Top 50 Female VC Investors in UK tech
Every year, we release a different Top Women list(s), and this year we decided to start by focusing on female investors in the UK tech space. Under representation of women and diverse investors within the venture capital space is a huge problem that reflects not only on the internal teams within funds, but also on startups.
Our community is 20k+ big and one of the most common questions we get all the time is — ‘Can you connect or introduce us to some investors?’. Also, ever since we started running our events from Women & Money series, we were approached by dozens of female startup founders asking us for advice on where to find female investors and how to pitch them.
This is precisely the reason why from 2020 we decided to run series of panel discussions — From Investors Perspective, through which we hope to bring both local and global community of investors and startups together, each month focusing on different niche within the tech industry. Topic for January is Investing in FemTech and HealthTech, so if you’re in London next week join us for a discussion and some networking after!
If you’d like to contribute to our future events as speaker, partner or sponsor, drop us an email at hello@womenofwearables.com!
If you’re interested in our lists from previous years, check out our blog for more details!
Women of Wearables (WoW) is leading global organisation aiming to inspire, support and connect women and diverse groups in wearable tech, fashion tech, smart textiles, IoT, health tech and VR/AR. With headquarters in London (UK) and more than 20,000 members located around the globe, over the past four years WoW has become a global movement that supports its growing community through events, mentorship, educational programs and collaboration with its network of local ambassadors and partners. Our members are startup founders, designers, technologists, industry experts, researchers, bloggers, journalists, investors and many more.
This list was made by Women of Wearables London team, Marija Butkovic — founder and CEO of Women of Wearables and Anja Streicher, Women of Wearables CMO.
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A recent study by non-profit Diversity VC, has found that women are significantly underrepresented across London Venture Capital. 65% of funds in London have decision-making teams that are all-male. The proportion of women in London Venture Capital firms is 29% versus 46% for the London working population. The London Venture Capital scene is not attracting nor supporting female participation.
65% of funds in London have decision-making teams that are all-male. For comparison, London is accountable for ~90% of the funds in the UK without female representation.
Survey conducted among 223 venture capitalists (as a part of the same study) showed that the London Venture Capital community disproportionately comprises of white individuals when compared to the London population. In contrast, Black venture capitalists appear to be significantly underrepresented, alongside Asian venture capitalists.
Women in venture often have a higher level of education than men — in senior investment positions women hold an average of 1.5 degrees, compared to 1.3 for men. When it comes to junior positions, 8% hold PhDs or similar, compared to 1% of men.
This current situation is not only a reflection of a bigger problem existing in the UK tech ecosystem, but is omni present globally in other tech hubs. It also points at another big problem startups today are facing — without female investors, there is a huge gap between funding that goes to male-led businesses vs. female led ones.
One of the key messages from the above mentioned study by Diversity VC that reflects our work at Women of Wearables (and work of many other organisations and groups for women and diverse founders in tech) is following: ‘The founders that face the most barriers to capital are often the ones that have multiple structural disadvantages. If venture capital funds simply prioritise working with one group over another (or choose to work with one group ‘first’) this will disadvantage the founders that are most in need of support. Instead, funds should build relationships with a broad range of communities.’
According to UK VC & Female Founders report, commissioned by Chancellor Philip Hammond at Budget 2017 and undertaken by the British Business Bank in partnership with Diversity VC and the BVCA, for every £1 of venture capital (VC) investment in the UK, all-female founder teams get less than 1p, all-male founder teams get 89p, and mixed-gender teams 10p. Venture capital investment in start-ups with female founders is increasing but progress is very slow. At current rates, for all-female teams to reach even 10% of all deals will take almost 25 years (until 2045).
Source: UK VC & Female Founders report by British Business Bank (see above for link)
Recently published article by Harvard Business Review (‘How the VC Pitch Process Is Failing Female Entrepreneurs’) highlights a study from 2014 that used identical slides and scripts, voiced by men and women, with or without photos of the ‘presenter’, and then asked study participants to rate the investment. Pitches voiced by men significantly outperformed those with a woman narrator, and pitches where the narrator’s picture was a good-looking man performed best of all. Outcomes were the same whether the participants (‘judges’) were male or female. The researchers concluded, “Investors prefer pitches presented by male entrepreneurs compared with pitches made by female entrepreneurs, even when the content of the pitch is the same.”
