About Fonix
Founded in 2006, Fonix provides mobile payments and messaging services for clients across media, telecoms, entertainment, enterprise and commerce.
Based in London, Fonix is growing rapidly with revenues rising from £4.8m in 2013 to £85.9m in 2019 and is driven by blue chip clients such as Channel 5, Powwownow, Bauer Media, Daily Mail Group, AIMIA, Three and Jersey Telecom.
Partnering with Fonix means benefitting from direct connections into all the UK carriers and a solid infrastructure, all underpinned by a highly skilled team of industry specialists across commercial, product and technology.
Awards and accreditations
Meet the team
Anthony Baladi
Commercial Director
Anthony has been in the mobile payments industry for nearly a decade. As Commercial Director he is responsible for new business partnerships and driving mobile carrier payments into the mainstream. He also works very closely with our clients, providing experienced and consultative account management to ensure they’re getting the best out of mobile carrier payments.
He's a family man but also a self-confessed petrolhead that spends as much time as possible hitting the gym, attempting to relive his glory days of when he represented GB for American Football.
Clare Charles
Account Director
Clare has been in the mobile aggregation space for 9 years. She has extensive experience surrounding messaging and payments within technology, media, charity and telecoms markets.
At Fonix, she builds and maintains key strategic client relationships with industry leading media and broadcast clients, including Comic Relief, Channel 5, DMG Media and Children in Need.
Clare enjoys playing a spot of golf when she’s away from the office. She’s also pretty hardcore, having participated in Tough Mudder in 2016!
Francesca Gangemi
Senior Software Developer
Francesca has a master’s in Computer Engineering and has acquired substantial experience of modelling and developing large fault-tolerant and high-performance distributed systems. She has worked both in Europe and the US, helping large companies and start-ups to design, build and maintain their core distributed systems.
Francesca has been a Principal Software Engineer at Fonix since its conception. She works predominantly upon the design and implementation of the backend platforms, as well as the admin and client web interfaces.
It’s not all about tech for Francesca, as when she’s not at work she enjoys reading, gardening and all sorts of creative activities.
Hannah Giles
Head of Marketing
Hannah has spent 8 years working in the mobile technology sector. Joining Fonix in 2015, she is responsible for the overall marketing strategy. Our marketing strategies benefit from her expertise in social media, email and content to SEO, PPC and events.
When she’s not marketing mobile tech, Hannah loves crossing everywhere off her travel bucket list. She also enjoys playing ultimate frisbee, following house music DJs around the country and making furniture, in no particular order.
Liz Ayto
Head of Finance
Liz has 7 years of experience in finance, as well as a physics degree. Every company needs a great number cruncher! Liz runs the day-to-day running of company finances, working closely with a number of departments across the team as well as the growing financial team.
Liz loves her hobbies: taking part in quizzes, crafting (such as knitting, crocheting and scrapbooking), watching the Leicester Tigers and playing board games with her friends (but only if she wins).
Louisa Harris
Client Services Director
Louisa has over 16 years of operational, compliance and commercial experience in the telecoms, media and technology markets. She has spearheaded and run initiatives with some of the largest enterprise clients in the aggregation industry including Channel 5, Children in Need, Match.com, National Rail, Epsilon and DMG.
At Fonix, Louisa heads up the Client Services team and manages all aspects of client integrations, compliance, and operational and technical support, working closely with the commercial and technical teams.
Away from work, Louisa is a dab hand with a hammer and paintbrush, having completely renovated her home.
Marco Borzi
Development Manager
Marco has been working within the SMS and mobile payments industries since back in 2010. As one of Fonix’s Senior Software Developers, he works on developing Fonix’s direct billing and SMS APIs.
In his spare time Marco enjoys spending time with his wife and two children. He is also an avid reader, especially around technology and the economy.
Marcus Kern
CTO
Marcus has worked with SMS platforms for almost two decades. Before working at Fonix, he founded voice ITC communications in 1998 and Mobile Interactive Group in 2005.
He then went on to be a CTO of Fonix, where his technology expertise has been critical to the success of the technology department and the company’s services as a whole.
When he’s not surfing the internet reading up about technology, he’s either surfing on the coast in Cornwall, baking bread or doing some yoga.
Martha Kearns
Client Services Manager
Martha has over 5 years of mobile technology experience. As Client Services Manager, she manages the day-to-day communications with clients, sets up campaigns and sends marketing pushes - she’s quite simply a smooth operator.
In her spare time, she loves gaming and catching the latest movie at the cinema. She's also a culinary genius, often whipping up some amazing cakes for the office to share.
