Michael Ströck is the co-founder and managing partner of Allocator One, a firm focused on supporting first-time venture capital fund managers globally. With extensive experience in tech and entrepreneurship, Michael has co-founded multiple companies and venture funds, including Candidately (YC S17), First Circle Capital and Calm/Storm Ventures.

Hazman Hilmi is the Chief Investment Officer of Malaysia’s Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) since January 2022. He was previously the Managing Director of Damansara Assets Sdn Bhd (DASB) – a wholly owned real-estate subsidiary of Johor Corporation (JCorp) and the Chief Executive Officer of AMAL by Malaysia Airlines – a wholly owned subsidiary of the Malaysian Aviation Group. Prior to that, Hazman was with Khazanah Nasional Berhad where he served in various roles across the organisation over 12 years, including as the Senior Vice President of Khazanah Europe Investment Limited based in London, and Vice President of Khazanah Turkey Regional Office based in Istanbul. He obtained his MEng (1st Class) in Engineering, Economics and Management from Balliol College, University of Oxford and MSc in Operational Research from the London School of Economics & Political Science.

Florian Heinemann is a Founding Partner at Project A Ventures, a European early-stage VC with approximately USD 1.5bn in AuM that has backed more than 120 companies since 2012, including Trade Republic, Kry, Sennder, Zepz, Quantum Systems, Arx Robotics, Uberall, and Liqid. Prior to founding Project A, he was Managing Director at Rocket Internet, where he worked closely with companies such as Zalando, Home24, and Global Fashion Group. Earlier in his career, Florian co-founded and served as Managing Director of JustBooks/AbeBooks, held senior roles in marketing and business intelligence at Jamba! and iLove, and co-founded the online marketplace antibodies-online.com. As an active angel investor, he has invested in more than 80 startups—including Zalando and Trivago—and is an LP in over 50 VC funds with a focus on emerging managers.

IIliana Oris Valiente is the Managing Director and North America Innovation Hubs Lead at Accenture. A seasoned CPA and strategist, Iliana has built a reputation as a global thought leader in emerging technologies, particularly in AI and Web3. She is an active startup advisor and investor, lending her expertise to support innovative ventures. Iliana is also a frequent speaker and published author, and serves on several boards of directors including at Sunnybrook Hospital. Iliana advocates for the future of work, and for the integration of cutting-edge technologies in business — ensuring companies stay competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Dr. Elisabeth Roider is a physician-scientist, entrepreneur, and longevity investor. She founded InnoMed Group, an advisory and investment platform supporting funds, family offices, and corporate VCs in biotech, preventive medicine, and consumer health. She also co-founded Maximon, Europe’s leading longevity company builder, and invested through the Longevity Co-Investment Fund, helping scale ventures in nutraceuticals, diagnostics, and next-generation therapeutics.

Trained at Harvard, Basel, and St. Gallen, Elisabeth brings 20+ years of experience in medicine, translational research, and venture creation. She has published widely and continues research at Harvard and Basel. Her work bridges science, capital, and entrepreneurship—turning discoveries into scalable businesses with global impact. As investor and thought leader, she advances longevity as an asset class and drives the translation of science into solutions that extend healthspan and lifespan.

John has enjoyed a long and central role in the Financial Strategy of Imperial College including: Multiple private bond placements; the IP exploitation journey from wholly owning Imperial Innovations, to the flotation of Touchstone Innovations to the merger with IP Group; Multi Asset Investment Management of the Endowment from £50m as at 2000 to over £500m in 2023; and the co-development of aligned Real Estate opportunities including the Grad Pad Postgraduate student accommodation platform, I-Hub and Scale Space as true co-location facilities and the emergence of a genuine and inclusive White City Innovation District in North West London.

