Unicorn CUP – Global Pitch Competition Finals in Summer CUP, July 29 2020
Startups
Submer NextGen Datacenters
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Biosolvit
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H3 Dynamics
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Irnero
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TTM-Total Traffic Management
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ROYBI
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Docsie.io
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AladdinB2B.com
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RAISON AI
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Byprotex
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nanoleq
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CustomFit.ai
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Liber Health Inc.
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Mi Terro
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ASMI
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Arcona AR Metaverse
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Caer Sidi
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Trusty.care
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Just
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OmegaLambdaTec GmbH
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JANDI
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Smart Mobile Labs AG
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BEEsharing P.A.L.S. GmbH
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LSky
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Biometric
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Respinova Ltd / Pulsehaler
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RxLive
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Nawah Scientiifc
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GuardRails
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ento
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ARwall
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PatchAi®
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ArchitectureQuote
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deliveri
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Plastalyst
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LexSet
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Phonet LLC
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Stuey
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KNWN
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AgUnity Pty Ltd
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Privé Technologies
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imMail Ltd
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Foresight Analytics
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Workfam
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Thaely
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Moonshot Junior, Inc
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2Event - platform for online-events
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Judges
Roman Nikitov
Head of ICU Ventures.
Roman leads seed and series A round investments into innovative companies in Central and Eastern Europe with a focus on Ukraine.
Roman joined ICU in 2014 as a senior investment banker. In this role, he managed some of the biggest restructuring projects in the Ukrainian market, including more than $1 billion restructuring of a large-scale agricultural holding. He moved to the buy side in 2015 when ICU began investing in distressed debt. From 2015 to 2017, he managed a portfolio of successful investments into corporate distressed debt.
Roman had a 15-year career in investment banking. He joined the ICU team from UniCredit where he headed the Corporate Finance Advisory team in Ukraine. He has also held significant advisory roles at ING and Ernst & Young.
Roman received a BBA degree in Enterprise and IT Management from International Christian University (Kyiv-Vienna) in 1999. He qualified as a certified chartered accountant in 2002 (ACCA).
Kazuki Kaneuchi
Manager of Business Development at SoftBank Telecom America Corp.
Mike Zayonc
Responsible for founding Plug and Play's global Supply Chain & Logistics vertical. The program is based in Silicon Valley, Northwest Arkansas, Hamburg, and Shanghai and is in partnership with 50+ industry leading corporate partners like Walmart, TJX, Tyson Foods, JB Hunt, Shell, DHL, FedEx, Japan Post, Yamato, Panasonic, Union Pacific Railroad, CMA CGM, Kansas City Southern Railroad, Ryder, Ryder, Prologis, BNSF Railway, ArcelorMittal, ExxonMobil, United States Postal Service, ArcelorMittal, Geodis, and the Canadian National Railway. This program is responsible accelerating and investing in startups in the areas of analytics, AI, machine learning, augmented reality, smart warehousing, blockchain for supply chain, customer support solutions, inventory management, IoT sensors, drones, last mile delivery, disruption of the freight brokerage model, end-to-end supply chain optimization, autonomous driving, predictive analytics for demand planning, and transportation management systems.
Plug and Play is was a seed investor in companies like Dropbox, Lending Club, PayPal, Rappi, and over 1000 startups across all verticals.
Anupam Rastogi
General Partner at Emergent Ventures and focuses on seed and early-stage investments in transformative startups in the AI, Data, Cloud and Smart Mobility spaces. Anupam has led or played a substantive role in over 15 successful technology investments globally, ranging from early to expansion stage, and several large exits. Prior to Emergent, Anupam founded NX Partners to help high-potential SaaS companies accelerate growth rates and outcomes, and worked closely with half a dozen startups across the enterprise landscape. Previously, Anupam held investing roles of increasing responsibility at NGP Capital, a global venture firm with $1.2B+ AUM. At NGP Capital, Anupam led the Intelligent Enterprise investing team, identifying and investing in companies at the intersection of data, IoT and machine intelligence. Earlier, he helped drive the firm’s smart mobility and logistics investment practice. Prior to his investing career, Anupam spent several years in the mobile, enterprise and data analytics spaces, bringing to market four new products, setting up a big data analytics stack in a Fortune 100 environment, and authoring five international patents and publications. Anupam holds Computer Science degrees from IIT Delhi and UT Austin, an MBA from The Wharton School, and studied Technology Commercialization at MIT. He can be reached via Twitter at @anupamr.
Alexandra Johnson
Co-Founder and Managing Director at HEED Capital, Founder and Managing Director at Global Technology Capital and President of Global Technology Symposium. Sasha is an experienced investor at early-stage companies and was one of the first female partners in the VC community, starting her fund in 2003. She is a board-member of science-enabled tech companies based in Silicon Valley.
