Andris is Managing Partner of Change Ventures, the largest seed venture capital fund in the Baltic States that focuses exclusively on backing ambitious founders from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Andris has been a key player in the Baltic ecosystem for a decade, having co-founded the TechHub Riga foundation, the leading Baltic startup event TechChill and the Latvian Startup Association. Andris had a 15 year career as a C-level tech executive in several US, Israeli and European startups, two of which exited for over $100M. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 22).

Kinga is General Partner Experior VC. Kinga has nearly 20 years of experience in investments and finance. She is founder of Experior VC, investing in scale-ups and growth, pure software with strong ML/AI in SaaS, including software deep tech, e-commerce, big data-driven companies across all verticals. She is active in supporting women-led companies as a mentor and investor. She established the European Women in VC platform with the aim of increasing the number of female partners at venture funds across Europe from the current low single digit percentage number it is today. Kinga is an advisor to the European Innovation Council. She is named one of the TOP 50 of Europe’s most influential women in the start-up and venture capital space by EU Startups and top 50 women in tech in Europe by Forbes.

Mr. Bartos joined Innova in 2004 from Allianz Specialized Investments as a Head of Office in Warsaw. Prior to that, he worked in the investment banking and capital markets at the Commerzbank Group and the Polish Development Bank. During that time, Andrzej was involved in scores of IPOs, equity financings, corporate and privatization advisory projects. His principal area of responsibility is Manufacturing investments. Due to his extensive experience within Polish public markets, he is actively involved in any transactions involving the public markets. He co-led the investments in EBCC, Fuchosa, Donako, Libet, Energobit, Trimo, Flokk and PLIC. He was responsible for the successful IPO of ACE on the WSE in 2007. Mr. Bartos graduated from Warsaw School of Economics, and he holds several professional qualifications, including Securities Broker’s license and postgraduate executive trainings from INSEAD and Harvard Business School. In the past Mr. Bartos also served on the board of Polish Private Equity Association and established the first Polish Management Buy-Out Club, a gathering of over 70 local executives.

Rustam is a principal at Mid Europa Partners, a leading private equity firm in CEE with over €5.3bn of funds raised and managed since inception. Prior to joining Mid Europa, Rustam worked at Five Arrows Principal Investments, the private equity arm of Rothschild & Co.

Ondrej started his carreer as an entrepreneur when still in college. In the late 90s he co-founded and managed several companies in event management, consulting and IT. Relatively soon he’d realized that he doesn’t have what it takes to make a truly successful entrepreneur, so he turned consultant and angel investor. He also founded and ran Czech chapter of the networking platform First Tuesday and after the decay of the global organization after the dot com bust, he morphed it into a member-based networking and knowledge platform TUESDAY Business Network which became a center point of the early startup movement in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 2004 – 2008 he served as Senior Investment Director with MCI Management, VC & PE firm based out of Poland. In 2009 he together with Jan started preparations for the launch of Credo which took place in late 2010 when it raised its pilot fund with 18 million euros. In 2009 he was one of the investors in the Czech edition of TV show Dragons’ Den. Currently Ondrej is focused on investments in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, he also looks at Bulgaria. His main passion is finding outstanding founders and great talent, and helping them with guidance and advice.

Stephane is Partner at LAUCNHub Ventures. He is focusing on enterprise software B2B and SaaS companies, covering Bulgaria, Greece and the SEE Diaspora on the US east coast. Prior to joining LAUNCHub Ventures, Stephane was working in Large IT system integrators and Orange - the leading telecom in France, where he was working with startups and investors identifying new innovative products and services.Stephane has been very actively developing the LAUNCHub Ventures investor network in Europe and the US. He is also co-organizer of DigitalK conference - the largest technology & startup conference in SEE.

Piotr is an investment director at 3TS Capital Partners, one of the leading European technology focused private equity and venture capital firms. 3TS provides expansion capital for companies in growth sectors including Technology & Internet, Media & Communications and Technology-Enabled Services. Piotr serves on the board of directors of multiple portfolio companies in marketing automation, advertising technologies, digital-health and e-commerce space. He enjoys working closely with the founders to develop sustainable and scalable high-growth business models.

Brian Wardrop has been originating, executing, monitoring and exiting private equity investments in Central and Eastern Europe since 1997. Mr. Wardrop is Managing Partner of ARX Equity Partners, which is a private equity firm with a 20-year track record supporting the growth and development of mid-sized companies in select Central European countries. With more than € 300 million raised in four funds, ARX has become a leading private equity firm in its segment in the Central European region. Prior to joining ARX, Mr. Wardrop was a Principal and Head of the Prague office with sector specialist private equity firm, Baring Communications Equity (Emerging Europe). Mr. Wardrop holds a Master’s degree from Boston University and a Bachelor’s degree from Bishop’s University. He is also a graduate of the Owner/President Program at Harvard Business School. Mr. Wardrop is also an active supporter of the non-profit social enterprise sector via his roles as a board member of NESst (a non-profit organization focused on developing sustainable social enterprises in emerging market economies) and as a member of the investment committee of Tilia Impact Ventures (the first fund in the Czech Republic investing in social enterprises).