Jess Bartos is a Partner at Notion Capital, a $1B AUM venture capital firm, where she focuses on the firm’s growth-stage investments. She has an interest in AI-enabled applications, AI/ML & enterprise infrastructure, B2B fintech, and vertical software. She has backed category leaders including ElevenLabs, Miro, and Quantexa, and is also an active angel investor in AI and SaaS opportunities. Before joining Notion, Jess was a venture investor with Salesforce Ventures and AlbionVC, specialising in enterprise software. Earlier in her career, she worked in investment banking at Rothschild in London and New York and served in the Obama Administration as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Allocator One backs the top 3% of emerging fund managers globally. Felix has successfully built and exited several companies and is passionate about supporting new fund talent and high-potential ventures. His extensive network and experience in scaling businesses make him a valuable contributor to the investment community.

Marco has been working at the forefront of the cryptocurrency industry since he quit his bank job to join the cryptocurrency revolution in 2011. He is a founder and co-CEO of Genesis Group, which includes Genesis Mining – one of the world’s largest cloud-based service providers dedicated to mining cryptocurrencies. Marco’s knowledge about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies benefits from his advanced studies in physics, mathematics and economics, as well as over a decade of experience working in finance and investment banking. When he’s not working, Marco enjoys reading about new technologies. At heart, he is a tech junkie with an appreciation for clever, simple solutions. Marco especially enjoys learning of advancements in applied sciences that are both elegant and profound in their potential to radically improve the way people live their lives. Marco is from northern Germany and holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics.

Amy Lewin is the Editor of Sifted, the award-winning media platform covering Europe’s startup and VC scene. As the first employee at Sifted, she’s shaped its editorial voice and established it as the go-to outlet for founders, investors, and policymakers. A sharp analyst of tech trends and ecosystem dynamics, Amy hosts Sifted’s podcast, regularly interviews the industry’s leading entrepreneurs, and manages a team of a dozen journalists around Europe.

Stefan M. Röhrig Investor, 9 Ventures Stefan Röhrig is the principal investor at 9 Ventures, where he focuses on backing ambitious founders in the area of longevity to extend human healthspan. He previously founded and led Places For Less, a Boston-based proptech startup rethinking rentals with lower broker fees. Before that, he held senior leadership roles at MAM Baby, helping scale the company’s global footprint. Stefan serves as a non-executive board member at the Bamed MAM Group and brings over a decade of cross-continental operating experience. He is also and investor at R3 Capital and holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Chirantan Patnaik serves as Director of Venture Capital in the Technology and Telecoms Equity team at British International Investment (BII), where he has been driving innovation across South Asia and Africa since 2015. He leads BII’s Venture Capital investing strategy, which focuses on driving innovation and entrepreneurship across South Asia and Africa, and is responsible for investing and managing a diversified portfolio of early-stage funds and co-investments

Daniel Theobald is a visionary leader in robotics, AI, and IoT, with decades of experience at the forefront of innovation. With 67 issued patents and over 30 patents pending, Daniel has made significant contributions to shaping the future of intelligent technology. As founder of Vecna, VecnaRobotics, MassRobotics, and Mekable, Daniel inspires audiences to explore the transformative potential of technology in creating a sustainable, equitable future.

Dr. Jennifer Kan is a trailblazer at the intersection of synthetic biology and venture capital. A former Caltech postdoc, her enzyme engineering research is lauded in Science, Nature, and the 2018 Nobel Prize lecture. As co-founder of Juniper Fund, Jennifer backs pioneering pre-seed startups decarbonizing industrial sectors—bridging the crucial gap ignored by traditional biotech and mainstream climate VCs. Recognized by Forbes and holding 6 patents, she is a trusted expert championing the next wave of industrial biotech transformation.

Alexandra Ntemourtsidou is redefining deeptech venture capital as co-GP of Creator Fund—Europe’s first institutional investor focused on PhD-led startups from top universities. By leveraging a 50+ strong network of PhD Venture Fellows across 28 elite institutions, she captures and catalyzes breakthrough AI, biotech, and robotics innovation at inception. Alexandra is a champion for technical founders, leading early-stage commercialization and bridging the gap between academic brilliance and world-class startup success.