Jiazi Guo
Partner at LEGO Ventures. Angel Investor.
UC Berkeley Alumni, entrepreneur since age 16. Formerly investment banker, hedge fund. Currently active venture capitalist and mentor at alchemist accelerator and more.
Marisa Alma McGinnis
LP, Blumberg Capital Fund III and Golden Seeds Silicon Valley Alum
Ossama Hassanein
Chairman of Rising Tide Fund. Dr. Ossama Hassanein is an entrepreneur, mentor, and venture capitalist based in Silicon Valley. Over the last 35 years, he has managed over $1 billion of international technology funds in diverse leadership roles including Executive Vice President (EVP) of Berkeley International in San Francisco, Chairman of Technocom Ventures in Paris, President of Newbridge Networks Holding in Canada, Senior Managing Director of Newbury Ventures, and Chairman of the Rising Tide Fund in Silicon Valley. In the eighties, he led the mezzanine financing of 80+ Silicon Valley based IT companies that became spectacular successes including: Adaptec; Cirrus Logic; Atmel; PMC-Sierra; LSI Logic; Linear Technologies; and Oracle. Combined market value today exceeds $200 billion. In the last 25 years, he was chairman or co-founder of seven leading-edge high technology startups in the U.S., UK, France and Switzerland including ACC in Santa Barbara (routers, acquired by Ericsson), Algety in Lannion (soliton transmission, acquired by Corvis), HighDeal in Caen (rating engines, acquired by SAP), HighWave in Bretagne (fiber optic amplifiers, Listed on Euronext), NetCentrex in Paris (VoIP, acquired by Comverse), nCipher in Cambridge (encryption, listed on LSE), and Zong in Menlo Park (acquired by eBay). Currently, he is Director of Bank of the West in San Francisco and of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund in Dubai. He is a charter member of the C100, a Silicon-Valley based association dedicated to mentoring and angel financing Canadian entrepreneurs. Dr. Hassanein is a President Cabinet member at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he also serves on the Dean of Applied Sciences Board of Advisors. He is the Chairman of the UBC Silicon Valley advisory board for the Personalized Medicine Initiative. He has served on the Board of Advisors of Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies and of University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine. He served for six years as Chairman of TechWadi, focusing on mentoring, financing and business acceleration of leading Middle East and North Africa (MENA) entrepreneurs. He also served on the Board of Directors of Relief International, a non-profit, focusing his efforts on social entrepreneurship and women development in the Middle East. He was vice-chairman of the Board of PSD, an NGO focused on providing One Netbook per Child for up to 130,000 Palestinian and Syrian children in need of education. Dr. Hassanein was the Willard Brown Distinguished Visiting Professor at AUC (American University in Cairo) School of Business, where he is also member of the Board of Advisors. He lectured on Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University and the University of San Diego, and on international business at University of California, Berkeley and Santa Clara University. He was also guest speaker on entrepreneurship in diverse venues including the White House, the State Department, the Commonwealth Club, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, and Qatar Computer Research Institute.
Giles Farley
Director at FPP Asset Management LLP. Director at ICU.
Giles has a long and successful track record in finance. He worked first in investment banking and financial restructuring before moving to investment in technology companies.
Purvi Gandhi
Partner, CFO at Hone Capital.
Purvi has over 20 years of experience in CFO roles in the international investment management industry, across Silicon Valley and Asia, along with startup company experience.
Through her roles as CFO at H&Q Asia Pacific (spin-out from JP Morgan Chase), Taiyo Pacific and Allegis Capital, Purvi was involved in private equity, venture capital, public equities/hedge funds, and distressed assets.
As CFO of healthcare informatics start-up MedVantage, she helped lead the company through a Series A round at a valuation of $30M, and scaled it from 12 to 60 employees prior to its acquisition by IMS.
Beyond core CFO expertise, Purvi has in-depth experience in capital raising and operational expansion in Asia, and has served as a strategic advisor and board member to startups in the US and Asia.
Purvi started her career at Deloitte and also worked at Charles Schwab.
Purvi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from UC Berkeley. She passed the CPA exam in the State of California.
Takashi Kato
Partner in charge of US. Global Brain Corporation.
Built a career in Amazon, Microsoft and TripAdvisor as an expert on the Sales & Marketing field. Joined GB on 2013 and engaged in the investment on Media / AdTech industry. Appointed to the current position in 2019.
Veronica Gabriele
Investor at Munich Re Ventures in San Francisco.
