Sébastien Borget is the Co-founder and COO of The Sandbox, a virtual platform where players can create, play, own, govern and monetize their experiences using NFTs & SAND, the main utility token of the platform. Sebastien also became the President of the Blockchain Game Alliance in 2020, a non-profit organization of 500 key members of the industry. He was recently named #4 in the Top #100 2022 most influential people in crypto by CoinTelegraph.
Co-Founder & COO
The Sandbox
Brett is managing partner of Initialized Capital, a seed stage VC firm with $3.2B assets under management, a portfolio with 175+ companies including Coinbase, Flexport, Instacart, and Rippling, and 25 companies valued at $1B or more. Brett is a software engineer, a 4x founder, and investor. Previously he co-founded blog platforms Posthaven and Posterous (acquired by Twitter) and later joined Y Combinator where he wrote their internal software systems.
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Managing Partner
Initialized Capital
Chema Alonso is Chief Digital Officer of Telefónica, CEO of Telefónica Innovación Digital and member of Telefonica S.A. Executive Committee since 2016. He oversees Innovation, Data, Platforms and Digital Product & Services leading the strategy for the digitalisation of sales processes and customer communication channels of the company. He holds a PhD in Computer Security and a Technical Engineering degree in Computer Systems from Universidad Politécnica Madrid. The latter institution named him Honorary Ambassador of the University School of Information Technology in 2012. Chema was also recognized during 14 years as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP).
Chief Digital Officer
Telefónica
Veteran technology entrepreneur and investor, Yat Siu is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands, a global leader in blockchain and gaming that is working to provide property rights for virtual assets via NFTs and related technologies, with a current valuation of $6B. Yat began his career at Atari Germany in 1990. In 1995 he established Hong Kong Cybercity/Freenation, the first free web page and email provider in Asia. In 1998 he set up Outblaze, an award-winning pioneer of multilingual white label web services. In 2009, he sold Outblaze’s messaging unit to IBM, and pivoted Outblaze to become an incubator of projects and companies to develop digital entertainment services and products. One of those incubated projects is Animoca Brands, created in 2014.
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman
Animoca Brands Limited
Saruul Krause-Jentsch has been Spotify's “Head of Podcast” for the DACH region since 2020. Saruul joined Spotify in September 2019 as Strategy and Operations Manager. Before joining Spotify, she was a Digital Business Strategist for several magazine titles at Condé Nast Publishing and held a position as Director at Bertelsmann Corporate Network at Bertelsmann SE & CO. KGaA. In addition, she worked as a consultant in the field of audio strategy and podcasting with a variety of companies in the midst of developing their own podcast strategies.
Head of Podcast, Central Europe
Spotify
Qasar is the Co-Founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, currently valued at $6B after its Series E. Before that, Younis was a Partner and COO of Y Combinator. Younis founded a technology firm, which was later acquired by Google, and worked as an automotive engineer at General Motors and Bosch.
CEO
Applied Intuition
Peter is a Senior Software Engineer on Bard, where he focuses on infrastructure development and quality enhancement for Bard Extensions. Before joining Bard, his endeavors included pioneering work on neural semantic models for Assistant, refining Translate models, and contributing to advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Analytics.
Senior Software Engineer
Deborah is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Founderland, Europe's fastest-growing community dedicated to supporting women of color entrepreneurs. Deborah has successfully founded six ventures, collectively raising over €2M in funding. She earned her spot on BusinessWeek's ‘Top 25 under 25’ with her first startup, and was recently named in BGA's 'Women of the Year' list for 2024.
Co-Founder and Managing Director
Founderland
Joanna Bryson is expert in intelligence — both natural and artificial. With degrees in Social and Computer Sciences from Chicago, Edinburgh and MIT, her scientific research appears in venues from reddit to Science, and her policy voice is heard in the UN, EU, CoE, OSCE, OECD and GPAI. Since February 2020, Bryson has been Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School of Governance, Berlin.
Professor of Ethics and Technology
Hertie School
Helene is Co-Founder & CEO at The Exploration Company, a space tech startup whose mission is to democratize space exploration, making it affordable, sustainable, and open. The Exploration Company develops, manufactures, and operates spaceships that serve the logistic needs of the space stations around the Earth and the Moon, a market forecasted to grow by 400% in the next 8 years. The startup was co-founded in July 2021 by an experienced team coming from Airbus and ArianeGroup who worked already together on major programs (Orion-ESM, ATV, etc.). Today, The Exploration Company gathers 50 people, +500 years of space experience, has raised 50 million USD and mixes space veterans’ and young aerospace engineers’ profiles. The first capsule vehicle flight is planned for 2023.
CEO
The Exploration Company
João Graça is the Co-Founder & CTO of Unbabel, an AI human translation platform that has raised close to $100 million to date. João has a Ph.D. in Natural Language Processing and was a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also one of the co-founders of the Lisbon Machine Learning Summer School (LxMLS) and has authored several papers in machine learning with side information, unsupervised learning and machine translation.
