Eric D. Collins built a two-decade technology career spanning Tegic, Nuance Communications, Mobile Posse, SwiftKey, and Touch Surgery, holding COO and Chief Revenue Officer roles before co-founding Impact X Capital with Paula Groves in 2018. Motivated by the statistic that less than 1% of venture funding reaches Black entrepreneurs and less than 4% reaches women-led teams, Collins built Impact X as a genuinely double-bottom-line fund - pursuing both financial returns and structural change - backing underrepresented founders in fintech, healthtech, and creative media across the UK, Europe, and the US. He served on President Obama's Small Business Administration Council on Underserved Communities, authored the book 'We Don't Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change Our World,' and continues to lead Impact X as CEO while championing minority entrepreneurship across transatlantic networks.
Education
Harvard Law School
Previous Experience
Executive, Tegic (AOL subsidiary)
Executive, Nuance Communications / Microsoft
COO, Mobile Posse / Digital Turbine (2010-2013)
Chief Revenue & Distribution Officer, SwiftKey / Microsoft (2014-2016)
COO, Touch Surgery / Medtronic (2016-2018)
Career Timeline
2002
Enters the tech industry, beginning roles at Tegic (an AOL subsidiary) and later Nuance Communications.
2014
Becomes Chief Revenue and Distribution Officer at SwiftKey, a predictive text firm later acquired by Microsoft, a role that brings him to London.
2016
Becomes COO of Touch Surgery, later acquired by Medtronic.
2018
Co-founds Impact X Capital Partners with Paula Groves and other Black European and US entrepreneurs and investors, backed by founding members including Ursula Burns and Lenny Henry.
2024
Impact X announces a £100 million target for its second fund, IX Global I, backed by Bank of America and the Visa Foundation.