Nicola Fabbrini
Software Developer
Nicola has a background in technology, having graduated in October 2016 with a degree in Computer Science and Engineering.
His role within the tech team is largely centred around adding great features to the Fonix platforms, making sure that it keeps getting better and better.
He is also a film and TV fanatic, enjoying a boxset binge in his free time!
Samir Khedar
Software Developer
Before moving to London Samir lived in Paris where he was a Java Developer for 12 years. At Fonix, Samir is a Senior Java Developer; he’ll be working with our tech team on our carrier billing platform to make it even better than it is already.
Samir loves learning new languages, whether that be English, Arabic or Python. Whenever he’s not brushing up on his languages skills or coding, you’ll find Samir spending time with his wife and two children.
Rob Weisz
CEO
As a co-founder of Fonix, Rob has been our CEO since 2014 (and he came up with our name!). Rob is responsible for our overall business strategy and vision.
He has over 17 years’ experience in the mobile industry across a range of telecoms and mobile businesses such as iTouch PLC, Redstone, O2, Mobile Interactive Group and Velti. Rob is also Vice-Chairman of the Association of Interactive Media and Entertainment (AIME).
Outside of Fonix, he can be found either chasing his children around, following sport or getting the lycra on for one of his big cycles.
Stephen George
Business Development Director
Stephen has a broad depth of knowledge when it comes to technology, media and telecoms and has managed large accounts across multiple territories.
At Fonix, Stephen is responsible for our business development strategy. He brings an abundance of experience in initiating new revenue opportunities, building relationships with the UK mobile networks and shaping initiatives for leading brands.
Outside the office you’ll find Stephen running whilst simultaneously moaning about his dodgy knees. His dog is the only one who listens.
Will Neale
Co-founder
Will is one of our co-founders. He’s a serial tech entrepreneur and angel investor, with a proven track record of founding and leading tech companies to success.
As a co-founder, he knows everything there is to know about the company and the industry. At Fonix, Will is focused on our organisational strategy, finance, operations and corporate development.
It’s no surprise then that outside of Fonix Will’s passion is technology; he’s the co-founder of Grabyo and an investor in Property Partner, Entrepreneur First, Revolut, Thriva, Hello Car, Panaseer, Telleroo, TechnologyWillSaveUs... the list goes on.
Grace Carrick
Financial Analyst
Since graduating with a Maths degree from the University of East Anglia, Grace has gained admin experience within an engineering firm.
Now keen to get stuck into finance, she has joined Fonix's finance department, as our Finance Analyst. She can be found building reports and creating really nifty formulas to keep our company finances in order.
Away from the office, Grace is a self-confessed halloumi addict, constantly eating the stuff and trialling new recipes.
Dave James
Software Developer
Dave is Fonix’s Frontend Developer. He is self-described as “the guy who makes all of Fonix’s products look pretty”, as he focuses on their appearance and consults on UI aspects of the products.
His journey to Fonix is as varied as they come: he has previously worked in creative agencies in a similar frontend role and prior to that, worked as a roofer for 5 years.
He is a serial photoshopper, and in his free time he loves editing his dog into as many historical photographs as possible. He also enjoys playing guitar (albeit badly, which winds up his girlfriend enormously).
Tanyia Langley
Operations Manager
With a background in financial services, Operations Executive Tanyia focuses on building solid relationships with the mobile network providers and our clients, to ensure that we’re providing a compliant, top-notch service.
Outside of work you’ll find Tanyia snuggled up on the sofa watching a gripping crime drama, whilst also gripping onto a good bar of chocolate!
Allie Kemp
Client Services Manager
Fresh out of the University of Exeter, Fonix’s Client Services Executive Allie works closely with our clients to ensure all campaigns and reporting run without any hiccups, as efficiently as possible.
Outside of work, you’ll find Allie either on a pair of skis or down at the theatre, where she loves watching musicals, plays and dance productions.
Ollie Allum
Commercial Manager
Ollie has over 11 years of experience working in the mobile technology sector, specialising in interactive TV, mobile payments, voice and SMS.
Now a Commercial Manager working across Fonix’s messaging and payments products, his wealth of experience makes him a perfect fit for helping and educating businesses on how to make the most out of mobile services.
Outside the office, Ollie can be found either booking his next festival or getting involved with anything to do with animals (we’ve heard he’s been alpaca trekking and we’re dying to see some photos).
Jess Kennedy
Finance Manager
With extensive experience in accountancy roles and an AAT accounting qualification, Jess is no stranger to audits, processing invoices, keeping on top of employee expenses and assisting senior accountants.