Co-Founder & CTO
Unbabel
Joyce holds the distinguished role of Group Head of Corporate Affairs at Springer Nature, a leading global science communications company, where she not only contributes to the Executive Team but also spearheads sustainability initiatives. Beyond her corporate endeavors, she has chaired the esteemed London-based business alliance, Urban Partners, and serves as a trustee for the esteemed Marine Conservation Society. Before her tenure at Springer Nature, Joyce amassed extensive experience in senior communications and marketing positions with renowned global brands. Her professional journey uniquely weaves together corporate leadership with entrepreneurial ventures, including a foray into travel technology and the establishment of her own communications consultancy startup.
Group Head of Corporate Affairs
Springer Nature
Mali is the CEO of WLOUNGE and MAGDA GROUP, and Board Member at the European Innovation Council (EIC) at the European Commission. Mali brings over 20 years of entrepreneurial expertise, having founded multiple successful ventures. As a seasoned serial entrepreneur, Mali launched her first venture in 2007, specializing in global educational toys. On 2024 Mali was elected as a Board Member of the European innovation Council, EIC, European Commission and the EIC fund. Since 2019 she has been an active expert and Jury member at the European Commission EIC fund, involved in the EIC Green-Dealas a Jury. In addition, she is also an ambassador for the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises for StartUp Asia Berlin (SUAB) and Asia-Pacific Week Berlin (APW).
Founder & CEO
WLOUNGE | MAGDA GROUP
Lasse is the founding partner of 1kx, an early-stage token fund with a mission to be the most founder-friendly and helpful source of early-stage capital for tokenised projects. He started out as a software entrepreneur and through exploring, curiosity and making an early leap from Bitcoin to Ethereum, he’s a key player in the crypto industry. 1kx has made multiple investments in soon-to-be key players, for instance, Kiln ($17M) or Modulus ($6.3M).
Founding Partner
1kx Capital
Herman is the CEO of Improbable, the London-based metaverse platform that in October 2022 began closing a £100m funding round led by the blockchain company Elrond, valuing Improbable at over $3bn. Herman has been working for the past 10 years as an entrepreneur on how to resolve technical challenges and better understand the unprecedented impacts that powerful, virtual worlds and the metaverse will have on how we think, make decisions, and form society. Herman is also the author of Virtual Society: The Metaverse and the New Frontiers of Human Experience published by Penguin Random House in October 2022.
CEO
Improbable
Amanda is the Founder and CEO of Serotonin, previously she was CMO at ConsenSys (2016-19), and played a pivotal role in Ethereum's narrative. She led ConsenSys' marketing, contributing to its global reach and the success of products like MetaMask, Infura, Truffle, and Gitcoin. Recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30, Amanda is the author of the first Web3 marketing book.
Founder & CEO
Serotonin
Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss is Founder & CEO at Dance, an e-bike subscription service founded with the purpose of having a positive impact on health, sustainability and livable cities. Prior Eric founded SoundCloud in 2007 and served as CPO for 12 years.
Founder
Soundcloud / Dance
Nevşah Fidan Karamehmet is a multifaceted coach expert, renowned as a teacher, speaker, best-selling author, investor, philanthropist, and serial entrepreneur. With over two decades of expertise as a behavior expert, she has earned global recognition as the foremost authority on self-mastery formulas for women. Her impactful work has transcended borders, engaging with prestigious clients such as HSBC, ING Bank, Pfizer, and Vodafone, alongside notable celebrities and athletes. Nevsah's overarching mission is to empower women to lead masterful lives through accessible products and courses, delivered via workshops, seminars, online platforms, and personalized coaching. Her profound impact extends to having positively influenced over 40,000 individuals and certifying over 2000 coaches worldwide.
Founder & CEO
Breath Hub and Nevsah Institute
Avi is a distinguished Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author. Since 2007, Loeb has served as the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and is also the Head of the Galileo Project.
Professor, Director Institute for Theory & Computation
Harvard University
William is a general partner of SOSV, a venture capital fund of over $1B, and founder of the SOSV Momentum Pre-accelerator program. Bill’s current focus is Health & Longevity as Chair of the SENS board and Chair to the Te Tiroroa Fund. Co-founder of the CoderDojo movement and of Weforest, his career in tech and business encompasses two unicorn companies and launching the world’s first bio-tech accelerator.
