London-based business development group in 1999. Here he focused on mergers and acquisitions. During his tenure, he established an early stage tech venture fund for GE Capital, which he co-managed. He subsequently joined the family office of steel baron Lakshmi Mittal, the current president and CEO of ArcelorMittal, to manage their venture capital and private equity investments.
Khosla was one of the co-founders of Copal Amba along with his LSE classmate Joel Perlman. Copal Amba was an outsourced research company for investment banks, which was acquired by Moody's Corporation in 2014. In mid-2008, Copal Amba was ranked the Number One Investment Research and Analytics KPO in Brown and Wilson Group's annual 'Black Book of Outsourcing 2008'.
Khosla and Perlman have since founded OakNorth Holdings, a fintech firm focused on unlocking the potential in bespoke SME lending globally using its data and technology platform, OakNorth.
OakNorth Holdings has attracted over $1bn from several investors, including: Clermont Group, Coltrane, EDBI of Singapore, GIC, Indiabulls, NIBC, Toscafund, and SoftBank Vision Fund. In its most recent round in February 2019 led by SoftBank Vision Fund, it was valued at $2.8bn.

Awards, honours and recognition

Khosla was one of the recipients of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2011.
Khosla was named on the 2018 Maserati 100 - a list dedicated to celebrating the positive impact entrepreneurs have on the British economy and society as a whole. The list is compiled in partnership with The Sunday Times and recognises 100 game-changing entrepreneurs who are true innovators in the business world.
Khosla was named as "Business Person of the Year" at the 2018 Asian Achievers Awards.
He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to business.