According to the same article, bias also appears in how entrepreneurs are questioned. Research from 2017 found that women are asked different questions than men when pitching to VCs. Across 180 entrepreneurs and 140 VCs at the TechCrunch competition, men were consistently asked more ‘promotion’ questions (highlighting upside and potential gains), while women were asked more ‘preventive’ questions (highlighting potential losses and risk mitigation). Entrepreneurs who addressed promotion questions raised at least six times more money than those asked the prevention questions.
HM Treasury’s Investing in Women Code highlights that a diverse and inclusive business ecosystem is good for customers, entrepreneurs, businesses, investors, and society and recommends data collection on the demographic of a fund’s pipeline in addition to having a nominated/appointed member of the senior leadership team responsible for supporting equality.
In order to raise awareness and to celebrate female investors, we at Women of Wearables have compiled a list of the Top 50 Female VC Investors in UK tech.
The only way to change the industry is to be part of the industry. Without more female role models, women cannot be what they cannot see. By showcasing and highlighting these women and their achievements, we hope to inspire more women to participate in building UK tech ecosystem and to invest in more female-led businesses. Venture capital firms have a unique opportunity to positively impact the companies in which they invest, and society at large. Hopefully, next year this list can feature many more women in UK venture capital landscape!
Top 50 Female Investors in UK tech
Disclaimer: The list has been arranged in alphabetical order and not in rank. There are many more women who should be on this list and we’d like to encourage everyone to continue adding to it by posting in the comments. Also, in case you think we have missed someone or wish to suggest a correction, please drop us a line on hello@womenofwearables.com.
Adiari Vazquez, Ph.D., VC Investor at Next47 — Adiari is a VC Investor with Next47, a $1.2 billion global venture capital fund backed by Siemens, investing in deeptech and next gen B2B startups. She was previously the Industrial Tech lead for Caixa Capital’s Venture Capital team, where she executed investments and managed early-stage startups in Chemistry & Materials, Sensors, Digital Industry, IoT, AgTech, and Energy. Adiari has also been an advisor to the European Commission on defining strategies for stimulating industrial innovation, and fostering the development and deployment of industrial technologies. She received a B.Sc. in Engineering Sciences (2005), a Masters in Microbial Geochemistry (2010), and a Ph.D. in Environmental Chemistry and Engineering (2014) all from Harvard University, where she also lectured as a Teaching Fellow.
Akriti Dokania, B2B/Deep Tech Investor at Octopus Ventures — Akriti is an investor at an Octopus Ventures — a London and New York based venture capital firm, part of the Octopus group, one of the UK’s fastest growing investment management companies with more than £6 billion of assets under management. She is skilled in Management, Algorithms, C, User Experience, and C++, and has graduated from London Business School.
Alessandra Farnum, VC Investor at Santander InnoVentures — Alessandra is an investor at Santander InnoVentures, Santander Group’s global corporate venture capital fund, focused on early stage FinTech investments.Prior to that, she worked at Samsung Ventures Europe and Angels Den.
Anne M. Glover, CEO at Amadeus Capital Partners Limited — Anne is CEO and co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in European high-technology companies. Prior to founding Amadeus in 1997, she was with Apax Partners & Company Ventures, where she was a member of the investment team. Glover is a member of the UK Government’s Council for Science and Technology and the London Business School’s Private Equity Institute Advisory Board. From 2014 to 2015, Glover was the chair of the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA), and the chair of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) from 2004 to 2005. She was also a non-executive director of the UK Technology Strategy Board from 2005 to 2012.
