AUGUST 2021

BY ANDREW BOTT

EVENT ASSISTANTS:
NICHOLAS NICHOLS, EVANGELIA MITSA,
SULLY WINCH & LIBERTY CARPENTER
DISCOVER AN INSIDE VIEW ON START-UP
INVESTMENT
Start-up investment or raising finance is often an opaque hidden mystery to most
seeking it. Our elite panels of investment industry insiders will shine a spotlight on
this process. This rare inside view will educate, entertain and give you solid advice
from those who know.
GET FUNDED
August 2nd, 2021
4:30pm - 9:00pm British Summer Time
(8:30am PST, 11:30pm EST)

4:30 pm-6:00pm
Start-up Pitches and Feedback from Judges
Start-ups pitch to judges for Investment and are given feedback from our judges who are all currently investors. Investors from around
the world attend and watch the pitches, and start-ups/investors have the chance to network and build their deal.

5:45pm-6pm
Doors Open: Welcome by Andrew Bott

6pm-6:45pm
“Common Startup Mistakes”
Join this panel to learn more on the common startup mistakes VCs are coming across and listen to useful tips and advice on how to
avoid them the next time.

“Negotiating with VCs”

Are you a founder about to close your deal? Join this discussion if you want to learn more on how to negotiate deals with VCs, how’s
the process and what you should expect during that process.

6:45pm-7:30pm
“Getting Funding from Angels”
A great panel for founders and startups who wish to learn more on angels and what are the differences between VCs. How do angels
invest, how can you approach them and how can they support you?

“Pre-Seed and Seed Fundraising Advice”

An insightful panel on pre-seed and seed fundraising. What are the differences between those two stages and how do VCs evaluate
startups.

7:30pm-8:15pm
“VC Advice - Cap Tables”
Our old-time classic panel on Cap Tables. Join this panel to learn more from VC experts on how to structure your cap table, what are
the do’s and don’t and where do VCs pay high attention.

“Funded Founders - Advice for New Startups”

Join this session to meet founders who got funded and listen more on their fundraising process and journey. How did they get funded
and what are some great advice they wish to share with young founders, who’re about to fundraise?

8:15pm-9pm
Video Networking
Our software allows attendees to be matched automatically every 5 minutes in 1:1 video chats! Network, make connections, and find
opportunities through some great conversations
 Pitch Night Start-ups
AUG 2ND| 4:40PM - 6:00PM BST

FYORIN SAKOWIN GREEN ENERGY

Industry: Fintech Industry: Green Hydrogen
Country: Malta Country: France
Company LinkedIn: link Company LinkedIn: link
Amount raising: €400,000 Amount raising: €3,500,000

COCO NOIR WINE SHOP & BAR

Industry: Wine & Spirits GYMPERFUME
Country: US Industry: Cosmetics
Company LinkedIn: link Country: USA
Amount raising: $500,000 Company LinkedIn: link
Amount raising: $1,200,000

6 BIT EDUCATION
Industry: EdTech, AI
Country: UK
Company LinkedIn: link
Amount raising: £312,500
 Please welcome to our partners and
sponsors for August VC virtual event
AUGUST 2021

SILVER SPONSOR

OVHCLOUD IS A LEADING EUROPEAN CLOUD HYPERSCALER AND HAS BEEN A CLOUD AND
INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDER FOR OVER 20 YEARS, WITH MORE THAN 1.5 MILLION CUSTOMERS
WORLDWIDE SERVED BY 32 GLOBAL WATER-COOLED DATA CENTRES. THE STARTUP PROGRAM
PROVIDES TECH STARTUPS WITH €10,000 OF CLOUD HOSTING CREDITS AND UP TO €100,000
FOR SCALE-UPS, ENABLING THEM TO FACILITATE EXPONENTIAL AND INTERNATIONAL GROWTH.
 “Common Startup Mistakes”
AUG 2ND| 6:00PM - 6:45PM BST

Kevin Smith
DIRECTOR & BUSINESS MENTOR AT BOOM & PARTNERS
I am both a small investor in my own right but also we do look at taking an equity position in a
limited amount of companies that we are involved with - specifically when we play an ongoing
proactive role on the Advisory Board.

Denis Kuznetsov
PRINCIPAL AT DIGITAL HORIZON VC
Book Recommendation: Hackers & Painters by Paul Graham

Early stage VC with focus on B2B software and Fintech

Remo Mahler
INVESTMENT MANAGER AT SIGNALS VC
Book Recommendation: Venture Deals by Brad Feld

Prior to joining Signals VC, Remo started his career in Tech Investment Banking, gained hands-
on experience as Entrepreneur in Residence, and worked for both an early stage and growth
stage VC fund.