Veronica works across multiple industries including cyber, IoT, mobility, digital health, insurtech, and geospatial tech. Previously Veronica worked for a growth equity and venture firm in LA focused on consumer products and technologies as well as B2B2C platforms. Prior to her venture career Veronica studied Business and Political Economy at NYU Stern and lived in Shanghai, London, and Rome.
Tom Kosnik
Partner with FoundersV Ventures.
VC Venture partner with R3i Ventures.
Professional education for global entrepreneurial leaders in large companies, accelerators, and university executive programs.
Advisory board member for startups led by female founders.
Mentor to rising leaders in high school and college, who do research projects on emerging technologies, markets and social movements under Tom's guidance. If they excel, he writes letters of recommendation for undergraduate and graduate programs at leading universities.
These current activities leverage the experience of teaching a variety of courses on Entrepreneurship and Global Entrepreneurial Marketing at Harvard Business School (1985-89, 1994-97), Stanford Management Science and Engineering (1990-2018) and National University of Singapore (2002 - Present).
Juan Acosta
Director at Draper University and an early-stage investor with Draper University Ventures. Prior to inspiring people, investing, and accelerating startups Juan began his career studying Aerospace Engineering, but quickly found his love for tech while working as a Product Manager for the largest LATAM video-game distributor where he built software still used today by game publishers. He joined the founding team of Ideal Mobile, a hispanic-focused wireless service provider where he built internal products for distributors and grew its subscriber base to thousands nationwide from scratch. Juan co-founded XtremePlay, the first digital videogame e-commerce store for Chile, Peru, and Colombia. Juan is passionate about product, digital media, neuro-strategies, and helping founders grow into leaders.
Dr. Ella Li
CEO of ZGC Capital | Founder of MedLabs Healthcare Accelerator | Biotech/Life Science Investment
Eugene Malobrodsky
Eugene Malobrodsky is a Venture Partner at One Way Ventures, an early-stage VC fund focused on backing exceptional immigrant founders. Eugene also serves on the board of Zero Cognitive Systems, a legal tech startup, as well as Geozilla, a consumer startup in family safety. Eugene received Silicon Valley’s Best Tech Manager Award at the 2018 Timmy Awards and was named a 30 under 30 Founder Honoree by Inc Magazine in 2011. Originally an immigrant from Lithuania, Eugene has founded two startups. His latest venture was AnchorFree, which focuses on consumer privacy and security. AnchorFree’s leading product is HotSpot Shield and has over 700 million downloads. Since inception, Eugene was responsible for business growth by managing engineering, operational expansion, and corporate strategy. In May 2018, AnchorFree was acquired by a private equity fund called WondrCo. Eugene continues his involvement as an advisor to the company.
Ruchi Dana, MD, MBA
Forbes Power Businesswoman 2020| Forbes NexGen 2017,2018,2019| Stanford MBA| Doctor| Board Member| Entrepreneur| Speaker
Brian Mac Mahon
Serial entrepreneur and investor. Brian has owned companies in over 35 countries. At Expert DOJO early-stage startups receive investment, success coaching, advice, and specialist help in all areas of their business growth.
Ajoy Mallik
Founding Partner at Follow[the]Seed VC Fund.
Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, CEO, Executive Management, Operations, Strategist, and Business Architect.
Itai Maron
Venture Partner at Heroic Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Palo-Alto, which is focusing on first-money-in and formation investments in Silicon Valley and Israel.
Itai’s background and expertise are in scaling early-stage businesses and in developing and leading cross-functional teams and technological projects.
He has held leadership roles both in start-ups and in global high-tech companies (Rolls-Royce, Intel, Elbit Systems) in diverse disciplines, such as Operations, Business Development, Program/Project Management, and Product Strategy.
Itai holds a B.Sc degree in Information System Engineering from Ben-Gurion University in Israel and an MBA from INSEAD Business School in France and Singapore.
Victoria Mehran
Seasoned financial analyst, worked in various industries of S&T, Semidocuctor, Automotive, E-commerce, and Private Equity. With extensive knowledge in Forecasting, Budgeting, Cash Flow analysis, Business Development, M&A
Ali Abussaud
General Partner at Hala Ventures.
Venture Capitalist & Licensed Financial Consultant with a demonstrated history of Venture Investment, Consulting Services, Executive Search, & Corporate Banking.
Ali came fr om a Corporate Banking background wh ere he started in ABC Bank-Bahrain followed by SAMBA Financial Group, National Commercial Bank, & Saudi Hollandi Bank “ABN AMRO”. During his last duty, Ali managed a portfolio in excess of USD 1.5 Billion.
In 2014, Ali founded Financial Horizon Group which provides Financial & Management Consultancy, Recruitment and Executive Search services. During the same period, Ali & his business partner started their Corporate Investment Fund which invested in various Asset-Classes including Venture Capital.