Anya Navidski, founding partner of Voulez Capital — Anya is the Founding Partner at Voulez Capital — Europe’s First VC fund for female founders — providing Seed and Series A capital for high growth businesses with female founders. Having started her career with the likes of Goldman Sachs, PwC and NERA, she became an unrepentant entrepreneur, with almost twenty years of experience building businesses in multiple sectors and geographies, from running a £250m renewable energy venture and founding an incubator for social impact businesses, to turning around multiple tech ventures on behalf of investors.
BaoY Van Cong, VC and Growth Investor at Target Global — BaoY is an Investor at Target Global, an international Venture Capital firm with €700m in assets under management. BaoY has 3+ years TMT investment banking experience at Morgan Stanley in London and Sydney, advising European, US and Australian corporations on M&A and capital raising.
Beatrice Aliprandi, VC Investor at Talis Capital — Beatrice joined Talis Capital in 2018 after spending three years working at Jefferies in their Investment Banking division, where she has been involved in several transactions primarily in the Technology, Media and Telecoms space with a combined value of $4 billion. Beatrice holds a MSc in Risk and Finance from The London School of Economics and a BSc in Business Administration from Bocconi University.
Camilla Richards, Partner and Head of Investor Relations at Atomico — Camilla is Partner and Head of Investor Relations at Atomico based in London. She oversees fundraising and the firm’s relationships with its investors globally. Before joining Atomico, Camilla spent six years at Apollo Management where she was most recently responsible for investor relations and fundraising for European Principal Finance Funds. She has also held several roles at Citigroup as part of the Private Equity Placements and Technology, Media and Telecoms Corporate Finance groups. Camilla graduated from Imperial College London with an MSci in Physics.
Carina Namih, general partner at Episode 1 Ventures — Carina is a general partner at Episode 1 Ventures where she focuses on seed stage investments in deep tech. She previously founded HelixNano, a Y Combinator and venture backed biotech startup with a mission is to solve gene delivery. HelixNano applies machine learning to genomics to improve cancer immunotherapies.
Carmen Alfonso Rico, Investor at Samaipata VC — Carmen is an Investor at Samaipata VC, leading their UK office. Samaipata is an entrepreneur-led pre Series A VC fund with a pan-European and thematic approach, focused on marketplaces and platforms. They back exceptional entrepreneurs working on tech-enabled solutions that make the world more human. Prior to Samaipata Carmen was an investor at Felix Capital, joining as the first hire to the investment team as the fund launched. There she focused on digital lifestyle, investing in tech solutions improved consumer experiences. Before, she had worked for three years as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, where she advised the leading European financial institutions and corporations on their capital raising strategies.
Carolina Brochado, Investment Director at SoftBank Investment Advisers — Carolina focuses on fintech, digital health and marketplaces. Prior to joining Softbank, Carolina was a Partner at Atomico, where she sourced and collaborated with portfolio companies for almost five years. Some of her investments included Lendinvest, Gympass, Hinge Health, Ontruck and Rekki. Previously Carolina has worked as Head of Ops to a now defunct gifting e-commerce start-up, and as an investor at Chicago-based private equity firm Madis.
Casilda Angulo Obieta, VC Investor at Seaya Ventures — Casilda is a VC investor at Seaya Ventures, a venture fund investing in early and growth-stage Internet and technology-enabled companies. Prior to Seaya, Casilda worked at UBS Investment Bank in Madrid and London in the Telecom, Media and Technology team.
Clara Lindh Bergendorff, VC at firstminute capital — Clara is an investor at firstminute capital — a $100m VC seed fund with a global remit, backed by 30+ unicorn founders. Clara leads on investments in consumer; future of retail; and next generation digital media companies, and sits on the board of numerous companies across the UK and US. She is a tech commentator for publications including Forbes — about investing in the future of digital lifestyle — and previously worked as a journalist writing for the likes of CNN.
Daina Spedding, CFA, Investor at BGF — Daina is an Investor at BGF, an investment partner for growing companies in every sector of the economy. BGF has invested more than £485m across 80 businesses based in London since it was set up in 2011. Before joining BGF, she worked at Blue Coast Capital, where she sourced and executed investment opportunities in global consumer and digital companies for eight years. Before that she spent five years in PwC’s transaction services team, specialising in company valuations and analysis.
