Our Team.

Mali Gunter is the founder and driving force behind Guapo’s current £3bn pre-seed valuation, alongside being the founder and CEO of Trapanomics, a live entertainment platform currently operating at a £1bn pre-seed valuation. 

Raised in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, his journey is rooted in lived experience navigating barriers around opportunity, social mobility, and workforce access within urban communities.

Initially driven by a mission to disrupt entrenched barriers to social mobility, Mali’s focus has evolved toward confronting a more urgent challenge: critical technology skills shortages and demographic disparities in employment, that threaten UK national security, economic resilience and long-term strategic capability.

Combining entrepreneurial vision with academic insight, Mali holds a Law degree from the University of Bristol and is currently undertaking doctoral research at the University of Surrey focused on graduate employability, workforce mobility, and higher and degree apprenticeships. His work focuses on strengthening UK national security by addressing critical technology skills gaps, building domestic capability in AI and digital technologies, and developing diverse talent pipelines aligned with the country’s long-term strategic workforce needs.

Alongside entrepreneurship, Mali also performs as 'Guapo Marlz' within the UK music industry, using music and cultural storytelling to combine street culture, creativity, and community engagement with broader conversations around ambition, identity, and social mobility.