Simone runs Unlock Her Future Prize at the Bicester Collection's parent company - Value Retail. An annual global start-up competition, the Prize identifies women social entrepreneurs of any age with an inspiring business idea that aims to deliver a positive and sustainable impact on society, as defined by the United Nations. Each year, the Prize celebrates women from a different geographical region. Following successful editions in MENA and LATAM, we will be heading to South Asia for the 2025 Edition: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan, and Nepal. 

 

Presented in partnership with Ashoka (the global authority on social impact), renowned academic institutions, and like-minded partners who wish to make a difference to promote equality and close the funding gap faced by women worldwide, the winners of the Unlock Her Future Prize each receive a grant of up to US$100,000 to launch and scale their start-up. Plus, an extensive year-long mentorship programme from global experts and access to tailored education and skills accelerators, ensuring those winners will develop a strong and sustainable business strategy.

Simone Koo Ishikawa is an angel investor and an advisor to a number of impact and fintech start-ups globally. She has broad network across angels, VCs, investment banks, asset management, family offices, private banks, institutional investors and corporates through years of experience in financial services. She advises start-ups on a number of areas including fundraising, investor management, go-to-market, partnership, scale up and marketing strategy as well as team build and culture. She works as an advisor for Accenture's client projects and advises corporates (mainly incumbent banks) on how to engage with start-ups commercially through incubator and better procurement process.

She is a frequent speaker in fintech, banking, and women’s circles in London. She also lectures at Oxford Saïd Business School Entrepreneurial project, Cambridge Judge Business School and is an Honorary Practise Fellow at Imperial College Business School. Simone is a mentor at Accenture Fintech Innovation Lab London and L Marks. She also lectures at various angel circles and accelerators for start-ups’ investment readiness across product, client traction and team. 

Prior to this, she was an operator at a Softbank-backed unicorn scale up; Director of Customer Success at OakNorth – NextGen credit platform for SME lenders globally. OakNorth was the only profitable fintech unicorn in Europe in 2019. Her job was to delight customers through product innovation and to keep them happy and engaged through consultative approach. 

Before this, she spent 16 years in asset management and investment banking trading floors at JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. She worked as an ETF Sales Strategist, Chief Operating Officer in charge of divisions with over 2000+ people and +$10bn of revenues, Head of Strategy, Structurer and Trader. She has magna cum laude Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Economics from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Her thesis covered Voting Methods using game theory and Neural Networks in financial markets. 

Simone is Korean by background, married a Japanese man from Britain and has 4 children and 1 dog.