General Partner
SOSV
Stéphanie is a Partner in Bootstrap Europe. Prior to co-founding the Swiss venture debt firm that successfully closed a €130 million fund in 2023 to empower groundbreaking tech enterprises, Stéphanie cultivated a distinguished career marked by founding, developing, and serving on the boards of numerous thriving technology and financial firms in Zurich and London. Notable among these ventures is the award-winning fintech startup Fractal Labs. Leveraging her firsthand experiences as a founder, Stéphanie offers pragmatic and compassionate guidance to Bootstrap Europe's portfolio founders. The firm's ethos of providing debt financing for growth companies was incubated during Stéphanie's tenure as managing partner at Cape Capital AG between 2008 and 2012. In this capacity, she oversaw the private equity assets of the Zurich-based multi-asset manager and family office, investing across a spectrum of companies from startups to established enterprises.
Partner
Bootstrap Europe
Jess is the CEO of WalletConnect, the Web3 communications protocol enabling interoperability between wallets and dapps across chains. Having been integrated by over 500 wallets and 6,000 apps, it facilitates millions of end-user connections each month. Today, it is also empowering developers to build engaging web3 experiences with a suite of SDKs: Web3Modal, Web3Wallet, and the recently launched Web3Inbox app that facilitates human-readable message delivery between apps and users.
CEO
WalletConnect
Laura Fernandez Gimenez is the CEO of allWomen, a global platform dedicated to empowering women in tech through transformative training, she has cultivated a thriving community exceeding 50K members. As a visionary Impact Founder, staunch advocate for Gender Diversity, and dedicated Community Builder over the span of five years, Laura has personally mentored over +1K women, fostered collaborations with more than 100 corporate partners, and established a robust network comprising over 100 female industry experts. Notably, all of her endeavors have been self-funded, reflecting her unwavering commitment to bootstrap startups and drive meaningful change in the tech industry.
CEO
allWomen
Dr. Nadine Geiser, a Principal at World Fund, brings a wealth of experience from her tenure at esteemed organizations such as Merck KGaA's corporate venture fund, M Ventures, and Redalpine, a Swiss VC fund. Renowned for her expertise in sustainability strategy, she has made impactful investments in companies like Umiami, Better Dairy, Mushlabs, and Uncommon Bio. Additionally, Nadine serves on the advisory board of the Bioinnovation Institute - Novo Nordisk Foundation. With a PhD in Biotechnology from ETH Zurich and a rich academic background from the Technical University of Munich and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Nadine embodies a blend of academic excellence and practical insight in her endeavors.
Investor
World Fund
Bobby is the CEO of Manna Drone Delivery, a business whose mission is to improve the world by making lightning-fast suburban deliveries affordable, green and safe. He began his career building video games for Nintendo, founded Eland which he sold to SITA, built CarTrawler and led two successful LBOs for the business.
CEO
Manna Drone Delivery
As Founder of Thought For Food, Christine has built the largest and most diverse innovator community in food and agriculture, reaching 30,000 next-gen talents in 180+ countries. She has incubated 100+ science-and-technology-based startups which have gone on to raise over $300mm in venture capital and has worked extensively with Fortune 500 companies and international organizations.
Founder
Thought for Food
Joe is the Founder and Managing Partner of Isomer Capital, a prestigious private investment firm headquartered in the UK who in 2023 revealed the inaugural closing of its groundbreaking €250 million III fund, marking a significant milestone in the firm's trajectory. Joe has 25 years’ experience working as an LP, GP and technology operations executive. Prior to Isomer he was MD for Business Development at Pomona Capital, a leading global secondaries firm, and earlier at Cambridge Associates responsible for advising institutional investors on venture capital and private equity investments.
Managing Partner
Isomer Capital
Inka Mero stands as the visionary Founder and Managing Partner of Voima Ventures, a trailblazing venture capital firm that, in 2023, unveiled its third fund, securing an initial closing of €90 million with a final target of €120 million, focusing on nurturing early-stage startups spanning the breadth of scientific innovation. Inka Mero's indomitable presence in entrepreneurship and deeptech venture capital is exemplified by her stewardship of investments in Nordic and Baltic deep tech startups, catalyzing innovation and global impact. With a distinguished career spanning 25 years, she brings a profound reservoir of expertise cultivated through founding companies and stewarding established corporations as a seasoned board member.
Founder & Managing Partner
Voima Ventures
Francielly, an Oceanographer & Data Scientist from Rio, is the founder of Benthos.ai, the AI startup leveraging technology for ocean conservation. Backed by the Berlin Startup Scholarship and enriched through the ClimateX program at the Berlin Innovation Agency, her startup empowers communities with essential tools to protect marine ecosystems. She also heads the Sustainable Ocean Alliance Germany, advocating globally for our oceans’ health and sustainability.