In 2018, Ali & his business partner, announced the establishment of Hala Ventures brand.
Aniko Szigetvari
Founding Partner of Atlantica Ventures, an African impact venture capital fund. Atlantica Ventures invests in seed to Series B funding rounds in tech and tech enabled startups.
Prior to founding Atlantica Ventures, Aniko spent 20+ years at the International Finance Corporation ("IFC"), most recently as Global Head of the TMT Group, leading the firm's efforts from deal origination through portfolio management for 4 years. In this position, Aniko oversaw a ~US$1.2 billion portfolio of investments across the capital structure and managed a team of ~50 professionals across eight regional hubs from Colombia to Singapore, including 2 hubs in Africa. Prior to becoming Global Head, Aniko was Head of the Africa and Latin America TMT Group at IFC for 4 years.
Prior to IFC, Aniko worked for McKinsey & Company, Kraft Foods International and DHL Worldwide Express.
Throughout her 20+ year career, Aniko has built a wide range of contacts across Africa and emerging markets, including entrepreneurs, companies, co-investors, bankers and consultants, as well as government ministers and regulators.
Aniko has three graduate degrees, including an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School, and an MA in International Studies from the Lauder Institute, University of Pennsylvania. Aniko received her undergraduate degree in business from the College of Finance and Accountancy in Hungary.
Sasha Bernier
Senior Vice President at Cheltenham Enterprises, that is a single family Family Office seeking to invest in
Artem Tokariev
Strategic, Innovative, Driven Business Leader and Mentor, Angel Investor, Venture Capitalist with more than 10 years of progressive experience in Business Management and Operations in the High-Tech industry. Hands-on Professional with specialized expertise in Business Development, Operations, Marketing, Sales, eCommerce and High-Tech Consumer. In addition, Artem assists innovation companies in the emerging markets with their US and international market expansion.
Previously, Artem managed of Huawei Direct-to-Consumer eCommerce business in the United States. He was responsible for the P&L and the overall performance of eCommerce business including growth, revenue and margin targets; managing the online customer acquisition, retention and loyalty programs; establishing integrated marketing plans to ensure targets are achieved for average order size, conversion and traffic goals; setting up yearly and quarterly operational plans and business reviews, forecasts and budgets to support demand generation and other marketing efforts.
Corey Pigott
Venture Partner at DraperFoster.
Investor and advisor with a passion for accelerating adoption within nascent markets. Portfolio Manager for M31 Capital, a hybrid hedge fund/vc with a focus on active participation within blockchain networks. Venture Partner at DraperFoster. Blockchain advisor to Trokt. Active investor within crypto/blockchain since 2013.
Roger King
Roger King founded Bay Angels in 1998. They are now one of the oldest and most active Angel groups in Silicon Valley. Bay Angels has helped launch a number of well known companies, including OpenTable, Photobucket
Roger is the Founder and CEO of ChiefPeople, an executive & technical recruitment firm. He’s an active angel investor, board member, and advisor to a number of tech start-ups..
He’s been published in Forbes and Fortune magazine and has appeared on CNN as a subject matter expert (start-ups/recruiting). He’s an accomplished photographer who spent 5 years with the San Francisco 49ers.
Jesus Mauricio Flores
Principal at HACK Fund.
Civil engineer and Commercial Diver from Venezuela. Relationship in business development in Latam for H/F. Developed my own 100k fund, Capital Kreation, in 2017. Focus in growing Startups Ecosystems in LATAM.
Vasily Nikolaev
Partner in Network.VC and Quantum Wave Fund, based in Silicon Valley.
Former CEO of Coda Devices, developing coded aperture Raman spectroscopy technology (acquired by a US strategic investor). Former CEO of Nanooptic Devices, developing digital planar holograms technology.
Has over 12 years of experience in Venture Capital, Private Equity, Investment Banking and Management consulting in Germany, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine and Russia. Worked in Da Vinci Capital, Moellendorf and Company, McKinsey and Company. Worked with Yury Milner on Mail.ru strategy.
Has an MBA degree from IESE (one of top 3 business schools in Europe) and an MS degree in physics from the Moscow State University (cum lauda).
Jonathan Baer
Managing Partner of StoneHearth Ventures (formerly named Threshold Ventures) and a
recovering venture capitalist who loves working with companies around the world. He was a general partner at a Sand Hill Road venture fund and the founder and CEO of two venture backed companies. He now spends his time teaching, mentoring, and advising early-stage companies at leading accelerators and universities as well as serving on several boards. Jon is expert at training startups, mentors and early stage investors around the world in Silicon Valley best practices. He believes that startups require tough love; and need to focus on money, metrics, and milestones. Jon teaches startup CEOs to say less, because less is more.
