Final Event

Massimo Banzi, Co-founder, Chairman & CTO  of Arduino.

He is an interaction designer, educator, open-source hardware pioneer, and TED speaker. His background is in electrical engineering, but he spent most of his early career working as a software architect before spending four years at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea as an Associate Professor. He has taught workshops and has been a guest speaker at institutions all over the world.

He currently teaches at USI University and SUPSI in Switzerland, and is a visiting professor at CIID in Copenhagen.

Arthen Sirola-Hashemi

Arthen is an Investment Manager at Karma Ventures, bringing to the team strong financial expertise and experience in hyper-growth companies. A Deloitte trained chartered accountant and tax adviser, Arthen has both strategic and operational experience and knowledge gained from building up the finance functions at TrueLayer and FitXR.

Vinciane Lhuissier

Vinciane is an investor at Verve Ventures. With a background in software engineering and biomedical engineering, she focuses on Healthcare and DeepTech startups. Verve Ventures is a pan-european, early stage VC fund investing in tech driven startups. 

Oender Boyman

Oender has two decades of experience as an Entrepreneur, Strategy Consultant and Investor. Prior to joining Vi Partners, he was heading the Swiss Post Ventures team. He was also previously an entrepreneur, developing a symptom checker technology used by telemedicine companies, university hospitals and tech providers. Oender holds a master's degree in Strategy from the University of St.Gallen.

Chiara Castelli

Chiara Castelli, Investment Manager of Moonstone Venture Capital. Her mission is to scout brilliant founders worldwide to back the most ambitious startups that are trying to solve the most impactful unsolved problems of our times. In 2020 Chiara co-founded Aurora, a non-profit project that encourages Europe's under-23s to become the game changers of the 21st century. In 2023 she co-founded Moonstone VC, an early-stage venture capital firm that targets the most promising founders truly driven by problems and by the desire to create new accessible solutions that will solve humanity’s great quests and challenges.

Jean-Baptiste Maenhout

Jean-Baptiste is an Investment Associate at Smartfin. Prior to joining Smartfin, Jean-Baptiste worked for several years as an Investment Banking Analyst at J.P. Morgan, both in Brussels and London. Before that, he successfully completed internships at Bencis Capital Partners and Lazard. Jean-Baptiste holds a Master in Business Engineering degree from KU Leuven and Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management and completed exchange programs at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and City University in Hong Kong.

Marieke Christmann

Marieke leads Forestay’s investment team in the London office. Marieke serves as a director on the boards of Icometrix, Convelio, and Manta. Prior to joining Forestay, Marieke worked at Octopus Ventures, where she focused on SaaS investments at Series B and beyond across the UK, Europe, and North America, including Ometria and Glofox. She studied in Germany and Mexico, has more than a decade’s experience in technology investing and banking between London and Frankfurt, and is particularly interested in the future of work, productivity, and automation.

Andrea Cinelli

CEO of the largest DeepTech European Venture Builder, Foolfarm S.p.A, Andrea is a recognized global expert in Artificial Intelligence, Biometrics, Blockchain, and Cybersecurity Markets. Recently named among Top 25 CEOs in Blockchain by the US magazine Technology Innovators, in 2022 he founded FoolCapital which will invest in Startup DeepTech around the world.

Oliver Kahl

Oliver is a quantum physicist and former entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. He is part of MIG Capital’s deep tech practice which invests in early-stage companies throughout Europe. Previously, Oliver held roles in corporate as well as institutional venture capital where he led investments into technology companies globally. Currently, Oliver sits on the boards of various European technology companies. He holds a PhD in physics from KIT in Germany.

Rémi Prunier

Rémi Prunier is Investment Principal at Orange Ventures. With a strong B2B business and leadership background, Rémi is passionate about the society's evolutions generated by digital technology and innovation. He has also developed solid sector knowledge in the fields of enterprise software, Data AI and cybersecurity.

Marc Lambrechts

Prior to joining Capricorn Partners, investment director Marc Lambrechts was a senior scientific advisor at IWT (now VLAIO) and section head of Terumo Europe’s R&D division. His core investment interests lie in technology-fusion based opportunities - crucial for digital health and industry 4.0 related businesses as covered by the Capricorn Digital funds.

Alain Rodermann

Alain Rodermann is founder and managing partner at Expon Capital, a global VC firm based in Luxembourg, focusing on UNSDGs driven digital ventures (Glovo, Spire Global, Dott, Pliops Refurbed, Sympower, Salonkee, Passbolt…)  He has been an active investor in venture capital firms since 1997 with 80+ companies invested.

Claudio D’Angelo

Claudio is the founder and CEO of SPEX Capital and sits on the Board of the Chelsea and Westminster Foundation Innovation Hub and J-Invest. Previously he co-founded and managed Ryse Asset Management LLP, another digital health and MedTech specialised VC.

From 2009 to 2014 Claudio was the sole Director of Gauss Investments Ltd. Previously he was Head of Sales in EQD to Europe and Middle East at BNP Paribas in London, and a member of the Management Committee. From 2000-2005, he worked at Lehman Brothers London in EQF as Head of Sales to Europe. Claudio holds a degree in Economics from Bologna University, Italy and an Executive Master’s programme in finance at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.