Founder
Benthos.ai
Sebastian Pollok is Founding Partner of Visionaries Club, an early stage VC which has raised nearly $600M to date and is a fund backed by leading European digital founders and family business entrepreneurs. Prior, Sebastian co-founded and ran AMORELIE, which he successfully grew to > USD 60m revenue, >20% EBITDA and a team of 100 employees. AMORELIE was sold to ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE in2018 at a valuation > USD 100m. Prior to AMORELIE, Sebastian worked as a VC for e.ventures in San Francisco and studied at WHU, St. Gallen, HKUST and Kellogg School of Management. Sebastian is a business angel in startups such as Ree Technology, Choco, Sunshine Smile and Lillydoo and a limited partner in funds such as Cherry Ventures, Project A and La Famiglia. He also sits on the board of Cherry Ventures and Founders Pledge.
Founding Partner
Visionaries Club
David Bennett, the mastermind behind Mimic Productions, boasts a rich tapestry of over three decades immersed in VFX, performance capture, gaming, and VR. Renowned for his groundbreaking advancements in facial motion capture, his innovative contributions have left an indelible mark on iconic blockbusters like Avatar and numerous other cinematic marvels. In 2012, David founded Mimic Productions, an industry-leading studio celebrated for crafting the most lifelike digital characters showcased in over 500 projects spanning multiple sectors. Presently, his visionary focus lies in pioneering AI-empowered avatars under his latest venture, Mimic Minds.
CEO
MP Mimic Productions GmbH
Jared Ficklin is a designer and technologist with two decades of experience creating products and visions for major companies. An innovator by nature, he is always exploring new means for technological interaction and has a passion for unique interaction models—especially those involving interesting inputs and outputs like touch, multi-touch, voice, gesture, sensing, and projection. His philosophy is "Think by Making, Deliver by Demo", and he employs user experience simulation as a method for quickly bringing products to life.
Founding Partner & Chief Creative Technologist
argodesign
Isabella is the CEO of Bosque Foods, the startup on the mission to create the next generation of meat alternatives, starting with whole-cut products grown naturally from Mycelium. With an academic background in sustainability and agriculture, Isabella has spent her career building startups in the United States, Europe, and Asia. She has a proven track record in leading tech startups to scale internationally, in particular for ag-tech scale-up Infarm.
CEO
Bosque Foods
Shivram is a Partner at EQT Ventures, a sector-agnostic early-stage investment fund investing out of its third fund of €1.1B. EQT is part of the EQT Group which is one of the World's largest investment funds with over €230B under management. He is an engineer and was previously the Founder & CEO of a scale-up acquired by Delivery Hero, and before that an investor in India and Singapore.
Partner
EQT Ventures
Jessica Farda is the Co-Founder & CEO of the tech start-up Noriware, which raised 1M from known Business Angels in Switzerland and received 1.7 M in grants from the Federation of Switzerland. Noriware is dedicated to protecting marine ecosystems through the production of plastic alternatives from algae.
Co-Founder & CEO
Noriware
Ang Li is the CEO of Simular, an AI technology company, whose mission is to build lifelong autonomous agents that understand and react to our digital world. Ang has conducted a wide range of AI research over a decade at industry-leading institutions such as Google DeepMind, Facebook AI research, Apple, Baidu, etc. He holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Maryland.
CEO
Simular
Dr Leif-Nissen Lundbæk stands as the Co-founder and CEO of Xayn, a pioneering next-generation AI company at the forefront of technological innovation in Europe. Xayn's groundbreaking solutions unlock the potential of genAI for large-scale organizations, exemplifying a transformative approach to artificial intelligence. Notably, the company spearheads the development of Noxtua, Europe's premier sovereign Legal AI, crafted in collaboration with esteemed legal experts from CMS, an international business law firm. Recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Listmaker, Leif-Nissen Lundbæk's illustrious career trajectory showcases his tenure at esteemed organizations such as Daimler AG and IBM. His academic credentials are equally impressive, with degrees spanning Economics from Humboldt University in Berlin, Mathematics from Heidelberg University, Software Engineering from Oxford University (with distinction), and a PhD in Computer Science from Imperial College London.
Co-Founder & CEO
Xayn
Ira Winkler, CISSP is the CISO at CYE Security, which raised $120M from EQT Ventures. Previously, Ira was the Chief Security Architect at Walmart and Chief Security Strategist at HP. He is a prolific author with a distinguished record of penning 8 books, garnering acclaim as both a bestselling author and an award-winning literary figure. Renowned for his captivating insights, Ira has graced the stages of premier events across 6 continents, headlining prestigious gatherings such as Black Hat and RSA. Moreover, Ira boasts a storied entrepreneurial journey, having successfully founded and navigated the strategic exit of two cybersecurity enterprises.
CISO
CYE Security
As VP of Brand Innovation at Web3 creative agency Hype, Ipshita Kumar is streamlining the adoption of Web3 and the metaverse by making the technology more accessible to brands and consumers. Drawing from her experience as a South Asian entrepreneur, Ipshita strikes the perfect balance between EQ and IQ to help brands triumph in Web3 with powerful community-led activations and go-to-market strategies.
