0100 Virtual CEE

Anne Fossemalle has been Director, Equity Funds at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development since 2009. She has over 25 years of private equity experience and holds numerous Supervisory Board and Investment Committee memberships with major fund managers within the EBRD geography. Anne joined the EBRD in 1993 from Natixis, and has worked in several capacities prior to heading Equity Funds, notably leading EBRD’s debt and direct equity investments into financial institutions. Anne holds Masters degrees from Stanford University, Ecole Nationale du Génie Rural, des Eaux et des Forêts (France) and Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (France).

Tomas Kubica (London) joined KKR in 2012 in London, and spent two years in KKR’s Menlo Park office in 2016-18. He is a member of the Technology, Media, & Telecommunications industry team, with a focus on technology. Mr. Kubica has been involved with KKR’s investments in Devoteam, Masmovil, Exact, Optiv, OVH, SoftwareOne, Arago, SBB/Telemach Group, Acteon, Avincis, and TDC. Before joining KKR, he was with Goldman Sachs International in London and McKinsey & Co in Prague. Mr. Kubica received his degrees from INSEAD and State University of New York Empire State College, both with valedictorian honors.

Patric Gresko co-leads the venture capital activity of EIF with a particular focus on CEE, Impact Investing and Life Sciences. EIF is the largest European venture capital fund-of-funds with more than EUR 12bn under management and a portfolio of over 500 venture capital funds, technology transfer operators and business angels covering all major technology sectors, life sciences and social & environmental impact. Patric started his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Luxembourg as an auditor and consultant for the financial sector.

Maciej Ćwikiewicz has over 15 years of experience in private equity and strategic advisory. Between 2009 and 2014 he was an Investment Director at ARX Equity Partners (a private equity fund investing in medium-sized enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe), where he focused on industrial and service sectors in Poland. In the strategic advisory, Maciej Ćwikiewicz worked, among others, for McKinsey & Co, Kolaja & Partners (now Alvarez & Marsal) or PwC. He advised primarily private equity funds during commercial due diligence or the performance improvement programs. He advised also entrepreneurs-owners of Polish manufacturing companies such as Kross, POCH, or Dr Irena Eris. On selected projects he acted as an interim manager, such as Chief Restructuring Officer for RUCH, Kross, or Sanitec Budfarfor. Maciej Ćwikiewicz gained international experience in the United States, where in 2000-2001 he worked as an Analyst in Aviation Research at Portland International Airport, and also in Indonesia where he worked at Elnusa in 2002. Maciej Ćwikiewicz graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics, Finance and Banking in 2000 and obtained his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2009. Completed the Venture Capital program at the University of California at Berkeley.

Tomasz Ciborowski, partner at Enterprise Investors Tomasz Ciborowski is responsible for exit transactions. During his time at the firm he has been involved in a number of successful transactions, including a trade sale of Profi and Danwood and IPOs of Dino, Novaturas and PBKM. Prior to joining EI he was the head of equity capital markets at Bank Zachodni WBK (today Santander Bank Polska), and also worked for HSBC’s corporate finance division in Warsaw and London.

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).

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.

Holding a Bachelor's degree in Business from WHU and a Master’s degree in Economics from Stockholm School of Economics, Jenny enjoys combining these two views - the entrepreneurial and the more data-driven economic view on the startup ecosystem. Before joining EQT Ventures, Jenny gained the first-hand experience within the startup world from both sides of the table: at startups in Berlin and Sao Paulo and in venture capital at JOIN Capital. For three years, Jenny worked with corporates on innovation and digital business building as a consultant at McKinsey & Company in Berlin. As a Venture Lead at EQT Ventures, Jenny focuses on investing in, and working with, startups in the DACH region. She is especially excited about products that change societal dynamics – for example in education and health – and enjoys digging into deep tech or industrial products. Jenny is constantly listening to podcasts – and even has her own: tabula rasa. There, she discusses the future of education and interviews people working on the cutting-edge of the field. She also loves sailing and swimming (preferably in open water), has a passion for film festivals and theatre, and enjoys trying new fitness trends.

