Cassandra Jayne Harris
| Cassandra Jayne Harris | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
4 January 1982 Durban, South Africa |
| Residence | London, United Kingdom |
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Cassandra Jayne Harris (born 4 January 1982) is a British tech entrepreneur, business angel investor and founder of international venture development studio Venturespring.
Harris and Venturespring played a key role in the creation of Wileyfox, a British mobile handset that combines stylish handsets and service with CyanogenMod, a customised Android OS experience.
Harris made the Tech City Top 100 list in 2015 for her work with start-ups and has won several awards.
Harris was born in South Africa but holds a UK passport; her mother is from Wincanton, in Somerset. She moved to London after attaining a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in Computers and Marketing from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Her first start-up was the unsuccessful Atelier-To-Go. In 2012 she sold her shareholding and went on to co-found the tech education initiative, Freeformers.
Harris’s angel investments continued, first with Taylor Morris Eyewear, the British eyewear fashion brand created by her friend, Made In Chelsea celebrity Hugo Taylor, and subsequently with the world’s first ‘social petwork’, Petbu.
Harris went on to found Venturespring, an international venture development studio. Venturespring specialises in bringing global brands, investors and talented entrepreneurs together, in order to develop innovative start-ups into independent businesses. The company’s first big success came when it won the contract to become Vodafone’s first ‘co-creation partner’, a deal that enabled it to begin working with the telecommunications giant, to create new products and services, such as apps and wearable technologies. When Venturespring and Harris incubated and launched Wileyfox in 2015, it had gone from concept to launch in less than twelve months.
In 2015 Harris’s Venturespring launched a campaign backed by Mayor of London Boris Johnson and IBM. The campaign Smart City Challenge 2015 joined the increasing calls for solutions to smart city living and working. Boris Johnson said of the campaign: "I have no doubt that this competition will encourage our tech whizz-kids to use their creative nous and come forward with the solutions, to help us address these challenges and make London an even better city to live in."
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