Tobi Momo serves as the strategic leader for Channels TV Group, overseeing the organization’s comprehensive growth initiatives across the media conglomerate. He spearheads the family investment portfolio and corporate development strategies for the $2 billion entertainment and media group. Tobi drives long-term strategic planning and manages key investment decisions that shape the future direction of one of Nigeria’s most influential media families.

Peter Hughes is the Founder and CEO of Apex Group, a global financial services provider operating in over 90 markets with 13,000+ employees. Since founding Apex in 2003, he has scaled it into a leading single-source provider of fund, financial, and corporate solutions. A chartered accountant by training, Peter previously held roles at KPMG, Hemisphere Management, and served as CFO at a fund-of-funds group. He also sits on the boards of Inveniam and has served with Luxembourg Fund Partners.

Dr. Céline Chi Hae Wong, a Strategic finance professional in investment banking, digital innovation, and regulatory transformation across Europe and Asia. Former Head of Digital Assets at VP Bank and ex-BCG consultant, with deep expertise in the structuring, implementation, and lifecycle management. With a family business background in Renewable Solar Energy and Real Estate, Céline has been brought up in a multinational entrepreneurial family and is also a worldwide recognised leading next gen voice of global philanthropy.

Tarek Waked, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Type One Ventures, has always pursued bold ideas and embraced risk to create a better world. Born into a Lebanese family in Latin America, he moved to the U.S.. He studied International Affairs and Economics at Florida State University, where he first experienced entrepreneurship and learned to value failure as a stepping stone. After working as a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley, Tarek returned to Latin America, fostering startups as a founder, investor, and mentor. In 2019, he established Type One Ventures, recognizing the transformative potential of Space and Deep Tech. Tarek envisions humanity reaching the stars, supporting companies pushing us toward a Type One Civilization. He serves on Space Forge, Gravitics, and Axiom Space boards, striving to connect Earth’s businesses to space and leave a lasting impact on humanity’s cosmic journey.

Jori Davis is a 14-year international pro basketball veteran, Indiana University standout, and founder of WEVOLV, a legal-tech and career intelligence platform designed to protect and empower athletes. After being drafted to the WNBA, she spent more than a decade competing across Europe, Oceania, and the Americas, where she experienced firsthand the lack of affordable legal support, career data, and unbiased guidance available to athletes abroad. With WEVOLV, she aims to flip the industry’s top-down model by putting power, tools, and data directly in the hands of athletes, transforming them from products into stakeholders and redefining what true career ownership in sports looks like.

Severin Zugmayer leads New Renaissance Ventures, the leading VC brand at the intersection of creativity and technology. With a deep background across creative and advisory roles, Severin backs pioneering founders reimagining arts, media, and cultural heritage for the digital era.

Arian Ghashghai, founder of Earthling, former AI engineer at Meta Reality Labs (Oculus), leverages his deep technical expertise in AR/VR and AI to invest in the next wave of computing—spatial computing, robotics, and AI. With a 12x angel track record and unparalleled industry insight, Arian is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the explosive growth of the VR ecosystem.

Jens Hilgers is a pioneer in the gaming and esports industry, currently serving as the Founding General Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, a global investment platform with $830 million in assets under management, focusing on gaming, esports, and Web3 technologies. He co-founded ESL (Electronic Sports League), G2 Esports, and Bayes, and is known for his role in leading the first unicorn exit in Germany’s gaming industry, with ESL’s acquisition by Saudi Arabia’s SAVVY Games Group for $1.05 billion. Through BITKRAFT, Hilgers continues to invest in and shape the future of gaming and interactive entertainment.