Vice President Brand Innovation
Hype
Sasan Hashemi is the Co-Founder of Tset, a pioneering software firm specializing in SaaS enterprise solutions for product cost and CO2 emission estimation, having secured approximately €13 million in funding. With a distinguished career marked by proficiency in data analysis, entrepreneurship, and technology, he spearheads research and development initiatives in digitized production systems. Sasan's multifaceted expertise encompasses data analysis, strategic business planning, and proficient programming skills.
Co-Founder
Tset
Daria Stepanova, a visionary aerospace engineer, stands at the helm as the founder and CEO of AIRMO GmbH, an innovative startup headquartered in Munich. Her passion project focuses on the development of a revolutionary constellation of small satellites designed specifically for tracking greenhouse gas emissions. With nearly a decade entrenched in the space sector, Daria's illustrious career boasts leadership roles in overseeing 12 missions spanning Earth Observation, IoT applications, and groundbreaking tech demonstrations. Her profound expertise extends across all facets of the satellite lifecycle, exemplifying her prowess in this dynamic field. Under her guidance, AIRMO fosters a culture of rapid aerospace innovation, driving the industry forward with unwavering commitment.
Founder & CEO
AIRMO
Laura Lacarra is Head of Devrel at Telefonica Open Gateway. Open Gateway is the worldwide initiative multi-telco to open network capabilities via APIs. Laura is Computers Engineer. She has always been involved in software development, design infrastructure and DATA/IA engineering in projects like the platform of Movistar+ and the Big Data network analysis. Recently se has been recognized as an exemplary citizen of Zaragoza for divulging science, creating local communities, and empowering women, girls and kids in science.She has been recognized as one of the 100 people creative business by Forbes.
Head of Devrel
Telefónica Innovación Digital
Yogev Shelly is the CEO and Founder of TinyTap, an innovative educational platform featuring over 250,000 interactive lessons created by educators worldwide and esteemed publishers such as Sesame, PinkFong, Super Simple Songs, Care Bears, Oxford, and more. In 2022, TinyTap was acquired by Animoca Brands and was the anchor launch partner in the Open Campus with the goal of decentralizing education and positioning the community to capture the soon-to-be 10 trillion dollar industry of education.
Founder & CEO
TinyTap
Ramin Niroumand, Partner of Motive Partners and Head of Motive Ventures, is known as the Fintech-Pioneer in Germany. Prior to Motive Partners, Ramin played a pivotal role in building finleap, Europe's premier fintech ecosystem, which boasts a portfolio of more than 15 companies and counts three unicorns among its achievements. His leadership spearheaded the disruption of complex legacy domains such as banking, insurance, and wealth management, culminating in a collective portfolio valuation exceeding €3 billion today.
Partner & Head
Motive Ventures
Khurram Masood is the Co-Founder of Smalt and is on a mission to revolutionize talent supply and productivity in the blue collar workforce while empowering the clean energy transition across Europe. Prior to Smalt, Khurram was the Chief Product Officer at Sharpist, a personalized, impact-driven ed-tech platform that grew from less than 1 million to 5-10 million EUR in annual recurring revenue under my direction. He also co-founded and served as the COO of ALU, a Fast Company Top 50 most innovative company that reimagined higher education in Africa. He is a Stanford Alum, an Ex McKinsey Associate Partner, a Forbes Contributor, and a Techstars Mentor, with a passion for lifelong learning and social impact.
Co-Founder & MD
smalt.eu
Jenny Saft is CEO and Co-Founder at Apryl, a Berlin-based fertility benefits platform helping companies across Europe offer staff access to inclusive fertility and family-forming services - everything from egg freezing through to adoption and IVF. She is also an Angel investor, investing through the Atomico Angel Programme, which she's been a part of since 2021. Before founding Apryl, Jenny worked in project management and Business Development at the likes of Adyen and Fyber, spending a couple of years living and working in San Francisco.
Co-Founder & CEO
Apryl GmbH
Nicole Nehaus-Laug has been curating the Berlin BASECAMP program since 2018. The BASECAMP is o2 Telefónica's platform for digital thought and innovation, as a debate room, café and location for unique events, it is also the platform for the digital community in the heart of Berlin. She brings people from a wide variety of areas together to find solutions to the complexities of our time and to create the stage for inspiring personalities with fascinating topics in the digital world. At the beginning of 2000 Nicole founded a B2B online portal in Johannesburg, which worked closely with the South African government (Brain ThinkTank Program) and she was already able to provide impulses for digital transformation in an emerging country. Back in Germany, she worked for Bitkom and later for Deutsche Messe for many years. Among other things, she set up a new technology conference for CeBIT, which became CeBIT's flagship conference - the CeBIT Global Conferences.
