Career Path

After graduating with a BA from the University of Michigan in 1995, Adelsbach held various marketing, finance, and operational leadership roles within GE Capital. Having relocated to London, Adelsbach co-founded Marlin Financial Group in 2002, and after it exited to NASDAQ-listed Encore Capital in 2014 for GBP 295 million, he made the transition from entrepreneur to venture investor.

In 2015, Adelsbach became Managing Director of the Barclays Accelerator powered by Techstars where he ran Europe’s leading fintech accelerator. In 2019, he co-founded Outrun Ventures, a specialist fintech venture fund which invests in seed and Series A startups in the UK and Europe. He remains with Techstars as a Venture Partner and enjoys mentoring early-stage mission-driven fintech companies.

Notable Investments

Adelsbach was a first/early investor in Railsbank, Atom Bank, Kuda Bank, Quant Network, Marshmallow, Cuvva, and Smart Pension. His portfolio also includes Monese, Shieldpay, Kompany, Cutover, Cledara, Everledger, Datamaran, and Sharegain.

His private portfolio of 125 companies have had more than GBP 1.2 billion of follow-on investment and the 50 investments he made as Techstars MD are worth eight times more than when he backed them.

Chris Adelsbach in the News

Marlin Financial Group was included in the UK’s Sunday Times Fast Track 100 every year from 2010 to 2013, as one of the top 100 fastest growing privately held companies in the UK. Adelsbach was named world’s most active fintech angel by Fintech Global in 2017 and UKBAA Angel Investor of the year 2018/19. He was also included on Sifted’s list of top European fintech angel investors in 2020.