Malcolm Bell

Malcolm is the Chief Executive Officer of Saint and Sofia, the brand he co-founded with his wife Dessislava Bell in 2020.

He’s been an Expert in Residence at Harvard Business School and at Seedcamp, Europe’s most successful Seed Venture Capital firm. Malcolm and Dessislava are best known for starting Zaggora, the activewear brand they grew to $60 million in sales from 1,5 million customers. In 2012, Malcolm won the National Business Award for E-Commerce Strategy and was nominated for Entrepreneur of The Year.

Saint and Sofia is a passion project for Malcolm and Dessislava, designed to deliver better value fashion in a seriously sustainable way. Malcolm and Dessislava believe that quality fashion has become too expensive and too many brands are wasteful in their production and packaging.

After having children, their perspective changed on two key things. Firstly, the potential impact of climate change on their children’s future and secondly, the cost of almost everything. (They suspected this was a common experience for most people after having children). So, the design of Saint and Sofia is to offer luxury fashion at proper prices, with quality items made in ethical factories and in a seriously sustainable way. They work with other family owned fabric mills, factories and suppliers in Europe who share their values and commitment to better production and sustainability.

In 2019 Malcolm and Dessislava started PLANT - a global initiative to plant trees to reduce the impact of Climate Change. PLANT has the goal of planting 10 million trees in 10 years. On Black Friday they donated all profits to plant over 5,000 Trees in partnership with Trees for Cities. Malcolm and Dessislava also started Not Plastic®️, an initiative to use biodegradable packaging in the E-Commerce industry.

At Seedcamp, Malcolm advised portfolio companies on growth and marketing challenges. Since 2012, Malcolm has advised teams at Facebook and Google on the development of their marketing platforms. In 2013 he did a Ted Talk in New York City on social media. He’s been a Guest Speaker at events hosted by Oxford University, Google, Advertising Week and Facebook. In 2013, Malcolm was featured in a Harvard Business School Case Study taught to MBA Students Called ‘18 Months in a Startup: Zaggora.com’. He’s also been featured in the Financial Times, Sunday Times and has written articles for the Huffington Post.

Previously, Malcolm studied at the London School of Economics, graduating with Honors in 2005. Before entrepreneurship, Malcolm worked as a Family Office Manager for several Forbes Family offices in Europe and the Middle East. He lives in South East London with Dessislava and their two children. His hobbies are building Lego, reading and making coffee which he likes ‘chicken spicy’. Only he knows what that means.