BASECAMP Representative
o2 Telefónica
Nick Johnson is the visionary behind ENS Lab Limited, a Singapore-based non-profit organization driving the core software development of ENS. With an engineering journey that commenced in New Zealand in 2001, Nick honed his skills during a distinguished tenure at Google spanning over seven years across two periods. In 2016, he transitioned to a pivotal role within Ethereum, where he continues to make significant contributions. Notably, Nick is the mastermind behind Ethereum Name Service, a groundbreaking platform facilitating decentralized naming for wallets and addresses in the Web3 ecosystem. ENS boasts a myriad of applications, including streamlining user experiences in cryptocurrency transactions and serving as a repository for avatars and profile information.
Founder
ENS Labs Limited
Christian, a distinguished General Partner affiliated with Paris-based Ventech and stationed in Berlin, brings an unparalleled depth of experience to the realm of innovation financing. With a rich legacy spanning 25 years, he has been instrumental in steering VC investments into 27 start-ups, collectively amounting to over €150 million in funding. Notably, Christian has overseen the profitable exit of 15 ventures, while nurturing the growth trajectories of 6 companies as they continue to thrive. His astute stewardship extends beyond individual investments, as he has played a pivotal role in the establishment and management of 5 Venture Capital funds, amassing an impressive AUM of €800 million. Through his tenure, Christian has cultivated a profound understanding of the intricacies involved in orchestrating and managing Venture Capital Management organizations, solidifying his reputation as a luminary in the field. Currently, he represents Ventech on the boards of esteemed portfolio companies including Picanova, Speexx, Codasip, TrustYou, and Microoled, embodying his unwavering commitment to fostering innovation and driving success.
General Partner
Ventech
Fabian J. G. Westerheide, a leading AI expert in Germany, aims to make Europe a major player in the global AI arena. As an investor and entrepreneur, he has influenced numerous companies and institutions. He is the CEO of AI for Humans GmbH, advising governments and major companies, and hosts the "Rise of AI" conference. A founding partner of the AI Fund and investor through Asgard Capital since 2014, he also authored "The AI Nation," exploring AI's future societal impacts. Fabian holds a Master's from the University of St. Gallen and a Bachelor's from the University of Münster.
CEO | Partner
Rise of AI | AI.Fund
Caitlin Begg is a distinguished sociological researcher, acclaimed for her role as the founder of Authentic Social, where she specializes in sociotechnical systems strategy. Additionally, she hosts the insightful "Progression to Analog" podcast. Leveraging her groundbreaking 2016 Harvard thesis on digital communication, Caitlin is a sought-after speaker and presenter across the U.S. and Europe, with recent engagements including the Responsible AI Forum at TUM. Her impactful work has been prominently featured in notable publications such as Forbes, Mashable, Yahoo! News, and others.
Founder and Sociological Researcher
Authentic Social
Magnus leads as the Founder and CEO of CEEZER, an esteemed enterprise platform pioneering the screening, procurement, and management of negative emissions. Driven by a passion for innovation at the crossroads of technology, sustainability, and business, Magnus is committed to crafting novel solutions to address global challenges. His academic foundation in chemistry and business from TU Munich, coupled with advanced studies in Business and Sustainable Development from HEC Paris, underpins his strategic approach. Prior engagements at prestigious entities such as Boston Consulting Group and the digital services joint venture YOUR NOW by Daimler and BMW attest to his versatile expertise and leadership prowess.
Founder & CEO
Ceezer
As Head of P&L Financial & Enabling Services at Telefonica Germany, Martin Schurig enables third-party business with the customer base of Telefonica Germany. His portfolio includes A2P messaging (SMS, RCS), carrier billing, and app distribution. He drives network API monetization and leads the Open Gateway initiative at Telefonica Germany.
Head of Financial and Enabling Services
Telefonica Germany GmbH & Co OHG
Marius Bierdel is the CTO and Co-founder of constellr, a German startup revolutionizing agricultural water management through space technology. Since its 2020 inception, Bierdel has helped raise €32 million and expanded the team to 80+. constelr aims to save 60 billion tons of water and significantly reduce CO2 emissions by launching their own satellite constellation.
Co-Founder & CTO
constellr
Max Orgeldinger has helped build up TLGG Consulting over the past five years. Today, he manages the business and answers the big digital questions. Born in Berlin in 1989, he joined TLGG in 2011 after studying at the European Business School. Since then, he has been analysing changing market conditions and developing strategic and organizational solutions for clients such as E.ON, Lufthansa and Mercedes.
Co-Founder
TLGG
Annu Nieminen is the founder of The Upright Project, a Helsinki-based data company building a new type of a quantification to measure the net impact of companies. Upright hosts the world's largest open-access database on company impact, openly distributing science-based impact data on 10,000+ companies and 50,000+ funds. Upright's proprietary data model identifies causal product/impact relations in 200M+ scientific publications and summarises the findings into common sense net impact profiles.
