We founded Takumi in early 2015 with the belief that influencer marketing should be about real people, unique voices and creativity; enabled by an efficient marketplace.
Takumi is maximising opportunities for creators and giving brands access to the best creative talent on Instagram
Instagram shapes tastes and sparks trends, and as such is seen by us as today’s cultural engine. We let the people who master this medium collaborate with the right brands on the right terms. The results have real business impact for the world’s biggest brands. There are a tonne of ways to do things the wrong way in influencer marketing. We are advocating for the right way. We believe the best influencers should be compensated for authentic brand collaborations, and that brands should have access to a quality influencer platform where they don’t need to worry about influencer vetting and quality.
Our platform stands for first class campaign support, efficient payments processing and collaborations where influencer creativity and the creator’s voice is allowed to shine through. Takumi has vibrant offices in New York, London and Berlin. This means we’re not always in the same building, but we’re closer to the influencers and clients. We’re good at using tools like Slack and we get a chance to travel to see each other’s faces.
If you want to join us, you should know we recognize and value...
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Unique voices and accents
we’re from all over the world with Nordic roots
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Culture vultures
if you ‘get’ Instagram you’ll love our team and process
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People that make difficult conversations easy
because difficult conversations tend to be important
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Balanced productivity
our developers understand tradeoffs between premature optimization and duct taping a solution in two weeks
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Working hard and going home
maybe it’s our Nordic roots, but a work life balance and work flexibility are highly valued at Takumi
Founders
Mats Stigzelius
Co-founder & Executive Chairman
Solberg Audunsson
Co-founder
Gummi Eggertsson
Co-founder & CFO
Board
Mary Keane-Dawson
Board Member
Mary is a digital expert, entrepreneur and business mentor. She has held c-suite roles at WPP, Steak, Reform and Collective, she co-founded medical technology startup MyHealthPal as well as the women's networking franchise How She Made It. She is a Global Ambassador for the British Interactive Media Association, on the Board of London Tech Advocates and sits on the advisory board for the Internet Commission.
Sarah Speake
Board Member
Sarah is an energetic, results-driven former Global CMO Executive and International Sales Director with 25 years’ experience spanning the media and marketing ecosystem. Renowned for successfully implementing business, Sarah established Speake Up Consulting to help businesses align their Board, Business and Brand. She is a regular speaker and roundtable host for Digital Disruption & Unicorn CMO discussions, capitalising on her expertise built at brands such as Google, ITV & Clear Channel.
Rob Forshaw
Board Member
Rob has over 25 years agency experience working in brand and digital communications for some of the world's leading brands. He started his career working for Saatchi & Saatchi, M&C Saatchi and Wieden and Kennedy and then went on to co-found the digital communication agency Grand Union, which was acquired by FullSIX in 2010. Rob is a board advisor to a number of high growth businesses in the UK and USA.
Dominic Perks
Board Member
Dominic is the co-founder and CEO of venture firm Hambro Perks. He has been involved in backing and building over 40 technology companies including Echo (exited to McKesson), Laundrapp, Muzmatch and What3words. Dominic was part of the founding team at Takumi and continues to serve as a NED. Prior to his entrepreneurial adventures, Dominic was a Strategy Consultant at McKinsey & Co and an Investment Banker at Morgan Stanley. He graduated from Oxford University with a First Class Degree in English Literature.
Management
Adam “Sven” Williams
CEO
Sven spent over 6 years with Spotify and lead the UK, Ireland and Benelux teams through a period of rapid user and revenue growth. He then joined Verve as an acting International CRO launching his own startup. In 2018 Sven joined Takumi as CRO and in early 2019 he was promoted to the CEO role.
Carla Faria
CRO
Carla has been operating in the media and content world for more than 20 years and has launched, shaped and grown teams in diverse businesses, ranging from publishing behemoths like TI Media to tech media businesses like Say Media (now Maven). She has led award-winning teams, who have won AOP, Campaign and Revolution awards for their work across multiple sectors.
Emily Young
Head of Sales, UK
Emily has over 11 years’ media experience having worked for Mediaforce, Channel 5 and Yahoo before deciding to specialise in the rapidly developing space of Influencer Marketing. Having joined Takumi in 2017, Emily heads up the UK Sales team and is responsible for driving revenue and developing the Takumi offering to ensure they remain the market-leading Instagram influencer platform
Tara Naipaul
Acting head of Sales, UK
Tara has over 12 years’ experience working at London media agencies where she worked on a number of high-profile clients across fashion, beauty, retail, FMCG and travel. Her experience spans across finding ways to commercialise new revenue streams and delight clients with new and exciting market innovations that win awards for great work.
Chris Jungjohann
Head of Sales, Germany
Chris has many years of experience in business management and marketing. Before his time at Takumi, he co-founded the marketing agency "The Brand Creators", which was one of the first agencies in Germany to operate Instagram Marketing for brands in the luxury and lifestyle segment. As Head of Sales - Germany, Chris is responsible for establishing and expanding relationships with brands and agencies in the German-speaking market.
Axel Örn Sigurðsson
Technical Director
Axel is a Technical Director with a software development background. He joined Takumi in 2015 and has since been a great addition to Reykjavik, Berlin and London office families. This allowed him to grow with Takumi's products since its launch and helps to look after the product vision, development and influencer as well as client experience.
Stephanie Chaplin
Global head of Campaigns
Steph joined Takumi as an intern in 2015. Steph has been part of the core team in growing the platform from the start and has grown in the company to head up the UK Campaign team, and now Global Head of Campaigns. Steph is responsible for ensuring Takumi campaigns in all markets are executed to a high standard, and making sure Takumi provides the best influencer experience possible.
Annie Fong
Head of Marketing
Annie has over 10 years’ brand communications experience, working agency-side in London and Sydney. Influencer marketing has always been an integral part of Annie’s workstream, she made the move into the space and joined Takumi in 2018. Annie heads up the marketing across Takumi’s key markets. She is responsible for driving meaningful conversations on influencer marketing and positioning Takumi as a key voice in the industry.
Victoria Wood
HR Director
Victoria is an experienced HR generalist and recruiter. With over 10 years working within hospitality, Victoria took her first move into start ups with Takumi in 2017 and has not looked back. Victoria oversees the HR and Recruitment function across the globe for Takumi, she finds and nurtures our talent and ensures that Takumi is an employer of choice in the industry.
Paul Legras
finance director
After completing a Master’s Degree in Finance, Paul spent 4 years in investment management in Paris and Hong Kong. Now based in London, he joined Takumi in 2017 as a Financial Controller and was promoted to the Finance Director role in 2018. Paul is a CFA charterholder.