Sunil Ranka
Partner at ZNL Ventures and founder of Predikly, a Data Innovation and Automation Solutions company. A proven Analytics leader, an entrepreneur, and an investor passionate towards RPA, Data, and Analytics with a progressive mindset of a startup with the process execution experience of working with fortune 500 companies.
Sunil has invested in 16 YC startups at the seed round.
Vadim Shpak
Contributes to Vickers’s overall investment strategy, by, among other things, participating in investment selection and recommendation, and portfolio monitoring. In this regard, he also maintains relationships with portfolio companies and works with them to enhance strategic and financial value.
Greg Shepard
Founding partner at BOSS Capital Partners, a global investment syndicate that focuses on series seed technology businesses that prefer operational expertise and guidance to achieve capital-efficient and rewarding outcomes.
He is also the creator of BOSS (Business Operating Support System), an open-source business operating system based on his 20+ years of entrepreneurial and investor experience. BOSS was developed to empower entrepreneurs and increase the overall startup success rate.
Greg Shepard has built and sold 12 businesses in BioTech, TransitTech, AdTech and MarTech. He is a Forbes Book Author & contributor and has been featured or quoted in publications like Fortune, Entrepreneur, The New York Observer, The DEAL and Thrive Global. A recipient of four private equity awards for transactions between $250M to $1B, Greg has appeared on TV, Radio, and popular Podcasts.
Greg has also been a TEDX and Keynote speaker at multiple universities and conferences worldwide.
Gary Fowler
President and Co-Founder of GSD Venture Studios. I have over 30 years of experience with 17 startups including being on the original management team of ClickSoftware and the Co-Founder of Yva.ai.
Volker Heistermann
Co-Founder at Mosaic Venture Lab, Venture Partner at Trans-Pacific Technology Fund, General Partner at Movtec Capital Partners
Phil Nadel
Founder and Managing Director at Forefront Venture Partners.
Phil has been a serial entrepreneur for many years, having founded and exited several startups. He is now the Managing Director of Forefront Venture Partners, one of the largest and most active AngelList syndicates.
Phil is also a published author, frequent conference speaker, and one of the co-hosts of "The Pitch" podcast.
Pradita Astarina
CVI is a sector-agnostic fund that is based in Singapore and Indonesia. She has extensive experience in the Private Equity (PE) investment, M&A, strategy development, and value creation both in South East Asia (Creador) and the United Kingdom (Cambridge Enterprise, Octopus Investment, and Jardine Matheson).
Furthermore, she also actively get involved as an advisor for a few startups.
She holds a dual-degree from University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (MBA and MPhil Innovation, Strategy, and Organization), both graduated with honors. She is the first Jardine Scholar who read an MBA degree in Cambridge. In 2017, she won a McKinsey’ Next Generation Women Leaders Award. She had represented Indonesia in the Business and Finance Panel at the Harvard Project for Asia and International Relations for three consecutive years (2011-2013).
João Luis Olivério
Founder at Sales as a System and investor at Mucker Capital.
Serial entrepreneur, investor and executive for global tech companies and investment funds, Joao Luis Oliverio build his first company while still at high school, having his first exit still in the University.
As an executive, he is the former Country Manager and Managing Director in Brazil for companies like Zendesk, Indeed and Rocket Internet.
Oliverio is the founder of "Sales as a System" methodology, built as a result of his experience with more than 200 advised companies and several acceleration programs in Latin America like Ace, Google Launchpad, Oracle for Startups, among others.
He is also member of some investment groups like Mucker Capital and Poli Angels and considered one of the greatest sales specialists in Brazil. He is also the exclusive partner of Apollo.io in the country.
Miguel Encarnacion
Managing Partner, Unifier Ventures.
From Manila to Berlin.
From banking to entrepreneurship to venture capital.
Focused on bridging Europe and Southeast Asia by providing access to markets, capital and talent.
If you are a founder or an investor in either of these markets, let's talk
Rafeh Saleh
An experienced triple-digit track record executive, founder, management consultant, and mentor. Rafeh runs Founder institute in Egypt, sits on the board of falakstartups.com, and is an advisor to https://loyal.vc/
In addition to his roles with FI & Falak, Rafeh is a Judge with the Jack Ma Foundation Initiative (ANPI), MINT selection panelist, and mentor and with Endeavor.org, Flat6Labs.com and American University in Cairo V-lab.