Srikar Karri
INVESTMENT ASSOCIATE AT MERCIA ASSET MANAGEMENT
Book Recommendation: Startup Boards by Brad Feld

3 years at Mercia investing in and sitting on the boards of various software and life sciences
companies.
 “Negotiating With VCs ”
AUG 2ND| 6 PM – 6:45 PM BST
Nick Dashfield
INVESTMENT ASSOCIATE AT ARGOSY
Book Recommendation: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

I am a member of Argosy's 3-man investment team, focusing on venture capital and real estate
investment. I work with Argosy's investee companies to develop business plans and strategies
to drive revenue growth and implement corporate governance frameworks and policies. I also
undertake a wide range of portfolio management and development functions. Prior to joining
Argosy, I spent a total of 6.5 years as an investment funds lawyer at two international law firms
in the City.

Leonor Alarcon de Puig

INVESTMENT TEAM AT PLUG AND PLAY

Leonor Alarcón de Puig is part of the Investment Team at Plug and Play. The industries that
they focus on includes: Fintech,Food & Beverage, Travel & Hospitality, Health & Wellness, and
Supply Chain & Logistics.

Flavia Popescu - Richardson

VICE PRESIDENT OF EARLY STAGE PRACTICE AT SILICON VALLEY BANK

Flavia Richardson has handled investment portfolios worth up to £30m for over 140 portfolio
companies. She has worked with clients from across the world with portfolio amounts ranging
from small technology investments to multimillion-pound portfolios. Her speciality is working with
technology investors, where her excellent communication skills come into play.

Jonathan Hollis
MANAGING PARTNER AT MOUNTSIDE VENTURES
Jonathan is the Managing Partner of Mountside Ventures, a company that helps both early-stage
companies and VC fund managers raise their next round of funding. Previously, he launched one
of the Big Four's early-stage propositions whose alumni have raised over £400m. He is an ICAEW
Chartered Accountant and also runs Tech London Advocates’ SaaS Group
 “Getting Funding From Angels”
AUG 2ND | 6:45PM - 7:30PM BST
Clarisse Lam
VC ANALYST AT NEWALPHA ASSET MANAGEMENT
Book Recommendation: The Business of Venture Capital by Mahendra Ramsinghani

Clarisse is a VC Analyst at NewAlpha’s Venture Capital fund, an early-stage fund investing in

FinTech & InsurTech startups across Europe. Prior to joining NewAlpha, Clarisse worked in the
Deal Advisory department of KPMG in Paris, within the Transaction Services team. Prior to that,
she worked at PwC in audit in Bucharest and in venture capital at Truffle Capital in Tokyo.

Nick Lyth
CEO AT GREEN ANGEL SYNDICATE
Book Recommendation: Angels, Dragons & Vultures by Simon Acland

Nick Lyth is CEO of Green Angel Syndicate, which he founded in 2013 as an experiment to fight
climate change and global warming, with ten members, and two company investments. It now has
more than 290 members, 28 companies in its portfolio, has just launched its first Climate Change
Fund, and was UK Angel Syndicate of the Year in 2019.

Emmett King
CO-FOUNDER AT TRANSYLVANIA ANGELS NETWORK
Emmett King is a co-founder of Transylvania Angels Network, which aims to: connect angel
investors with startups for funding and business support, educate business people into angel
investing and startup mentoring and provide business opportunities for the members of the
network.

Justin Waghray
FOUNDING PARTNER AT ÆVUS VENTURE PARTNERS
I invest in pre-seed and seed deals, my group has done 18 investments in 16 companies ranging
from fintech to proptech to SaaS
 “Pre-Seed & Seed Fundraising Advice”
AUG 2ND | 6:45PM – 7:30PM BST

Seda Ambartsumian
PARTNER AT KAMET VENTURES
Book Recommendation: The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen

Seda has spent 12 years working across the worlds of venture capital, private equity and hedge
funds. She's been a Partner at Kamet Ventures since 2019 where she is responsible for helping
portfolio companies with their follow-on funding as well as developing their corporate narrative.

Jérome Joaug
PARTNER AT ASTER CAPITAL
Jérome is a DeepTech Investor focused on energy transition, mobility and industrie 4.0.

Chris Chaney
MANAGING PARTNER AT C4+
Chris is an award-winning serial entrepreneur and startup mentor with a 15-year track record of
leadership and success in the global sports, esports and gaming industries. A native of
Germany, he is an active investor and start-up advisor with more than 40 portfolio companies in
10 countries across sports, esports, gaming, media and other verticals.

Filip Cuypers
PRINCIPAL AT VOLTA VENTURES
Filip joined Volta Ventures in July 2018 as an Associate.
Prior to joining Volta Ventures, Filip worked as a project manager for a marketing tech startup
in New York City. He also held positions as program director for the Telenet Kickstart incubator
program at Idealabs and as an analyst at a VC firm in Amsterdam.

.
 “VC Advice - Cap Tables”
AUG 2ND | 7:30PM – 8:15PM BST
Jake Christoforou
INVESTMENT ASSOCIATE AT MERCIA ASSET MANAGEMENT PLC
Book Recommendation: Startup Boards by Brad Feld

Jake joined Mercia in 2020 as an Investment Associate for Mercia’s EIS Fund team. In addition
to research support, origination and execution of early stage investments, Jake undertakes
portfolio support across Mercia’s EIS Fund portfolio.

