Vinay Solanki

Vinay Solanki is Head of Commercial Growth Fund at Channel 4, the “media for equity” division of the UK broadcaster.

The “media for equity” is an alternative way for earlier stage companies to access prime media advertising inventory for small equity stakes, instead of cash.  This alleviates a pain point in the advertising ecosystem; TV advertising is prohibitively expensive and difficult to understand too.  Since launch in 2015, Channel 4 has completed over 10 investments in consumer digital companies, including Eve Sleep plc, Readly and Job Today, investing directly alongside VCs such as Octopus Ventures & Accel Partners amongst many others.

Vinay has 15+ years’ experience working in M&A, strategy or investments, mostly in media related businesses including Getty Images, the largest photo business in the world, and Liberty Global, the largest cable operator in Europe.  Vinay holds degrees in UCL and Imperial College London.