0100 Conference Europe 2024

Jørgen Hjorth Blystad is Investment Director at Argentum Asset Management. He holds an M.Sc. degree from the Norwegian School of Economics (1999) as well as being Authorized Portfolio Manager (2007). Blystad brings a strong background in the fields of investing and finance. Having gained valuable experience at Carnegie Corporate Finance, Ernst & Young Corporate Finance and investment department at Gjensidige Forsikring, Blystad joined Argentum in 2008, assuming key responsibilities in portfolio management and external investor programs. With over 24 years of working in finance, Blystad possesses in-depth knowledge of the private equity market in Western Europe.

Courtney Powell is tasked with helping venture capital firm 500 Global scale globally and explore new opportunities across both new and existing markets. She is responsible for driving day-to-day operations across the team to pursue 500’s mission of uplifting people and economies through entrepreneurship. Her ties to 500 Global go back to 2012, when she founded PublikDemand, a member of Batch 4 in 500’s Seed Accelerator. She went on to become CEO of Agent Pronto, one of the largest real estate agent referral services in North America, which was ultimately acquired by Fidelity National Title Group. Most recently, Courtney was the Head of Corporate Development at Keller Williams, the largest real estate franchise in the world. During her tenure, she established the company’s first corporate innovation program, and worked with Keller Capital to invest and acquire tech companies in the real estate space. Courtney was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2012, received the Twilio Doer Award in 2013, and became a Google Business Leader in 2015. She attended the University of Texas at Austin and studied French and Corporate Communication.

Hendrik Brandis is a co-founder and Partner at Earlybird, and works out of the Munich office. Hendrik’s current domain focus is enterprise web-powered infrastructure and SaaS in addition to selected consumer services. Hendrik has served for many years as EVCA board member and the Chairman of the EVCA Venture Capital Platform Council. Hendrik brings together long-standing investment, operational and entrepreneurial experience. He was a board member of element5 AG, where he was a driving force behind the sale to Digital River (NASDAQ:DRIV), dooyoo.de (Berlin) which was sold to leguide.com and Dianoema, which listed on the Borsa Italiana (Milan: NOE.MI) as well as NFON AG which listed on the Frankfurter Boerse. Hendrik currently serves on the boards of Earlybird portfolio companies aiven (Helsinki, Finland), B2X Care Solutions (Munich); Instamotion (Munich), Isar Aerospace (Munich), Onefootball (Berlin); Simscale (Munich); Movinga (Berlin), MediDate (Berlin) and MyDataModels (Valbonne, France). Hendrik gained his entrepreneurial experience as a Co-Founder of GMM, a group of private investors focusing on buy-outs of mid-sized companies and ned his operational experience as Project Manager in the Technology Department of Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm (now Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace) focusing on the design and innovative manufacturing processes of composite aircraft structures.

As Director of ESG and Responsible Investing, Mr. Hill is the Chairperson of Adams Street’s Environmental, Social, and Governance Committee, and supports Adams Street’s ESG efforts across all investment strategies. He collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to analyze, measure, and report ESG performance, as well as drive improvement. Mr. Hill’s career in the fields of ESG research and sustainability spans two decades. Prior to joining Adams Street, he was at S&P Global Trucost where he played a key role in managing and delivering projects that provided data-leveraged ESG insights to leading businesses and institutional investors.

Victoria, at the European Commission, is in charge of approving EU proposals for the European Innovation Council (EIC) Horizon Europe funding applications. Likewise, she represents the interests of the EIC €10,2bn fund as NED in the Belgian telecommunications company, Tessares. She is also investor in several start-ups innovative start-ups. Previously, she was Alliance’s Director British Telecom Europe, Executive Chairman Orange Spain, and Senior Vice-President International Proximus. She is a non-executive Director (NED) at CaixaBank Payments & Consumer.

Fabian joined Vitruvian in 2017, is heading the DACH office in Munich and is focused on Technology and Healthcare investments in the DACH and CEE region overall. Prior to Vitruvian Fabian has been a Partner with EQT, committed to the mid-market segment in the DACH and Nordics region. Prior to joining EQT, Fabian worked at MCap Finance investing in German mid-cap companies as well as for KPMG in the corporate finance team. In the course of his career, he has also co-founded an internet start-up. Fabian has over 17 years’ experience in mid-market private equity as well as growth investments across Europe. He has a MSc in Business Administration from the University of Cologne and a MBA from CEMS.

Alex Lim is a general partner in IVP’s London office, where he partners with consumer, application SaaS and AI companies. He decided to join the world of venture capital and move to Silicon Valley, sight unseen, when he learned about Facebook in a freshman-year seminar at UNC. Alex joined IVP in March 2015 and was actively involved in IVP’s investments in Cyence (GRWE), Discord, Expanse, G2, Hims & Hers, UiPath, Sorare, Supermetrics and SteelBrick (CRM). In 2021, he moved to the UK and joined Blossom Capital as a General Partner and Managing Partner until he rejoined IVP in 2023.

Michiel is a Partner at Northzone, focusing on SaaS, healthcare, and AI. He leads Northzone’s investments in Personio, Spacemaker, Kahoot!, Medwing, Stonly, Idoven, Forto, and Katana. Prior to joining Northzone, Michiel was an investor at Accel London. Originally from the Netherlands, Michiel spent the early years of his career at BCG. He then founded Digital Jones, an artificial intelligence company, in the Bay Area, which he sold to Shopping.com.