Yvonne Bajela is one of Europe’s most accomplished venture capitalists, having seeded four unicorns (Wise, Flutterwave, Marshmallow, Moove) and consistently delivered 90th percentile realized DPI. With 10+ years of global investment and operating expertise, Yvonne combines deep market insight with founder empathy—often serving as the first call for strategic support and capital. Formerly Partner at Phoenix Court and Mitsui, she deploys Evertrue’s proprietary Founder DNA framework to identify generational outliers across Europe, Africa, Japan, and Israel. Yvonne is at the forefront of conviction-led, super angel investing.

Thomas Ao is a pioneer in blockchain and Web3 investing, with more than a decade of front-line experience as an early Bitcoin holder, entrepreneur, and fund manager. Leading Mindfulness Capital’s global Web3 fund, Thomas channels deep technical insight and transactional expertise into high-conviction bets across blockchain, NFTs, and the metaverse. As President of the Metaverse Industry Association Macau and a serial M&A architect in tech manufacturing, his cross-border leadership and macro vision are shaping the digital frontier worldwide.

Dhruv Sehrraa is the Founder and CEO of 256 Network, which is redefining how capital flows and influence shape the 21st century through an exclusive global community of distinguished capital allocators. Since founding the club in 2019, he has built it into one of the world’s most prominent LP-GP networks, with over 695+ active members collectively managing $3 trillion in assets across 40 countries.

Dr. Ben Heng, Ph.D., is a seasoned technology leader with deep expertise in energy, AI, and advanced manufacturing. He serves on the Board of Directors of RemBrain.ai, guiding product and fundraising strategy for adaptive AI robotics, and is EVP of Engineering and Operations at ESS Inc., a leader in long-duration iron-flow batteries. Ben has scaled and exited multiple startups, including Cherrylabs.ai (AI healthcare) and Caelux Solar (perovskite solar), and co-founded Alpha10x, an AI-powered impact investment platform. Previously, he led solar product engineering and operations at Tesla/SolarCity, overseeing the design and scale-up of innovations like the SolarRoof, after starting his career at Intel in device integration and process engineering. Holder of 72+ patents across biotech, transistor technology, and solar, Ben earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializing in device physics and nanotechnology.

Chris Yeh is a founding General Partner of Blitzscaling Ventures. Chris has founded, advised, or invested in over 100 high-tech startups since 1995, including 9-figure companies like Ustream (investor, advisor, CEO) and UserTesting.com (advisor). He is the co-author, along with Reid Hoffman, of “Blitzscaling: The Lightning-fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies”, and the co-author, along with Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, of the New York Times bestseller, “The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age”. Chris earned two degrees from Stanford University, with distinction in both, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was named a Baker Scholar.

Raj Sheth is an accomplished founder, investor, and ecosystem builder, having bootstrapped and exited two startups before backing 50+ outlier companies, including Exotel as an angel. As co-GP of Inuka Capital, he reshapes early-stage VC in India by providing first institutional capital to digitization-driven startups. Raj’s unique founder-operator lens and mastery of turning scarcity into advantage are central to Inuka’s mission: driving efficiency and innovation at scale across the Indian economy.

Ari Stiegler is the General Partner of Flux Capital, leading early-stage investments in hard-tech, robotics, space, defense, and AI. Blending operator hustle with sharp investment instincts, Ari has scaled SPVs into nine-figure returns and built groundbreaking platforms like Prism, which lets startup employees unlock liquidity from pre-IPO equity. As a founder of TutorMe.com, he scaled to millions of users and exited to a public edtech company. Ari’s sharp eye for transformative technologies and hands-on support empower founders to build category-defining frontier companies.

Sam Lawson is a global authority in venture secondaries, with a multi-billion-dollar transaction track record spanning pre-seed to late-stage growth. As the founder of Flywheel, he unlocks structured liquidity for founders and angels in growth-stage tech, leveraging proprietary sourcing platforms and a robust industry network. With deep roots in the venture ecosystem and a relentless focus on aligning liquidity with company performance, Sam is shaping the next phase of tech investing.