Devon Zimmerling, Investor at Cell Capital Partners — Devon is an investor at Cell Capital Partners, a private investment office formed by a series of investors, entrepreneurs and family offices targeting late seed/series A B2B SaaS startups across sectors. Devon joined Cell Capital Partners from Pi Labs Property Innovation, Europe’s first venture capital platform to invest exclusively in early stage ventures in the property tech vertical.
Eileen Burbidge, partner at Passion Capital — Eileen is a Partner at Passion Capital, the pre-eminent early-stage technology venture fund based in London. She brings extensive operational experience to her investment activities gleaned from business and product roles at Yahoo!, Skype, Apple and elsewhere. On behalf of Passion, Eileen serves as non-executive director on a number of fast growing SMEs including Monzo Bank, Digital Shadows, Tide, Butternut Box, Prowler.io and Focal Point Positioning, among others. In addition to Passion Capital, Eileen is also the Chair of Tech City UK, which is the British government-backed organisation supporting the digital economy across the UK. Eileen was made an MBE for services to Business in June 2015 and holds a BSc Engineering degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Ella Wales Bonner, Investor at JamJar Investments — Ella is an Investor at JamJar Investments, a venture capital investment fund based in London investing in digital consumer brands. Ella joined from M&C Saatchi where she worked with brands including Coca-Cola and Samsung.
Emilie Spire, Investor at Felix Capital — Emilie is an investor at Felix Capital, a venture firm for the creative class, at the intersection of technology and creativity, focused on opportunities in digital lifestyle. Prior to joining Felix, she has grown from Corporate Development Associate to Operations Project Manager at BlaBlaCar, a global long distance carpooling platform. She entered the tech world as Associate at Partech Ventures, a VC firm based in Paris.Earlier in her career, Emilie worked as a financial consultant at Ernst & Young. During her studies she held several internships in Private Equity and Venture Capital firms in Paris and Amsterdam.
Francesca (Check) Warner, Partner at Ada Ventures and co — founder and CEO of Diversity VC — Francesca is a Partner at Ada Ventures, a venture capital firm which invests in overlooked founders and markets and a Co-Founder and CEO at Diversity VC. Diversity VC is a non-profit group made up of interested individuals working in venture capital, who seek to increase diversity of thought in the venture industry.
Itxaso del Palacio, Investment Director at Notion — Itxaso is an Investment Director at Notion, VC firm investing in European SaaS and enterprise tech. She joined Notion in 2018 from M12 (formerly Microsoft Ventures) where she launched their UK office and led investments in Onfido, Beamery and Unbabel.
Julia Hawkins, Partner at LocalGlobe — Julia is a partner at Local Globe, a UK-based venture capital firm that focuses on seed stage investments. Key passion areas include creative sector, media, health tech including genomics. She is Board Trustee of Shwachman Diamond Syndrome UK, a charity dedicated to finding a cure for SDS, a rare genetic disease diagnosed in fewer than 2,000 patients worldwide. Before joining Local Globe, Julia was Head of Strategy and Investments at Universal Music UK.
June Angelides, VC at Samos Investments — June is a VC investor at Samos International, a venture capital investor with a focus on high-growth European businesses. June is the Founder of Mums in Technology, the first child-friendly coding school in the UK. After making the leap from the corporate world as a Tech Banker at Silicon Valley Bank after the birth of her second child, she is a strong advocate for the rights of working mothers. June is also passionate about getting people from all backgrounds into careers in tech. She is currently Chair of The Future Skills Programme and a Founding Ambassador of the FiftyFiftyPledge.
Laura Connell, Principal at Balderton Capital — Laura joined Balderton’s investment team in 2018. Before that, she spent three years advising technology startups across industries to develop and implement their fundraising and launch strategies as well as their financial and operational structure, in sectors ranging from online retail to healthcare and fintech. Laura undertook neuroscience research in the Brain Sciences Department of Imperial College’s Faculty of Medicine. She was a Fulbright Scholar and gained her MBA from Harvard, and she studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford.
