Matt Robinson

Partner Accel

Last Reviewed: September 26, 2026

Executive Summary

Matt Robinson is a Partner at Accel in London, where he has invested since 2024 with a focus on AI, cloud and software companies. He is best known as one of the three co-founders of GoCardless, the London recurring-payments company he started in 2011 with Hiroki Takeuchi and Tom Blomfield while they were Oxford students, and on whose board he sat until August 2023. In between he founded Nested, a UK home-selling business, and built a reputation as an active angel investor. His move to Accel closes a loop: the firm was an early backer of GoCardless and has worked with him since the company’s first year.

Career Highlights

• Partner at Accel since 2024, based in London, focusing on AI, inference, security and software.
• Co-founded GoCardless in 2011; Accel credits him with building the team, product and go-to-market from scratch.
• Director of GoCardless Ltd from its incorporation in January 2011 until 16 August 2023, and company secretary for much of that period, per Companies House.
• By the time he left the board, GoCardless processed over $35B in payments annually across 30 countries for more than 85,000 businesses, according to Accel.
• Founded Nested in 2016 to rethink home selling in the UK; he stepped down as a director of the company in February 2024.
• Angel investor in companies including Cleo, Incident.io, Gamma, n8n and Wayve.

Professional Journey

Robinson began his career at McKinsey & Company after graduating from Oxford. In 2011 he co-founded GoCardless, a recurring-payments company, with Hiroki Takeuchi and Tom Blomfield, fellow Oxford students. In 2012 the company raised £1.5 million from investors including Y Combinator, Google Ventures, Salesforce and Accel, which is how his working relationship with Accel began.

Accel describes him as pivotal in building the GoCardless team, product and go-to-market from scratch. Robinson remained on its board for twelve years; Companies House records his resignation as a director on 16 August 2023.

Having built a business-to-business company, he set out to learn consumer product by tackling a problem he had experienced himself: selling a home. He founded Nested in 2016 (the company was incorporated in December 2015). Accel describes it today as a platform used by estate agents throughout the UK. The company has since been renamed Join Even Limited at Companies House, and Robinson resigned as a director in February 2024.

He joined Accel as an investor in 2024 and is now a Partner at the firm in London. Alongside his operating career he has been an active angel investor, backing companies including Cleo, Incident.io, Gamma, n8n and Wayve.

Education

University of Oxford

Accel states that he graduated from Oxford; no degree or subject was found in a first-party source.