Founder
Upright
Hendrik Kramer is the Co-Founder and CEO of FERNRIDE, that offers a scalable solution for autonomous, electric trucking. He co-founded FERNRIDE in 2019 with Dr. Maximilian Fisser and Jean-Michael Georg in Munich. Before launching Fernride, he specialized in Entrepreneurship and Autonomous Driving in his Master's program at TU Munich and Stanford University. He started his first company already at the age of 16 and scaled it to a successful international business.
Co-founder and CEO
FERNRIDE GmbH
Joe Fitzsimons is the founder and CEO of Horizon Quantum Computing, a Singapore-based company building software development tools to unlock the potential of quantum computing hardware, announced today that it has raised USD 18.1 million Series A investment from Sequoia Capital India, Tencent, SGInnovate, Pappas Capital and Expeditions Fund. Before founding Horizon Quantum Computing in 2018, Joe held a tenured position as an associate professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, where he led the Quantum Information and Theory group. He was also a principal investigator at the Centre for Quantum Technologies, contributing to both theoretical computer science and physics through his research.
Founder & CEO
Horizon Quantum Computing
Tom Hoy, a distinguished Partner at Stripe Partners, boasts a rich 15-year tenure dedicated to advising global titans on matters of strategy and innovation. Renowned for his adept application of social science theory, Tom adeptly tackles complex business and product conundrums, leaving an indelible mark on esteemed clients such as Apple, Google, and Spotify. His groundbreaking frameworks and concepts, lauded in esteemed publications like the Financial Times and The Guardian, serve as guiding beacons for industry innovation. Prior to co-founding Stripe Partners, Tom led the charge in the realm of social innovation, orchestrating the expansion of a South London hackathon network into a formidable force, rallying hundreds to champion local causes.
Co-founder and Partner
Stripe Partner
Barthélémy Kiss is the CEO and Co-founder of Powder, which builds best-in-class AI clipping technology for gaming streamers to grow faster and smarter. Since 2013, Barthélémy has co-led three startups, which went on to raise $28M, including creating Europe’s most impactful Deep Tech conference (Hello Tomorrow) and the world’s first Creative AI automating 3D content creation -Artomatix, acquired by Unity.
Co-Founder & CEO
Powder
Thomas, a second-time founder in the carbon removal space, has successfully raised USD 1.3 million for Cotierra’s pre-seed round. As Cotierra’s CEO, he’s steering the company towards its goal of reducing and removing 10 million tons of CO2 emissions from agricultural supply chains while improving the livelihoods of 1 million smallholder farmers. Cotierra focuses on transforming coffee plantation waste into biochar, a valuable soil improver that permanently captures carbon in the soil.
Co-Founder & CEO
Cotierra AG
Benjamin is a founding partner at Carbon Removal Partners, a Zurich based VC investing into Carbon Removal tech companies globally. His background is in Mathematics and tech Company Building - and he is passionate about Carbon Removal at scale being able to create a physical price of carbon in the future.
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Founding Partner
Carbon Removal Partners
Chris Mirabile is the Founder and CEO of NOVOS, the leading consumer longevity platform. He founded the company after being cured of a brain tumor and having a vision to make longevity accessible and achievable for all – not just the ultra wealthy. NOVOS tackles aging's 12 causes with validated formulations, tests, and digital tools, offering groundbreaking results in addressing aging.
Founder & CEO
NOVOS
Christoph is a theoretical physicist, former core-dev of Ethereum (2014/15), co-founder of slock.it, author of TheDAO, business angel, and today co-founder and CEO of Tokenize.it. His wealth of experience, vision, and understanding of Ethereum is dedicated to building the next generation of web3 products.
CEO
Tokenize.it
Nicolas Wolikow is a French entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of Cure51. Since March 2022, Nicolas has been fully dedicated to Cure51 that has just raised a €15 million seed round to harness the natural power of cancer survivors and contribute to cure this life threatening disease. After graduating from Sciences Po and HEC, he pursued roles in marketing and international development within major French groups, like L'Oréal and Sodexo, before transitioning to technology, co-founding Talkway and later Dailymotion. He then ventured into the healthcare sector, serving in leadership positions at International SOS Group and co-founding Qare, eventually joining Ipsen as Chief Digital Officer after the sale of Qare in 2020.
Founder & CEO
Cure51
Klaus Riedel is the Co-founder and CEO of blubito, scagile and scagile-work. As an agile coach, he supports the digital transformation and the introduction of Scrum and SAFe in large organizations such as Deutsche Bank, Conrad Electronics, Volkswagen, PWC and others. He also has experience working with startups, introducing agile processes the right way from very early on, and helping them scale faster through Nearshore Outsourcing. Klaus has also been teaching IT Project Management since 2016 at the Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria.