Lillian Li, co-founder of Diversity VC and investor at Eight Roads — Lilian Li is a co-founder of Diversity VC, a non-profit group made up of interested individuals working in venture capital, who seek to increase diversity of thought in the venture industry. She is also an investor at Eight Roads Ventures, a global venture capital firm that helps entrepreneurs scale. In the past 10 years, the Eight Roads ecosystem has invested almost $6bn into growing companies from offices in the UK, India, Japan, China and the US.
Lilly Bussmann, Principal at Oxford Sciences Innovation — Lilly is a Principal at Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) where she looks after technology as well as life sciences investment. OSI has raised £600 million to invest & accelerate startups coming out of Oxford University. OSI’s investors include Google Ventures, Tencent, Temasek, Lansdowne, Red Mile Group, the Wellcome Trust and Oxford University’s own endowment fund. Prior to OSI, Lilly worked for an early-stage VC firm in London, helped launch an e-commerce startup in Shanghai, and worked for an incubator in Zurich. In 2012, she was recognised as a ‘Global Shaper’ by the World Economic Forum. Lilly holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from Magdalen College, Oxford.
Lina Wenner, principal at firstminute capital — Lina joined firstminute from the Boston Consulting Group, where she worked alongside global corporations across Consumer, Energy and Heavy Industrials, advising on digital strategy, restructuring and M&A as a member of the corporate finance team. She gained an MPhil in Management from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Economics and Statistics from the University College Utrecht, the Netherlands, where she graduated with Summa Cum Laude. At firstminute, Lina leads on sourcing for the Nordic and German-speaking regions and has a strong interest in digital health, robotics, direct-to-consumer brands and femtech. She sits as a board observer of Evolution AI.
Leila Rastegar Zegna, Founding Partner at Kindred Capital VC — Leila is a Founding Partner at Kindred Capital VC, an early stage venture capital fund based in London that practices equitable venture. Since 2011, Zegna has also been an angel investor and has invested in numerous start-ups in the US and UK, including Matterport, Thread, Knyttan, Pamono, Lystable, Memrise, ASAP54, Enki, Say Media, Grovo, WorkLife, Bloom & Wild, Tech Will Save Us, ID.me, Virtusize and BloomThat.
Louise Rix, VC Investor at Forward Partners — Louise is a VC investor at Froward Partners, an early stage VC based in London, investing in Applied AI, e-commerce and marketplace startups. Previously, she was a founder of a healthcare startup, Entrepreneur First alumni and medical doctor.
Maria (Trokoudes) Wagner, Investment Director at Beringea — Maria is an Investment Director at Beringea and is responsible for sourcing investments, executing deals and monitoring portfolio companies. She currently sits on the boards of My 1st Years, MYCS, AccessPay, and Arctic Shores. Maria was previously Managing Director of Birchbox UK, a beauty e-commerce and subscription business. Prior to this, she was on the investment teams at Virgin Group and GMT Partners, where she made investments and monitored portfolio companies, mainly in the digital and media sectors.
Maren Bannon, co-founder and partner at Jane VC — Maren is a co-founder and Partner at Jane VC, an early stage fund to invest in visionary female led startups. Previously, she was CEO and Cofounder of LittleLane. Her operating experience also includes leadership roles at health tech startups as well as leading consumer marketing for a $1B product at Genentech. She holds an MBA from Stanford and an Engineering degree from Dartmouth.
Megan Reynolds, Investor at Crane Venture Partners — Megan is Investor at Crane Venture Partners, investing in pre-Series A enterprise companies with deeply technical founders across Europe. Previously she worked at Entrepreneur First, Crowdcube, and Abeerdeen Assett Management.
Megumi Ikeda, Managing Director of Hearst Ventures — Megumi is the managing director of Hearst Ventures and the general manager of Hearst Ventures Europe, where she oversees investments and non-organic acquisitions across Europe. She is based in London. Ikeda previously ran the European arm of the Peacock Equity Fund, GE Capital and NBCUniversal’s $250 million venture fund. Previously, she worked in corporate M&A and distribution deals at NBCUniversal. Ikeda started her career in Tokyo as a reporter for Dow Jones and an international business manager at Wired in San Francisco. Ikeda received her undergraduate degree from Columbia College, Columbia University and earned her master’s degree at UCLA’s the Anderson School.