Andrew is the Global Field Lead for Microsoft for Startups, creating an environment for start-ups and scale-ups to grow through Microsoft's Global ecosystem. Andrew focuses on developing ecosystems that enable startups to innovate, evolve and engage with the Microsoft customers to drive revenue. Andrew has held leadership roles in Sales, Digital Marketing, Strategy, Customer Success and Organizational Change and is passionate about using these insights to empower Startups to grow and succeed.

Prior to having co-founded Blue Future Partners in 2015, Gregor spent 5 years at a European Family Office, predominantly looking after their real estate investments. In this role, he gained extensive experience having acquired, managed and divested numerous commercial and residential real estate assets. Gregor also served as CEO of Open Publishing, one of Germany’s leading digital publishing software companies, where he implemented the company’s transition from a content to a software business. He started his professional career in a software consultancy. Gregor holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Analytical Philosophy and Theory of Science from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and Madrid.

Barbara Nowakowska is the Managing Director of PSIK, the Polish Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, which she joined in 2003. PSIK represents the interests of the Polish private equity/venture capital community and works on promotion and development of the industry.  Barbara is a board member of Valores Foundation, Poland’s first venture philanthropy fund. She also served as a Member of the Governing Board at European Institute of Innovation and Technology and was an expert on the Polish private equity and venture capital for the European Commission. Her pre-PSIK experience embraces a corporate, private equity and government jobs.

Martin is the Asset Manager at RSJ Investment. He manages an investment portfolio focused on opportunities from the IT industry. He invests, through his TECH fund of funds, in the best early-stage VCs across Europe and co-invest with them in the best portfolio startups. His vision is to create, together with the team, a unique set of investment opportunities for long-term professional investors from the CE region. Martin also works as a coach and mentor for founders and entrepreneurs. He focuses on the execution of their visions and strategies, a problem-solving process (including learnings), and enhancing their ability to live fulfilled lives. He is also an external teacher at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, helping students be better leaders and managers. He spent 15 years in the IT industry, last ten years CEO of the IT/consulting company with clients mostly from the Finance Industry. Martin enjoys working with great people, creating unique and quality services with a strong focus on execution, sales and results.

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.

Marko is a Partner at Provectus Capital Partners (PCP). PCP manages ASEF, a growth capital fund with target size of EUR 100 million, investing in SMEs in Croatia and SEE. Marko is a Private Equity and Investment Banking executive with over EUR 500 million of executed financing transactions and M&A projects across Central Europe (CE) and South East Europe (SEE). Prior to PCP, Marko was with European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as Regional Head for SME Finance and Development, responsible for direct EBRD exposures to SMEs in the corporate sector across CE. Furthermore, at EBRD Marko was part of Enterprise Expansion Fund (ENEF) team – a private equity fund advised by EBRD. Previously, Marko spent several years with UniCredit M&A department, advising on sell-side and buy-side mandates in SEE region (Croatia, BiH, Montenegro, etc.). Marko holds a BSc in Economics and Management from University of London and MBA from Cesma Business School.

Martin Kõdar (born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1976) joined BaltCap in the beginning of 2000 where he is serving as a co-Managing Partner. Martin is a member of the investment committee of BaltCap funds and his responsibilities include operational management of BaltCap group, investor relations, supervision of the administration of advised funds and serving as a supervisory council member of investee companies. Martin’s involvement in current portfolio includes dental healthcare provider Unimed Clinics and occupational healthcare provider Qvalitas. Martin is also a member of the Mid-Market Council and Professional Standards Committee in Invest Europe (the association representing Europe’s private equity, venture capital and infrastructure sectors, as well as their investors) and a board member of Responsible Business Forum in Estonia (promoting corporate social responsibility among businesses and raising public awareness). He has graduated from Tallinn Technical University and has an EVCA (Invest Europe) Certificate in Institutional Private Equity Investing (CIPEI) from Oxford Saïd Business School.

William R Watson is the Managing Partner of Value4Capital, a Poland and Central European focused private equity firm. Bill began investing in central Europe in 1992 with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He continued with Baring Private Equity Partners from 1997 and Société Générale Asset Management from 2005. In October 2011 he and his partners spun-out with the fund raised under the SGAM brand to become Value4Capital. They are currently investing their 2017 vintage V4C Poland Plus Fund. A Canadian and French citizen, he has been a board member at portfolio companies across central Europe and played an active role in the industry as a member of Invest Europe’s Mid-Market Platform Council from 2012 to 2018 and a member and then Chairman of its Professional Standards Committee. He is currently Chairman of the Invest Europe CEE Task Force.