She has now joined our team as Assistant Finance Manager, with her primary role being to support the finance function of the business alongside the rest of the finance team. This includes accruals, prepayments, fixed asset maintenance, audit preparation and cash flow maintenance.
When she’s not helping us turn over a profit she’s turning and twirling in a ballet class, or even on ice, as she has recently taken up ice skating lessons.
Catherine Holmes
Client Services Executive
Recent English Literature Graduate Catherine has joined our Client Services team as a Client Services Executive.
Since starting at Fonix, she's been getting stuck in working with our media and entertainment clients. She's been setting up campaigns, as well as providing clients with statistical information.
Outside of work she enjoys nothing more than relaxing with a bit of yoga or pilates. She also dedicates substantial time to hunting down the best Greek restaurants that the UK has to offer.
Agne Pugaciukaite
Finance Assistant
Agne swapped the Lithuanian beach life for the hustle and bustle of London, when she came to London to complete an Accounting and Finance degree.
After spending some time working in admin, she joined the Fonix finance team as a Finance Assistant. Her role includes submitting invoices, bank reconciliations and financial analysis.
Outside of work, Agne is a serial gamer: having played Runescape since she was 11 against hundreds of thousands of global players.
Phil Duffen
Software Developer
Phil has worked in the internet space for over two decades, beginning his career in an era that he describes as having 'dialup and webpages that took 10 minutes just to load a graphic'.
Now a developer at Fonix, he's working alongside the rest of the tech team and getting stuck into writing Ruby code.
There seem to be many strings to Phil's bow, as he knows how to kitesurf and is also a qualified hypnotherapist.
Ravi Ramanathan
Technical Architect
Ravi is passionate about cutting-edge technology, and has over 10 years’ experience working on technology and infrastructure projects across the banking and financial services sectors. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge from his previous roles at Lloyds, FIS and Vectone Mobile.
Now part of the Fonix tech team, Ravi is our Technical Architect, meaning that he has responsibility for IT operations and other technical architect activities.
Outside of work, he’s a family man and enjoys spending time with his daughter Maaya, who he claims is always happy and never too tired to play.
Fiza Munir
Finance Assistant
Fiza is a recent Maths graduate, and she’s ready to get stuck in using her skills in the Fonix finance team. As a Finance Analyst, she spends time building reports and creating nifty formulas among other finance tasks.
There’s more to Fiza than numbers, as she claims that outside of work her main passion is trainers. She has a substantial collection, which we’ll be looking out for every time she walks around the office!
Vivek Vishwanath
Software Developer
Vivek joins Fonix with experience working in high-growth tech companies, solving some tricky technical challenges.
Now a member of the Fonix tech team, he will be working on our web platforms that serve all our core clients.
When he’s not thinking about Ruby or JavaScript, he claims to be mostly thinking about food and fine dining - or you’ll find him in his whites on a cricket pitch.
Hinesh Patel
Software Developer
Hinesh joins team Fonix after spending two years living down under in Sydney, Australia.
At Fonix, Hinesh is one of our software engineers and he'll will be working on Ruby and Javascript code, alongside the tech team.
Hinesh has a huge passion for travelling and exploring the world and at the weekend you'll either find him planning his next trip or having a good binge on a gripping TV show.
Chris Foots
Product Owner
Chris is Fonix’s Product Manager, he organises product development and workload to make sure everything gets done.
Chris has a wealth of experience with quality assurance and as a business analyst with his previous work with the likes of BBC iPlayer, Unilever and many others.
Chris is definitely a morning lark - you’ll often find him hitting the gym for a workout before work! Keen to listen to a good beat, when Chris is not at work he frequently attends gigs and clubs.
Mahalakshmi Krishnasamy
Software Developer
Maha has a Bachelor in Computer Science Engineering and has over 7 years experience working as a JAVA developer. She worked in the USA for 4 years before moving to the UK.
At Fonix, she is making our payment platform even better and is focusing on platform features to facilitate our global expansion.
It’s not all about computers for Maha. She is very musical and loves Indian classical dance, and has been learning to get her groove on to this. She’s also learning to play classical string instrument - it’s called a veena!
David Foord
Commercial Executive
David has decided to swap the accounting world for the land of mobile payments. He’ll be assisting our commercial director in executing commercial strategy to grow current clients, as well as generate new business.
Outside of the office David is known as a bit of an action man! Whether that’s running around a tennis or squash court, dancing at a festival or riding his motorbike, he’s always on the move. The adventurer that he is, David has climbed mountains in Japan and Nepal!