Nadine Torbey, Investor at AlbionVC — Nadine is an Investor at Albion VC,VC firm investing from seed to Series B in high growth companies, with a focus on B2B software and tech enabled services in the UK. Nadine joined the tech investment team from Berytech Fund Management, one of the first VC funds in the Middle East. Her investment career to date has involved big data management, virtual reality, IoT, digital networks and hardware.
Ophelia Brown, founder of Blossom Capital — Ophelia is a passionate technology investor and venture capitalist. In 2018 she co-founded Blossom Capital with a mission to bring a highly differentiated approach to early stage venture capital. As a General Partner at LocalGlobe, she helped build their first institutional fund and invested in a number of exciting companies including Beamery, Cuvva, Debut, Echo, Tessian and Zego. Previously, Ophelia was with Index Ventures for four years where she led investments in Big Health, Call9, MarvelApp, Osper and Typeform and worked closely with Credit Benchmark, Peoplevox and Robinhood.
Pia d’Iribarne, Partner at Stride.VC — Pia is a Partner at Stride.VC, a venture capital firm targeting seed stage startups. Pia was previously at Accel where she focused on SaaS and consumer internet companies and invested in companies including Doctolib, Framer, Payfit, Selency and Shift Technology. She was a board observer at Payfit, Selency and Shift Technology. Prior to that, she was at Felix Capital and McKinsey & Company.
Raya Yunakova, Investor at LAUNCHub Ventures — Raya is an Investor at LAUNCHub Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm investing at the seed and series A stages. Before joining LAUNCHub Ventures, she was a Programme Director at Pi Labs Property Innovation and Senior Programme Manager at Microsoft.
Rebecca Hunt, VC Investor at Octopus Ventures — Rebecca is a VC Investor at Octopus Ventures focusing on Healthcare and Consumer. She joined the Ventures team in 2012, and focuses on the assessment of investment opportunities, deal origination and ongoing portfolio management within the Future of Health team. Rebecca has experience of working with a number of early stage businesses across a range of different sectors and has led investments into and served on the boards of a number of investee companies including BridgeU, Elliptic, Trouva, Uniplaces, Outfittery, Eve Sleep, Tails.com and most recently AppearHere amongst others. Rebecca is a qualified chartered accountant, and has a first class honours degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Southampton.
Reshma Sohoni, Founding Partner at Seedcamp — Reshma set up early-stage investment firm, Seedcamp in 2007. Sohoni started her venture career at 3i after working at Vodafone in the marketing and strategy department. Seedcamp is Europe’s first large-scale pre-seed and growth stage accelerator programme, and has backed almost 200 companies with one unicorn and 91% having raised further funding to a tune of $350 million.
Sarah Nöckel, VC Investor at Dawn Capital — Sarah is an Investor at Dawn Capital, the largest VC fund dedicated to B2B software and B2B fintech start-ups ups across Europe with over $500m under management. She is also a Founder of Femstreet, weekly newsletter and community for women in tech and venture capital.
Severine Balick, founder and CEO of Matador Ventures — Severine is a Founder and CEO of Matador Ventures, focusing on investments in Food, Agtech and Digital Health. Prior to founding her own company, she was Food and AgTech Investment Manager at Quadia — Swiss Investment Fund dedicated to impact investing with a focus on Energy, Food and Agriculture.
Sitar Teli, Managing Partner at Connect Ventures — Sitar is a managing partner at Connect Ventures, an early-stage tech VC firm in London. As a venture capitalist, she is focused on seed and early stage investments of £150k — £1.5m in internet and mobile companies in Europe. Prior to joining Connect Ventures, she worked for Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, where she led their Series A round in SoundCloud.