Priya Shah, founder of Theia Ventures, leads India’s top early-stage climate-tech fund. Backed by 17+ years’ experience in policy, investing, and ecosystem building, Priya has supported standout climate startups and established Theia as a pre-institutional leader in electrification, biomaterials, and clean tech.

Founding GP at Omni Ventures, the Manufacturing Tech VC. Sabrina has been in the world of manufacturing her entire career, is a multi-time startup founder, and has designed and shipped millions of devices through her work at Apple. Through digitization of the manufacturing industry, she is driven to eliminate tedious, dangerous, and monotonous tasks and investing in empowering humans to excel at what they are best at - designing and creating the solutions of the future.

Noa Khamallah is the General Partner at Don’t Quit Ventures, where he focuses on driving innovation through AI-powered products. With a background in mobility and technology, Noa is passionate about investing in solutions that leverage artificial intelligence to solve real-world challenges. As an experienced entrepreneur and investor, he has been involved in various ventures that bridge the gap between technology and sustainability. At Don’t Quit Ventures, Noa supports early-stage companies that are shaping the future of AI-driven industries.

Dr. Huda Alfardus is a distinguished leader at the intersection of science, entrepreneurship, and investment. With a PhD in Intellectual Property Commercialization and Data Monetization, she has advanced genomics research and innovation strategy. As founder of HealthGena, Saudi Arabia’s first biotech accelerator, she has graduated 80+ startups and driven global investor engagement. Now Head of Innovation and Strategy at Alahli Saudi National Bank, she leads strategic VC initiatives and advises on technology-driven economic development, fostering impactful collaborations across the MENA region and beyond.

Andreas Klinger leads Prototoype a first-check/first-round frontier-tech fund focusing on automation and industry in Europe. He has participated in 90+ deals including Remote.com, Lumalabs, Fly.io, and Sunrise Robotics. Previously he was founding team & CTO of Product Hunt, VPE of CoinList, Head of Remote at AngelList, and CTO at On Deck.

Additionally, Andreas is one of the loudest voices in european tech, having among other things co-initiated EU-Inc.org a proposal to create a pan-European legal entity, currently becoming law.

Axel Roitzsch is a leading voice in European digital deeptech investing, co-founding Vanagon Ventures to transform Europe’s €3T opportunity. By backing top technical and industry experts, Axel advances European sovereignty and resilience across industrial, environmental, and financial domains. His unique vision and execution are positioning Vanagon at the frontier of next-generation innovation, unlocking value at the heart of Europe’s economic and technological future.

Somdutta Singh is a serial entrepreneur, investor, best-selling author and philanthropist who founded Assiduus Global as her third venture. She was recognized with the prestigious Times 40 Under 40 award in 2021 and has received multiple global honors including the Impact Entrepreneur Award for Social Innovation by IEEE & UN Women in London. Beyond her entrepreneurial ventures, Singh actively invests through her family office, Karma Holdings, supporting innovative startups and social impact initiatives. Through Karma Holdings, she leverages her expertise and capital to mentor and fund the next generation ideas of entrepreneurs, continuing her commitment to fostering innovation and social change.

Mark Nicholas Cutis is a seasoned banking and capital markets executive with 40+ years of global experience. He has managed portfolios as CIO and CEO for private investors, multilateral institutions (EBRD), and sovereign wealth funds (ADIC).

He joined ADIC in 2008 to establish the Global Special Situations team. Most recently, he was CEO of Abu Dhabi Global Market. Prior to that, he was Group CFO and Chief Advisor at ADNOC (2018–2021) and the founding CIO of Global Special Situations at ADIC (2008–2018), now part of Mubadala. He also worked with Apollo in Singapore and previously ran investment managers in London, Tokyo, and New York, with stints in Frankfurt and Moscow.

Mark holds a BA in Monetary Economics & History from Emory University and an MBA in Finance from Wharton.