Gerald Pollak
INVESTMENT MANAGER AT 3VC
Being one of the youngest employees at Apple from 2014-2017 I have decided I want to leave
the corporate world behind, do a master degree and enter the more fast paced startup
ecosystem.

Lauren Wyman
INVESTOR AT INVENTURES INVESTMENT PARTNERS

Lauren Wyman is an investor at Inventures Investment Partners, where focus is on seed,

series A and growth capital for European companies.
“Funded Founders - Advice for new Startups”
AUG 2ND | 7:30PM – 8:15PM BST

Rav Roberts
CEO & CO-FOUNDER AT MEDSII
Book Recommendation: Venture Deals by Brad Feld

Prior to co-founding medsii.com, Rav also co-founded a dot.com in San Francisco and an IoT
company in London - together with medsii's CTO - which we successfully exited. Rav is also an
angel investor in early-stage UK companies (SEIS & EIS are great!) and has significant big
corporate experience too, in companies like Accenture, Fidelity Investments and Diageo. He
also used to run the Entrepreneurs Network at his Business School.

Nathan Evans
CO-FOUNDER AT FULFIN

As Co-Founder of fulfin we have provided working capital loans to hundreds of early-stage

revenue positive startups as an alternative to VC. At fulfin we have also raised multiple
rounds of equity and debt financing for the company and I personally have invested in
digital startups as an angel investor. As a Director of the Founder Institute early -stage
accelerator in Munich I assist a number of young Founders on the topic of raising capital.

Ollie Bourne
CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR AT WYSPR
Book Recommendation: In Search of Excellence by Robert Waterman & Tom Peters

As Co-Founder of WYSPR, along with my Co-founder Eliot we bootstrapped the company and
took it from 0 to early revenue and subsequently completing a £450,000 raise in just 6 weeks.

Shyan Khaleeli
INSTITUTIONAL SALES & DISTRIBUTION MANAGER AT CLEARLYSO

Shyan introduces investors, in ClearlySo's network, to pioneering companies and funds which
generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return.
 “Judges for Live Pitch Event”
AUG 2ND | 4:30PM - 6:00PM BST

Gautam Kumar
INVESTMENT MANAGER AT SEEDBLINK
Book Recommendation: Venture Deals by Brad Feld

Gautam is an Investment Manager at SeedBlink focusing on pre-seed to pre-series A

investments across Europe. Prior to joining SeedBlink he was part of Quake Capital Partners &
Multiple Capital and had cross functional roles at various startups in marketing and strategy.
He is an active mentor at WeWork Labs, RubikHub, IIDF Accelerator.

Vladimir Glazunov
INVESTMENT MANAGER AT IMPULSE VC
Book Recommendation: Secrets of Sand Hill Road by Scott Kupor

During the last five years, I’ve been working at Impulse VC, an early-stage venture capital fund,
which invests in prospective European startups. I am in charge of the full process of the deal
sourcing, initial conversation with prospective startups, and preparation materials for the
investment committee.

Sascha Fritz
INVESTMENT PRINCIPAL AT ROBERT BOSCH VENTURE CAPITAL
Sascha joined Robert Bosch Venture Capital in 2018. Prior to Bosch, as Head of Venture
Capital, he was responsible for managing the Seed-and VC-Funds with their broad investment
focus as well as heading the Venture Capital Team at a local investment company. By leading
numerous transactions, he backed his strong transaction and financial experiences. Before
heading the team.

Sanchit Dhote
INVESTMENT MANAGER AT OUTWARD VC
Sanchit is an Investment Manager at Outward VC, a London based venture capital fund focused
on Fintech and connected sub-sectors. Sanchit is a founding team member at Outward and his
day-to-day responsibilities include the sourcing, execution, and subsequent management of
early stage investments. He has over 8 years’ experience investing in and supporting high
growth technology businesses, previously as a seed stage investor with Beacon Capital.
 Gerald Pollak
INVESTMENT MANAGER AT 3VC
Being one of the youngest employees at Apple from 2014-2017 I have decided I want to leave
the corporate world behind, do a master degree and enter the more fast paced startup
ecosystem.

Natasha Naidoo
ASSOCIATE AT ANTHEMIS GROUP
Book Recommendation: Good Economics for Hard Times by Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo

Natasha is an investor at Anthemis where she looks at Fintech and Healthtech companies. Her
background is in Science, Startups, and Business, and she uses those skills to identify startups that
have the potential to redefine human’s relationship to their money and their health for the better.

Nicholas Nichols (Moderator)

VIRTUAL EVENT PRODUCER AT MEETFOUNDERS
Nicholas is currently at MeetFounders as a Virtual Event Producer. MeetFounders organizes virtual
conferences with the top experts in the startup and investment world, bringing these thought
leaders together in action-packed fully online events!