Michal is a partner at Sandberg Capital, a private equity firm investing in mid-sized companies in the CEE region with AUM over 250 mil. EUR. He joined Sandberg Capital in 2014 and since then he led several investments especially in IT and Telco sectors.

Jan is responsible for running operations in our funds and the investment company. In addition, he handles relationships with Czech and international investors and, in particular, institutions. Prior to joining the Jet Investment team in 2018, Jan was employed in the Austrian Erste Group, where he specialized on project credit, especially in real estate, infrastructure, and renewable resources across the entire CEE region. That portfolio was in excess of EUR 1 billion. Within the banking group, he also was involved in consolidation and subsequent sale of bad assets in a total nominal amount exceeding EUR 500 million. Jan studied at the University of Applied Sciences in Vienna and earned the title of magister from Berlin School of Economics and Law.

Partner at Innovation Nest - B2B SaaS focused seed fund. Investing across SMB and Enterprise software. Special interest in E-commerce, Logistics and Hospitality. Helping founders connect the dots around hiring, product and growth.

Tomas Kemtys is a Partner at Contrarian Ventures, having joined the firm in February 2019. He is responsible for overall fund strategy including fundraising, deal sourcing and execution, structuring, investment process and thesis building as well as recruiting, amongst others. Tomas sits on a number of Boards of Contrarian Ventures portfolio companies. Prior to Contrarian Ventures, he was an investment banker with Centerview Partners, a leading independent New York based investment banking and advisory firm. Having worked out of London, Tomas has focused mostly on healthcare and consumer retail but has also worked on transactions in energy, industrials and other sectors. He has executed transactions across various countries including UK, USA, Israel, Jordan, South Africa and others. Other relevant experiences include various positions in BNP Paribas, Société Générale and British Petroleum. Tomas is an alumnus of Finance program in ESADE Business School in Barcelona.

Michal is responsible for technology investments at KKCG, a Prague-based financial group with EUR 6 bn under management. He focuses on the development of Aricoma Group, a buy-and-build platform aiming to become Europe’s leading next-generation IT services provider. Michal also oversees KKCG’s in-house venture fund focusing on later-stage cybersecurity and cloud investments in CEE and Israel. Michal has degrees from the London Business School and Prague School of Economics.

Paweł is currently Head of Institutional Fundraising for Mount TFI, first private alternative fund management company in Poland specializing in private debt and real estate investments. Pawel has over 16 years of experience in the financial market, gained in Poland, UK and Austria. Prior to Mount TFI, he worked for MCI Capital, leading private equity group in the CEE region, where he was responsible for fundraising and IR. Prior to MCI Capital, Pawel worked for the Warsaw Stock Exchange, initially as an advisor to the Management Board responsible strategic projects and later as managing director of client relations department. In between 2004 and 2013 Pawel worked in the City of London at the Barclays Capital investment bank and Deutsche Bank and later Raiffeisen Centrobank in Vienna. His main areas of responsibility were equity sales across the CEE region. Pawel graduated from Middlesex Business School in London. He holds an MBA from the Business School of the Warsaw University of Technology. Since 2018, Pawel is Country Advisor for ELITE platform, London Stock Exchange Group's international business support and capital raising programme.

Evgeny Angelov is Chairman of the Bulgarian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and partner at PostScriptum Ventures. Previously, Evgeny was the Economic Advisor to the President of Bulgaria and the Deputy Minister of Economy. His focus in the public sector has been on economic, investment and innovation policy formulation and implementation. He supervised over 50 state-owned companies and was responsible for the €1.2bn Operational Programme “Competitiveness”. He served as Chairman of the Board of both the Bulgarian Energy Holding, the National Electricity Company, and was a Board member and initiator of Sofia Tech Park. Concurrently, he was the Head of the Investment Board of JEREMIE Bulgaria, a €350mm fund of funds, which provides equity and debt financing to start-ups and SMEs. Prior to his public sector roles, Evgeny was Director at Trigranit Development Corporation, a leading real estate development company in Central and Eastern Europe. Before that he held various positions at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London, where he structured, negotiated and executed debt and equity transactions in the financial services, pharmaceutical, cement, real estate and chemical industries in ten Central and Eastern European countries. Evgeny holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Martin Bodocky is Slovak born, the UK educated and living in Vienna. He loves to talk numbers with meaning and the right context. However, his career he has moved from a purely technical position as a software developer, later as a solution architect for International Atomic Energy agency, then left to the star-up company to help retail investors understand fundamentals behind tech companies traded public exchange. His tech background and desire for investing naturally let them team up with tech investors. Last three years is a general partner at Nation 1 Czech based VC for early-stage companies where he led investment to 7 companies, and he has a great passion for books which push his knowledge of investing further. He loves to support funders on the motion that the company has to balance his vision and business model just right to be a unicorn, the creature he is looking for by day and by night.

Venelin is partner, co-head of the M&A practice in Tsvetkova Bebov Komarevski, Attorneys-at-law. He has a particular focus on PE and VC transactions and restructurings, with industry specialization in retail, energy, TMT, and fintech sectors. He combines legal education, expertise, and experience in M&A and Competition law with knowledge from his master’s degree education in Corporate Finances to offer clients in-depth and multi-perspective legal support.