Abraham van Wyk
BSc Hons, MBA, Life Science Executive, Tech founder & Venture Capitalist 10 years C-level experience and active Board member in start-ups, private and public corporates 7 years as GP of Life Science fund, capital deployed in excess of $15M, and assisted partner fund with investments of >$10M Angel investor in Fintech, Edutech and Medtech
Kirill Babich
Founder at Malamute Startups Agency | Advisory Board member for FinTech & Venture Capital at Istern Capital
Jie Lun Ong
Ventures at Plug and Play Tech Center
Jie Lun heads the Ventures team for Plug and Play APAC, sourcing for startups within the South East Asia region, including matchmaking startups to corporate partners as well as identifying potential startups for investments.
Mckevin Ayaba
McKevin Ayaba, Founder & CEO of Setup A Startup
McKevin Ayaba is a Professional IT Engineer who turned Entrepreneur and Philanthropist.
He is a visionary Ecosystem Builder, Catalyst for Africa’s Economic Development, Innovation Economy Strategist, International Speaker, Startup Judge, advocate for Inclusion and Diversity.
He is very passionate about entrepreneurship especially the development of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystem in Africa. He is passionate about telling entrepreneurs stories, their struggles, pain, excitement, and successes.
He enjoys assisting, supporting, and encouraging startup founders/owners to understand, start, grow, and scale their businesses.
As an Ecosystem Builder, McKevin wears many hats. He is the Africa Ambassador for Global Startup Awards. He is the Founder and CEO of Setup A Startup.
Setup a Startup is a not-for-profit organisation registered in South Africa. It is a One Stop Shop for entrepreneurs. A place that shares ideas, experience, and networks to help others connect, learn, and grow their business.
McKevin’s focus is to help SMEs and startups in raising the capital they need. To achieve this, him and his team developed and launched an Investment Readiness Programme (IRP) digital platform called IRPAFRICA. The platform connects entrepreneurs with Investors and Mentors and allow entrepreneurs to develop knowledge and skills, start a new and innovative business, or grow an existing one.
McKevin’s mission is to facilitate and catalyze innovation, entrepreneurial development, and business success that fosters sustainable economic growth across Africa. His goal is to help entrepreneurs turn their big ideas and visions into successful and scalable companies.
His objective is to simplify the entrepreneurship process and make entrepreneurship accessible and inclusive to everyone.
He is the Founder of the Africa Startup Ecosystem Builders Summit & Awards, An annual summit with the mission to advance startup ecosystem building as a new approach to economic development to help more people and communities achieve economic independence through entrepreneurial success while awarding ecosystem builder..
He was one of the winners of the 2015 inaugural Festival of Ideas competition organised by the Gordon Institute of Business Science department of Social Entrepreneurship looking for the best candidate with the best idea that impacts the community.
He was honoured as a Global Goodwill Ambassador in 2018 by the Global Goodwill Ambassadors Foundation for the House of Hope Orphanage he co-founded. The orphanage is a home for over 48 children.
He was named Top African 500 Doers by Tropics Magazine in 2019 for his work in supporting African entrepreneurs and fostering a conducive and inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem across Africa.
In September 2020, he was appointed as the World Business Angels Investment Forum International Partner for South Africa by the World Business Angels Investment Forum. World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) is an affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI).
June and July of 2021, McKevin achieved another highlight of his career as he was honoured to be on the Cover of Miziziyangu Afriqa Magazine.
Named 500 Most Influencers African in the world in 2021.
McKevin, has participated as a Judge, Speaker, and Panellist at over 350 events across Africa, Asia, Europe, and USA. His topics includes but not limited to Entrepreneurship, Ecosystem Building, Startups and Innovation, 4IR, Digital Economy, Diversity, Culture and Inclusion, Access to Market and Capital, and Policy with a focus on Africa.
Prior to becoming an entrepreneur and a philanthropist, McKevin held senior management positions as an IT Officer at AMSCO- A United Nation Development Programme project, System Administrator at Barloworld Logistics and IT Engineer at First National Bank South Africa, etc.
Mckevin is an MCSE, CISSP & an IT Consultant by profession with a graduate degree coupled with multiple certifications in Project Management, Information Technology and Startup Ecosystems building.
Shoaib Malik
Partner at Walled City Co. , Director at KAUSAR Group of Companies
A business enthusiast since two decades, Shoaib leads a 3rd-generation family business in Pakistan, KAUSAR established in 1951 by his late grandfather. From very humble beginnings, to being the leading processors of various edible household products across Pakistan, the journey of the family business is a testament of the mind-set on adding value to people’s lives, and true to its core values of simplicity, integrity & respect.
Before joining his family’s food business, Shoaib worked in senior management positions for various multinationals in the United States and the Far East. An Electrical Engineer from National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), he went to Government College University and currently lives in Lahore with his wife and two kids.