Sonali De Rycker, Partner at Accel — Sonali is a General Partner at Accel. She started her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs in NYC. Prior to Accel, De Rycker worked at Atlas Ventures as a partner. Sonali led Accel’s investments in Avito (acquired by Naspers), Lyst, Spotify (NYSE: SPOT), Wallapop, Calastone, Monzo, Shift Technology, Kry, Soldo, and sennder. De Rycker’s area of expertise is consumer technology, business software, and financial services.
Sofia Dolfe, Investor at Index Ventures — Sofia is an investor at Index Ventures, an international venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/AI, and security. Prior to Index, Sofia worked on large Commercial Due Diligence projects for Parthenon-EY in London and Paris, and spent time at the European Union Delegation to the OECD.
Sophie Dingreville, Investment Director at Munich Re Ventures — Sophie leads Munich Re’s corporate venture capital activities in Europe. She has more than 15 years in the venture capital industry and is now based in London as the Munich Re Group’s investment director. Munich Re’s corporate venture capital activities span across all lines of insurance business: Reinsurance Group, HSB and ERGO. Munich Re is the world’s largest reinsurer, with over $270 billion in investment assets.
Susan Lin, Principal at Felix Capital — Susan is a Principal at Felix Capital, a venture capital firm focusing on digital lifestyle, investing in authentic brands and related enabling technologies. Susan joined Felix Capital from HgCapital, a London based private equity fund where she focused on software investments and portfolio companies. Prior to HgCapital, Susan was a management consultant at Bain & Company in San Francisco, Singapore and London, advising private equity and growth capital funds on potential investments and CPG and e-commerce companies on go-to-market, M&A and growth strategies. Susan has worked in 2 start-ups in San Francisco and New York along the way. She was Director of Partner Strategy at AppDirect, a leading cloud app marketplace, and worked in business development at Plated, a meal kit delivery service acquired by Albertsons.
Susannah McClintock, Investment Director at Sustainable Ventures — Susannah is an Investment Director at Sustainable Ventures, developing, investing in, and providing workspaces for sustainable businesses. Susannah specialises in building and funding businesses from seed investment to expansion capital.
Stephanie Opdam, CFA, VC Investor at Notion — Stephanie is a VC investor at Notion, an entrepreneur backed venture capital firm investing in high potential B2B software companies in Europe in the Series A/B stage. Investments range between $2–7m per transaction. Before joining Notion, she worked at Columbia Lake Partners, a venture debt fund focused on providing growth capital to European technology companies.
Victoria Perweiler, Venture Partner at Digitalis Ventures — Victoria is a Venture Partner at Digitalis Ventures, a venture capital group focused on early-stage healthcare investments. Whilst the rest of her team is based in NYC/SF, she’s focused on finding promising founders in Europe who are passionate about solving complex problems in health care. Prior to VC, Victoria led growth marketing and product strategy at a number of women’s health startups in the US (Nurx, Ava women), and knows first hand what it takes to scale a company to hundreds of thousands of customers.
Yasmina Darveniza, Investor at Round Hill Ventures — Yasmina is an investor at Round Hill Ventures, a global VC firm with a European focus, investing across all segments of technology that touches real estate, space or the built environment from late seed to Series B+. Investments include: Spacemaker AI, Wunderflats, Canopy, SenSat, Plentific, Airlite, Casafari, Brick Lane, AllMyHomes, REalyse, HandsHQ, UniLodgers, Factory, Myo, and strategic LP investments MetaProp II and Pi Labs II.. She holds an MBA with private equity and finance concentrations from London Business School and law degrees from Australia.
Yvonne (Haizel) Bajela, CFA, Founding Member & Principal at Impact X Capital Partners LLP — Yvonne is a Founding Member and Principal at Impact X Capital, venture capital company investing at the Seed and Series A stages within the entertainment, media, tech and creative industries. Yvonne was previously a Senior Investment Manager at Mitsui & Co. and was the youngest investment manager across the 90,000 global employees within the group. There she led over $200 million in investments in companies including TransferWise and Blackswan Data. Yvonne is also an avid angel investor in Europe, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, an Advisor for the Mayor of London’s Access to Finance programme and a board member.
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