TechCrunch Disrupt is returning to Berlin this December, and among the founders and developers speaking, we’re pleased to have leading venture capitalists on stage to talk about fundraising, entrepreneurship and the trends they’re looking to fund.
The show is jam-packed, and just like every Disrupt, the focus is on startups and the bleeding edge of technology. Fifteen startups are launching in Startup Battlefield and hundreds of young companies are exhibiting in Startup Alley. And though spots are limited, every Disrupt attendee can participate CrunchMatch, a free program that connects founders and investors based on their specific criteria, goals and interests.
Disrupt Berlin 2017 also features an impressive lineup of fireside chats, panels and workshops with icons of the European and global tech scene.
Here’s a sampling of the investors speaking at the event. View the full agenda here. Tickets are still available, too, and can be purchased here.
Jan Hammer
Partner, Index Ventures
Jan joined Index in 2010, and is a London-based partner, focusing on fintech and information/data services across all stages of growth.
He is one of Index Ventures’ leading fintech investors, working with the founders of Adyen, Credit Benchmark, Robinhood and TransferWise. In all, Index has backed more than two dozen fintech companies, with more than $400 million. Jan has also led Index investments and is on the boards of Beamery, Collibra, SafetyCulture and Silverfin.
Samantha Jérusalmy
Partner, Elaia Partners
Samantha joined Elaia Partners in 2008. She began her career as a consultant at Eurogroup, a consulting firm specialized in organisation and strategy, within the Bank and Finance division. She then joined Clipperton Finance, a corporate finance firm dedicated to high-tech growth companies, before moving to Elaia Partners in 2008. She became an Investment Manager in 2011 then a Partner in 2014.
Andy McLoughlin
Partner, Uncork Capital (fka SoftTech VC)
Andy is a Partner with Uncork Capital (fka SoftTech VC), one of Silicon Valley’s most active seed-stage venture capital firms where he primarily invests in SaaS, vertical industry solutions, and developer tools.
Prior to joining Uncork Capital, Andy was co-founder of London-headquartered Huddle, an enterprise SaaS collaboration platform that was acquired in 2017. Andy’s angel investment portfolio includes innovative B2B products like Pipedrive, Intercom, Apiary (acquired by Oracle), Buffer and Bugsnag, as well as consumer services including Postmates, Secret Escapes, HER, and Calm.
Martin Mignot
Partner, Index Ventures
Martin is based in London, where he focuses on startups in large markets like food, transportation, finance, health and SME, developing must-have products that get exponentially better with each new user.
He has worked with the founders of many such businesses, including BlaBlaCar and Deliveroo. He also serves on the board of Drivy, KRY, Rad, TheFamily and Trainline (following the acquisition of Captain Train). He was also on the board at SwiftKey until its acquisition by Microsoft in 2016, and led the Seed round in hosted search API company Algolia. Most of his initial investments are Seed and Series A.
Dr. Christian Nagel
Co-Founder, Partner of Earlybird
Dr. Christian Nagel is Co-Founder and Partner of Earlybird. Christian has more than 20 years of entrepreneurial and investment experience. Prior to founding Earlybird in 1997, Christian, together with a group of investors, acquired various companies from the Treuhandanstalt (the former East-German state holding) and gained operational experience. He holds a Diplom-Wirtschaftsingenieur degree (Industrial Engineering, MSc equivalent) from the Technical University of Hamburg, specializing in process engineering and a PhD degree in management from the University of St. Gallen.
Ciarán O’Leary
Co-founder BlueYard Capital
Ciarán O’Leary is a co-founder of BlueYard Capital, a $120m early stage fund based in Berlin that invests in founders decentralizing markets, empowering users and liberating data. Ciarán’s investments include Wunderlist, Carto, BigchainDB, Vectary, deepstream and others from Palo Alto to Bratislava. Prior to founding BlueYard, Ciarán set-up Earlybird Venture Capital’s Berlin office as a partner and before that was at The Carlyle Group.
Neil Rimer,
Founding partner, Index Ventures
Neil co-founded Index Ventures in Geneva in 1996.
His vision was to support the most ambitious entrepreneurs, bringing Silicon Valley-style investing to Europe at a time when “venture capital” was still a new term outside the US. As he recalled in a Financial Times interview: “We started every meeting with a slide that was literally ‘What is VC?’”
20 years on, while staying true to its European roots, Index has become one of the world’s leading venture capital firms, with principal offices in London and San Francisco. So far, the firm has raised $5.6 billion and has more than 160 companies in its portfolio.
Mounia Rkha
VC, ISAI
Mounia started her career in the VC industry in 2008 with Ventech. She moved in 2011 to Morocco to co-found and manage Mydeal, one of the first group buying sites in Maghreb. Back to Paris, she joined Schibsted Growth, the corporate venture fund of the Schibsted Group (owner of the successful classifieds site LeBonCoin). She joined ISAI in june 2015 to manage the Seed Club activity. Mounia is also a co-founder of StartHer, an organization that aims at promoting entrepreneurship by women.