Having served on the boards of public sector companies, chambers of commerce & industry, trade associations and advisory councils, Shoaib is a regular speaker on entrepreneurship and family businesses. He enjoys reading autobiographies and his dream is to transform businesses into institutions that contribute to the well-being of society. As a partner at Walled City Co. he is a serial entrepreneur vested in multiple businesses and an advisor to numerous start-ups.
Preeti Chaudhary
Founder LinkedInLocal India, Head of Investments, Partnerships & Alliances & Regional Venture Partner, based in India. Cross border Entrepreneurship, India Startup Ecosystem Enabler and Specialist - especially ecosystem equity and inclusion of women entrepreneurs and investors.
Marcelo Carrullo
Executive Director at Drummond Ventures.Private Equity | Angel Investor | Seed Investor
Evgeny Bazhan
Head of Global Project Operations and Startup Relations at IxD Capital
Denis Valvachev
Senior Managing Partner at Quarter Partners
Skilled in Private Banking, Commercial Banking, Management, Sales Management, Financial Advisory, Strategic Planning, Equities, Fixed Income, Financial Analysis, Portfolio Management, Business Analysis, Project Management, Business Coaching, Retail Banking, Credit Risk, Emerging Markets, Investment Banking, Strategy, Microsoft Office, Leadership, Sales.
Jan Raczynski
I'm managing acceleration programs at Rebels Valley. Have vast experience and deep knowledge of the new technologies industry. For two decades prior to founding Rebels Valley I've been working for the largest IT companies in the world, where he was responsible for implementations and business development in countries of Central Europe and the Middle East.
Taylor Oliver
Taylor Oliver is the Supply Chain & Logistics Fund Coordinator at Plug & Play, the largest corporate innovation platform and most active early-stage investor in the world. Taylor works on fundraising, sourcing the best supply chain startups, venture capital relations, and portfolio management. He played collegiate golf at UC Santa Barbara and currently lives in San Francisco.
Nelli Orlova
CEO InnMind | CVO Scaleswap | VC & Angel Investing | Emerging Tech & Innovations Scout
Sudhir Kadam
Venture Partner at FYDA Growth Partners in the Silicon Valley.
2x CxO; 8x Exits; Startup Advisor; Innovation and Growth Strategist.
Mech Engg, IIT Kgp; Tech Entrepreneurship, Stanford; VC Investing Università Bocconi.
Adjunct Professor San Jose State University; Speaker at EMBA Consortium Programs
Advisor Digital Marketing Program at California State University in Chico
Matteo Boffa
Investor, Swiss Social and Environmental Entrepreneur. Matteo is a member of the boards of various international companies/projects, judge in startups competitions and he is considered one of the most influential 30under30s in Switzerland in the field of sustainability.
Nina Heine
Head of Business Development Venture Services at KPMG Deutschland
Ankit Katiyar
Founding Partner | Skylark Ventures | Seed and Early Stage Investments.
Miguel Martin
- largest international association of private investors for early-stage innovation projects & startups within 65+ countries and partnerships with G20, World Bank & EBAN among others international & investment organizations
Ryan Chang
Venture Partner at Contrary Capital, a network-driven venture fund backed by the founders of Facebook, Tesla, Twitch, SoFi, Reddit, and many more
Arya Setiadharma
Arya is also the Cofounder and CEO of Prasetia Dwidharma, an investment firm which has invested in 70+ startups in Southeast Asia and 15+ startups in the US. He obtained both his Bachelor and Masters degrees in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University. He is currently pursuing his MBA at University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Funds
About:
The Absolute Winner of the Unicorn CUP® Finals is
Submer NextGen Datacenters - Highly efficient, ultra-dense and eco-friendly Data Centers.
The second place went to:
Biosolvit - Bioblue Natural Absorber
The third place went to:
H3 Dynamics - COVID-19 first responder drone stations
Let’s congratulate the Leaders of the each days:
Asian Day https://unicorn.events/001
Privé Technologies - Wealth Management Solutions
And
Submer NextGen Datacenters - Highly efficient, ultra-dense and eco-friendly Data Centers.
European Day https://unicorn.events/002
Privé Technologies - Wealth Management Solutions
American Day https://unicorn.events/003/
Biosolvit - Bioblue Natural Absorber
We are grateful to the experienced and influenced VCs and Angel Investors, which joined the Judges’ Panel at the Online Unicorn CUP® Finals!
The list of participated Judges could be found at the section Judges at https://unicorn.events
Many thanks to our Global Sponsors:
Network.VC (https://network.vc/)
ICU (https://vc.icu.ua/)) - Kyiv-based venture capital fund that invests in technology companies with strong ties to Ukraine and Eastern Europe making late seed and series A investments across the tech spectrum.
ICU Ventures is part of the ICU Group, an independent asset management firm founded in 2006 by senior investment professionals from ING. It is one of the largest and most diversified asset managers in the CEE region.
