Varun Chandra
British political adviser
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Varun Chandra (born November 1984)[1] is a British political adviser and former business executive. He was appointed as special adviser on business and investment to the prime minister Keir Starmer in July 2024.[2][3][4]
From 2019 to 2024, he was managing partner at Hakluyt & Company[5] and founding chairman of Hakluyt Capital, a venture capital fund.[6]
In December 2025, Chandra was shortlisted to become the UK ambassador to Washington, replacing Peter Mandelson, but was ultimately not selected.[7] He was instead appointed as the UK's special envoy to the United States on trade and investment in addition to his role at Downing Street.[8] Between October 2024 and October 2025, Chandra had private meetings to discuss regulatory changes and artificial intelligence issues with six major US technology companies (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Apple and Meta).[9]
