To commemorate the College’s bicentenary in 2023, we’re showcasing 200 ‘Birkbeck Effects’ which capture the incredible stories of our vibrant and diverse community, highlighting their achievements and impact on the world. 

Eva is an angel investor and e-commerce consultant and co-founded London’s first internet cafe, Cyberia, in 1994. She pioneered the Internet’s early online and offline communities, online secure payment and expanded the business globally across Europe and Asia backed by Saatchi&Saatchi and Mick Jagger.   

Pascoe raised £3,000 to finance her first venture, a software company, by knitting and selling mohair jumpers: “This was in the middle of a deep recession and here was I, a woman with a funny accent – the banks just laughed at me.” 

She was a key figure in introducing online shopping to British fashion brand, Topshop, setting up their e-commerce team in 1999. Eva also created the first HTML courses for the public in Cyberia and ran the first women-only courses for women interested in getting into technology, focusing on closing the gender gap in technology use. 

She studied for a BSc Psychology and Ergonomics of Human-Computer Interaction at Birkbeck and, jointly with Gene Teare, was the winner of a Sunday Times Technology Award.