And of course, we would like to thank our Co-Organizer GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY SYMPOSIUM with Alexandra Johnson.
The next part of the Battle was dedicated to the Pitch Competition.
Top Winners of Preliminary Battles all over the world:
During the Pitch Competition, Judges marked each startup.
You can find the rating of all Startups according to the Judges' voting at the section Pitches on the event page https://unicorn.events
Startup.Network is grateful to Investors, Experts, Entrepreneurs and Guests who attended the Online Unicorn CUP® Finals all three days.
LIVE stream of each day is available here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/StartupN/videos
After all three days of Unicorn CUP® Finals we invited all Participants and Guests to the After Party.
Where worldwide investors and startups were hanging out at the virtual Californian beach. They chatted and chilled on a SiliconValley.World Island in real time. They met new people, upgraded their social network.
You are welcome to explore our EXPO participants:
Looking forward to seeing you all in our next events!
Organizers
Partners
Venue
Online event
Testimonials
I am so happy that I have participated in Dubai Unicorn Battle. Winning the 1st place of this prestigious award is one of many excitements. As an entrepreneur I am actively raising funds and super busy scaling my startup, therefore I was looking for battles with cash prizes! but after I attended the Unicorn Battle, the benefits were more rewarding than immediate cash. All the 18 judges were active investors or consultants who help raising investment, their feedbacks and advices were impressive and helpful to scale to the next level. The organization by Lena and Kateryna was great, the networking and coffee breaks allowed me to make new connections, and we got approached by two interested investors right after the award ceremony.
Will definitely participate again in the future.
Ok, yes I'm excited that we won the Startup Battle this week. But mostly I want to let my other entrepreneur friends out there know that this event is really great. The Judges were all very impressive active investors - and all super engaged with Q&A and feedback - the programming beforehand was excellent, and all the companies that pitched were outstanding. If you have an opportunity to participate in one of these events, do it!
The main thing I would like to share is the event went beyond our expectations.
The venue was really full of interested people and even overcrowded, and that created the right emotional state for the pitching startups and for the audience. We met a few potential investors and made very valuable connections during networking.
After 1 month we are still in connection with the attendees of that Startup Battle. We are working on the Third Opinion Care development together.
We will definitely consider participating in the next events organized by the same team.
Thank you Startup Network for giving Fanalyze the opportunity to pitch at your event! I met some awesome founders and was able to network with several investors. I enjoyed pitching and learning about the other startups in different industries.
After participating in the Startup Battle, which was held by Startup.Network in the Silicon Valley, we gained tremendous amount of experience on how to build the startup and attract investments. Especially it was very cool to talk with MS. He gave us a lot of advice. If it were no it for this event, we would not be able to get such advice. Then we actively worked on searching for investors which we did. We began due diligence but we realised that we did not want to take any investments on the early stage. Again, useful advice from Mike Sandler, his criticism to be precise, helped us to find the way. At this point, we have several investors from among the surgeons, but for now, we are managing on our own.
Now we have an MVP that is not just a set of tools but a surgical robot. The manufacturing of the primary product is taking place in Taiwan. At this point, it is on the stage of being certified.
If somebody asks me whether I need any investments in the early stages, I will say no. It is significantly more important to develop the right network and to get proper advice.
Everything that happened is the credit to Startup.Network!
I want to thank Statup.Network for precious experience and help we've got during startup battles in USA and Berlin.
Mentors your team chooses for jury on battles are always very professional and ready to help.
We got valuable feedback and a good quantity of insights.
Raccoon.World team continues communication and builds relationships with several investors we met on the battles.
Hello!
We took part in several Startup Battles, organised by Startup.Network, in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Minsk, Almaty, Kharkov and attended Startup Battle in San Francisco.
I believe that it helped us to be selected from more than 1000 competitors for acceleration program in the Netherlands, where we were the only startup from Eastern Europe.
Attending the Startup Battles is very beneficial for expending networking and gaining useful feedback. In particular, the feedback, what we got on Startup Battle, from the investor form the Silicon Valley helped us to find new and more perspective niche and make the pivot. We would be glad to collaborate with the Startup.Network team again.
We took part in two Startup.Network events: Startup Battle in Moscow and Startup BAttle in Silicon Valley.
We won the 1st place in Moscow and got a lot of attention from the media and investors. After that event, we received lots of useful pieces of advice and attended meetings with investors.
And we won the 3d place in Silicon Valley, and right after the pitch Marvin Liao
(Partner 500 Startups) offered us to join 500 Startups accelerator. Being acquainted with Marwin helped us one more time in Moscow in some time.
We would be glad to pitch at Startup Battles again!
Thank you.
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