University of Virginia BA; University of Minnesota JD. Lawyer for years in the US representing fortune 500 companies About 10 years ago moved back to the EU to be CEO of a venture-funded Finish CleanTech company and CEO of a venture-funded UK digital publishing company, and started making angel investments. Set up angel investment advisory boutique Solon Partners. Then in 2016 founded Change Venture I - VC fund in the USA, and 2020 Change Ventures II.

Mirna Marovic is highly-skilled in Corporate Finance, Private Equity & Venture Capital with more than 25 years’ experience in the finance industry. She has set up VentureXchange Ltd., a boutique consulting firm whose services include private equity and venture capital advisory, fundraising, scaling up, sustainability strategy and integration of ESG objectives.  She is the founder and the President of the Croatian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (CVCA). Skilled in economic policy and research and EU integration issues, having been an Assistant Minister in the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration during Croatia’s integration into the European Union. For a decade, she has successfully combined high-profile consultancy assignments working for international financing institutions (IFIs) and a career in academia as a Lecturer at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM). She served as a project manager in producing the Western Balkans Venture Capital Assessment, a study used to prepare the Western Balkans Enterprise Development & Innovation Facility (WB EDIF). Before returning to Croatia in 2004, based in London and held corporate and structured finance positions at major investment banks, including Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, and Credit Agricole Indosuez. Mirna Marovic is Alumna of INSEAD (MBA), London School of Economics (B.Sc. Econ, Climate Change: Economic and Governance), Harvard Business School (Sustainable Business Strategy) and London Business School (Corporate Finance, Investment Management, Sustainability Leadership & Corporate Responsibility), and EFFAS Certified ESG Analyst (CESGA®). She is a dynamic communicator, fluent in 6 European languages, with strong presentation skills acquired through regular participation in many international conferences.

Shruti Chandrasekhar is the Head of Startup Catalyst and SME Ventures at the IFC, investing and managing a USD 360 million portfolio of unlisted closed-end funds across frontier markets with a strong focus on emerging managers and impact. Startup Catalyst is an early stage venture capital program focused on pre-seed, seed and early stage investing and SME Ventures is a private equity investment program focused on providing access to capital for SMEs across frontier markets. Shruti also leads IFC’s gender focused initiatives across private equity and venture capital. In addition, Shruti is experienced at establishing new investment vehicles and serves on the boards and advisory committees of several private equity and venture capital funds and companies. Since 2006, Shruti built a successful track record investing equity, leading venture capital deals in Silicon Valley, private equity transactions in India and funds investments across the world. Prior to the IFC, Shruti was based in California and focused on late-stage venture capital with PremjiInvest, a multi-billion dollar investment office with multiple investments in unicorns such as Coupa, Anaplan, Datastax, etc. Prior to her investment career, Shruti was a management consultant at Oliver Wyman. She has an MBA from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is a frequent speaker on the topics of private equity and venture capital investment and emerging markets.

Elina brings significant experience in investment banking, private equity and new business ventures in New York, London and Sofia. Prior to establishing BrightCap Ventures, she was part of the early management team at Auxionize, a B2B procurement platform, where she drove the expansion of the start-up into more than 50 industry sectors. Before returning to Bulgaria, Elina was an investor at Citigroup’s private equity funds in New York ($600m) and London (€1.1bn). Previously, she was a research analyst at Wit Soundview, New York, the first online platform for investment banking and research of emerging technology and e-commerce companies. She started her career as an investment banker at Citigroup on Wall Street. Elina holds an MBA degree from Stanford and a summa cum laude Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Richmond, VA.

Alexander Vavilov is currently an Investment Manager with iTech capital. His current focus is on A-series investments within FinTech, BigData, Adtech, and other technology-driven businesses. Prior to working in venture capital and private equity, he worked in a range of industries such as oil and gas, trading, wealth management, and management consulting. His professional experiences have led him across the globe, from the United States and Europe to Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. He holds a master's in finance from IE University and a bachelor's in Management, Economics, and Finance from Bocconi University. Additionally, he is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA).

