Wendy Tan WhiteMBE is a British technology entrepreneur and technology investor. She is Vice-President at X, Alphabet's moonshot company. She was a partner at BGF, a £2.5bn growth capital fund focusing on early stage ventures. She was the former co-founder and CEO of the MoonfruitDIYwebsite builder and former general partner at Entrepreneur First. Board trustee of the Alan Turing Institute and member of the Digital Economic Council. Named one of the Fifty Most Inspiring Women in European Tech in 2017 and Women in IT Awards Business Role Model of the Year 2017 and Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011, she is an advocate for women entering the technology and investment sector.
Tan began her career at Arthur Andersen from 1992 to 1994. She was a project manager at AIT Plc from 1994 to 1997. She worked as head of CRM development for Egg Banking, the first Internet bank, from 1997 to 1999. In January 2000, she, Eirik Pettersen, and Joe White launched Moonfruit, a DIY website builder. The company experienced rapid growth, with 400,000 users signing on in the first six months. The business' lack of scalability, combined with the dot-com crash in 2000, caused it to fail in this incarnation. Tan and Pettersen trimmed the staff from 60 employees to just the two of them. Moonfruit's co-founder and Tan's future husband Joe White resigned to work at McKinsey & Co. They switched from an advertiser-supported service to a subscription-based service, customers resuscitated the business. By 2004 the company started to scale and achieved profitability. From 2004 to 2008 Tan White took a break from the company to start a family, and Joe White returned to the business to take her place as CEO and continue to scale the business. During her time away from Moonfruit, Tan White earned her design master's degree, launched the Zopapeer-to-peer lending website, and worked as a director at Gandi. In 2012 Moonfruit was acquired by Yell Group for £23 million. Tan White stayed on as CEO while White is the chief operating officer and chief financial officer, and Pettersen is the chief technology officer. In 2015 Tan White became a general partner of Entrepreneur First along with her husband Joe White helping to raise EF's £40m Next Stage Fund and mentoring 21 deep tech companies which have been funded including OpenCosmos, CloudNC, Automata, CleoAI, Xihelm and Brolly. In October 2017 Tan White joined Simon Calver, Rory Stirling and Harry Briggs as a partner for £200m early stage fund, BGF Ventures part of BGF, £2.5bn patient capital fund. In March 2018 Tan White, Stirling and Briggs left BGF Ventures to pursue pure tech investment particularly in 'Deep Tech'. BGF Ventures is expanding to different sectors and regions with more capital. Tan-White will remain an adviser to BGF until 2019. In Jan 2019 Tan-White joined Alphabet's Moonshot Factory as Vice-President. X is a diverse group of inventors and entrepreneurs who build and launch technologies that aim to improve the lives of millions, even billions, of people. Their goal to 10x impact on the world’s most intractable problems. Alumni companies of X include, Waymo, Verily, Chronicle, Loon and Wing.
Other activities
Tan White is an advocate for women entering the technology and investment sectors. Moonfruit accommodates employees who are mothers with scheduling such as "a later start to accommodate the school run, or flexi-home working."
Affiliations
Tan White is a board trustee of the Alan Turing Institute, board member of TechNation, member of the Digital Economic Council, advisory board Imperial College, Dept of Computing and advisory board Dyson, Design School of Engineering.
Honours and awards
Tan White was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to technology businesses. and Women in IT - Business Role Model of the Year 2017. She was awarded an in July 2018, Tan White was born in Salford. In 2015 and 2017 Tan White was named one of the Fifty Most Inspiring Women in European Tech by the Inspiring Fifty organisation. In July 2015 Tan White and Joe White were ranked 5th on Business Insider Indias list of the "13 Coolest Power Couples in London". In 2017 they were voted into the Europas, Hall of Fame. In 2013 Computer Weekly named Tan White a "Rising Star" as part of their "Most Influential Women in UK IT" campaign. In 2011 she was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the CWT Everywoman in Technology Awards.
Personal life
She married her co-founder, Joe White, in 2002. They have two kids - one son and one daughter. Tan and her family live in Silicon Valley.