Co-Founder & CEO
blubito | scagile | scagile.work
Thomas Staller is the founder and CEO of the HR tech firm ID37 Company. He is renowned for his work in motive-based personality diagnostics. As a mathematician, leader and executive consultant, Thomas authored the book 'The ID37 Personality Assessment,' which provides profound insights into the psychological foundations and practical applications of the model. Having over 20 years of experience, he specializes in empowering leaders and teams to unlock their full potential and achieve success through.
Founder & CEO
ID37 Company
Zac Austin is the Co-Founder & CEO of Pacifico Biolabs, a fermentation Berlin-based startup developing next-generation seafood replacement products through biotechnology. In the first year, Pacifico developed best-in-class fish prototypes and a highly-optimised fermentation process, enabling their $3.3m Pre-Seed round, led by FoodLabs and Simon Capital. Prior to founding Pacifico, Zac was a Strategy Consultant at McKinsey in London, Assistant Director in the British Government Covid Taskforce, and Head of Special Projects at Razor Group in Berlin.
Co-Founder & CEO
Pacifico Biolabs GmbH
Martin Pentenrieder is the Co-founder and Managing Director of IQONIC.AI. In 2021, he was recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and won the SET Award. Martin is a serial entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience as he has had the pleasure of founding several deep-tech companies operating in the US, Europe and China.
Founder
IQONIC.AI
Jonathan is an Associate at FoodLabs, a pan-European Early Stage VC investor and venture studio, assisting the bold in building iconic companies committed to planetary and human health. Jonathan supports the investment at early-stage and building companies in Food-, Bio-, Ag- and ClimateTech. In the FoodLabs Studio, Jonathan supports mission-driven founders tackling the most pressing challenges around the global food system, planetary and human health, enabling the bold & imaginative to go from zero to one.
VC
FoodLabs
Megan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Franklin, a tax compliant hybrid cash & crypto payroll service. With a background in accounting and product management, Megan has held leadership positions at Web3-native firms since 2016. She is a Crypto Accountant with experience from working with the likes of ConsenSys, DriveWealth, and most recently Serotonin, a Web3 marketing firm and product studio, where Megan served as VP of Finance.
Co-Founder & CEO
Franklin Payroll
René is the Co-Founder & CEO of NeoCarbon, a cleantech startup that retrofits industrial sites to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and that has already secured €3.2M. René is a strongly value-driven industrial engineer. After years of running through the Alps, he became very aware of the damages of climate change, leading him to study Energy and Resource Management before eventually founding NeoCarbon.
Co-Founder & CEO
NeoCarbon
As co-founder of InnovateBlack, Marcus facilitate convergence for the Black migrants in Asia. Their groundbreaking project, InnovateBlack Bali Summit, has brought together 100+ people across Southeast Asia over 3 days, curating 30 workshops and connecting 22 diaspora countries, from concept to execution.
Co-Founder
InnovateBlack
Sondre is the CEO and Co-Founder of Naer, a mixed-reality workplace app for focused, high-energy brainstorming that helps teams be more creative, build stronger relationships and supercharge productivity in remote and hybrid work. Despite having never been available to the public, Naer was one of the few selected apps to launch exclusively with Meta’s Quest 3.
Co-founder & CEO
Naer
Founder and Communication Consultant
Staycation Collection
Lois Kainhuber is a Berlin-based entrepreneur and Creative Director in the field of immersive brand experiences and strategic communication. After completing his film studies in 2006, he co-founded MONOMANGO; a creative media and production agency which collaborates with global brands in tech, mobility, lifestyle, medical and sports. In 2022 he established HOLON sub-brand immersive instruments, which offers a portfolio of haptic control interfaces and software solutions for immersive experiences.
Founder & Head of Creation
MONOMANGO GmbH | Immersive Instruments | HOLON
As the founder and creator of “The Art of Human Connection,” Steffi's initiatives are celebrated as life-altering, often described as experiences “I have never experienced anything like that,” “Life-changing and giving,” and “We need more of this.” Steffi Seefeld is globally acclaimed as one of the leading experts in creating and guiding transformational experiences through deep human connection. She collaborates with the world’s top conferences, events, and companies to create transformational keynote experiences and year-long programs. Her work has supported hundreds of leaders, entrepreneurs, and heart-centered individuals eager to make an impact worldwide.
Exec Coach and Speaker
Art of Human Connection
Connor is the CEO of Bridge Your Network and has an interdisciplinary background in Computer Science, Startups, Venture Capital, and Management Consulting, as he has invested in 30 pre-seed technology ventures that have an enterprise value > $1B. He was previously CEO and Founder of Datahug which exited to Nasdaq listed Callidus Cloud (Nasdaq:CALD) and is now part of SAP. Prior to Datahug, Connor worked with PA Consulting Group in London, New York and Washington DC. Connor was previously MD of the Techstars SAP.iO program in Berlin.
CEO
Bridge Your Network