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.

Ertan Can Ertan is a venture capital fund of funds pioneer in Europe, and Founder and Managing Partner of Multiple Capital. He has a combined 20 years’ experience of asset management, fund of funds, VC and information technology operating roles. In 2018 he launched Multiple Capital, Europe’s first tech-focused fund of micro funds, which is building a portfolio of over 500 companies. His driving ambition is to democratize diversified access to early-stage tech funds from all over the continent. He is an unorthodox and influential investor, keynote speaker and lecturer. Ertan completed a degree in International Finance and Law in Frankfurt and London and has an M.B.A from ESCP in Paris. Multiple Capital Multiple Capital is Europe’s first tech-focused fund of micro funds. Launched in 2018, it democratizes diversified access to early-stage tech funds from all over the continent. Its mission is to enable multiple limited investment partners to benefit from this unique venture capital asset class. Multiple Capital offers this by providing access to a best-in-class fund of funds portfolio. Launched by Ertan Can – a VC fund of funds pioneer – Multiple Capital is building a portfolio of over 500 tech companies. Ertan and his team screen hundreds of funds to identify the rising stars in their tech subsets, and to date Multiple Capital has invested in 20 funds. The focus is on generalist regional and vertical Pan-European seed funds to build a portfolio of European early-stage and micro VC funds.

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.

Luka Oreskovic is an investor, academic and author. He is a partner at Prosperus Invest, leading Adria region PE fund manager, where together with partners he grew assets under management by 4x from €45m to € 200m in 2 years from joining. An associate partner at Spitzberg Partners, he developed activities in Central and Eastern Europe, in both corporate finance & strategy advisory and investment. He serves as Chairman of M+ Group, the largest CRM company in Southeast Europe which he grew in less than 4 years from a small local firm with 100 employees into a regional industry leader with over 8000 employees, €100m in revenues and raising over €50m in funding including an IPO. Concurrently, at Harvard University he is an associate at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science and served on the Innovation Advisory Board of Rutgers University. He was a member of RTL Digital Advisory Board and advises the European Council on Foreign Relations. Luka previously co-chaired Harvard University’s Business and Government in Emerging Europe Seminar with Harvard Business School professors Rawi Abdelal and Dante Roscini as the youngest ever program head of Harvard’s Center for European Studies. He was the youngest member in history of the economic council of the President of Croatia, where among others he led the President’s collaborations with Al Gore, Elon Musk, the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. While still an undergraduate at Harvard he was a regular correspondent for The Economist, the Financial Times, the Moscow Times, Foreign Policy Magazine and Huffington Post and co-authored two books, published by Springer and Lynne Riener Publishers.His analyses regularly appear in the Financial Times, Politico, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, The New York Times, Forbes, South China Morning Post, CNBC, Reuters and others. His research has been cited by Brookings Institution, Center for European Policy Analysis, Oxford University etc. Luka graduated from Harvard College with a concentration in history and Central and Eastern European studies.

Răzvan Butucaru has joined Mazars in 2014 and he is currently leading the financial services and advisory group within Mazars Romania which comprises a variety of business lines such as deal advisory, IT consulting, corporate governance, and risk management services. Răzvan has tremendous experience in managing complex acquisition and disposal projects with a significant regional dimension. His portfolio related to the review of financial reports and advisory services spans across a broad range of industries. Besides, advising his clients in determining the path to improved profitability and business value, he regularly conducts workshops for them, speaks at various technical events and he is the author of numerous articles in the specialized press. Before joining Mazars, Răzvan started his career in a Big 4 company and subsequently has worked in the banking sector for a large regional financial services group. Răzvan holds a BSc from The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, majoring in Banks and Stock Exchange from the Faculty of Finance, Insurance, Banks and Stock Exchange alongside a MSc from the same university majoring in Internal audit within the financial services sector.

Andrija is Partner of advisory department in Mazars Croatia, with clients in the private/owner manager and small/mid cap sphere. Andrija also serves as Mazars FAS lead for Adria region (Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, BIH, Montenegro). He has ten years of industry experience and practice in Croatia. He has been involved in a broad range of due diligence, valuation and M&A advisory projects - along with contentious and non-contentious transfer pricing assignments - across a wide range of sectors. He also has a Economics degree from the University of Zagreb, UK ACCA qualification and is Croatian Certified Appraiser and Court expert for finance and taxes. Andrija has over 10 years of sector experience and a large number of due diligence projects in various sectors. He has broad scope of company valuations performed for sellers and buyers, large number of advisory support in court process – squeeze out, take over etc., multiple sell-side advisor to management in retail business, car businesses, facility management services etc. Troughout years, he has been engaged in large number of transfer pricing projects in Balkans region.

Miriama joined Venture to Future Fund team as an Investment manager and member of the Board of Directors. Venture to Future Fund investment strategy is focused on innovative SME’s mainly in their growth stage of business cycle predominantly in Slovakia but also in the EU. Venture to Future Fund was established as a joint initiative of the European Investment Bank, Slovak Investment Holding and the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic in order to support venture capital market in Slovakia. Prior to joining VFF, Miriama managed multisectoral M&A transactions for one of the largest holding companies in Slovakia. She also advised local family offices in one of the leading financial institutions in Slovakia.

Anthony O’Connor is a Partner in the Budapest office of Kinstellar and Head of the firm’s Corporate / M&A practice. Anthony has extensive experience advising private equity and venture capital investors on all aspects of high-profile investments in C/SEE, in identifying and managing business risks, areas of sensitivity and commercial objectives, and negotiating share purchase agreements, investment and shareholder agreements, management warranty deeds and warranty and indemnity insurance, as well as management incentive plans, equity roll-overs and earn-outs. Anthony is a native English speaker and is admitted to the English Bar.

Founding partner at SMOK Ventures. Co-founder of accelerator ReaktorX. Forbes 30 under 30. Ambassador of Startup Poland. SMOK Ventures is a US/Polish venture capital fund. They invest between 50k USD and 1M USD in early stage startups in Poland. Our primary focus is software and gaming. We love to work with serial entrepreneurs with a global vision who aim to build global leaders in their industries.

Jakub Krajcovic is an investment manager at Sandberg Capital, active in Sandberg’s TMT portfolio. Prior to joining Sandberg in 2018, he had a career in the IT industry, focusing on cloud computing. At Sandberg, he led several platform investments in the technology sector and has been actively involved in developing operational excellence within the portfolio. He holds a bachelor of computer science from the Slovak Technical University and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Max, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Iconic Holding, a global crypto-asset manager and early-stage blockchain VC, started his career as a management consultant, where he advised Furtune500 companies from the steel, utility, and retail industry on topics like digitalization, project management and IT integration. He transitioned into Private Equity at an Asset Management group with € 40 Billion assets under management, then joined a fintech company builder, where he built several alternative finance startups from scratch together with the management team. He holds a BA in international management, an MBA is Harvard educated and completed the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation. Additionally, he serves on the supervisory board of MLP, Germany’s biggest independent financial advisory group and is personally invested in several startups as a business angel.

Ruxandra Pietreanu is the Managing Partner of Path-Finder Corporate Finance - a leading independent corporate finance boutique in Romania. Ruxandra is a professional with 20+ years of experience and more than 50 attended transactions in the M&A field, as well as in capital and debt raising. She has been involved in a large number of projects – covering M&A, capital raising, debt raising, financial & operational restructurings and turnaround situations – serving small, midsize and large companies with turnover between EUR 500,000 and EUR 500,000,000. With the aim to support the growth of entrepreneurial companies by attracting capital, Path-Finder recently launched Path2Capital , a platform that connects financial investors with suitable SEE companies looking for capital and supports the parties to close deals in a smooth and time-saving manner

Executive MBA of California State University, Hayward Paul G. Putz, MBA is a serial entrepreneur with 30+ years of experience in corporate finance in Central Europe and Russia. He is also Founder and Managing Partner of Paul Putz & Partner Management Consultants GmbH (since 2002). Past Experience: Director of Business Development at NEWEX AG – CEE Stock Exchange (1999-2002) Member of the Board and partner of several investment companies in Prague (1994-1999) Director Investment Banking at an Austrian bank in Prague (1993-1994) Several board and supervisory board memberships.

Maximilian Schausberger is Managing Director of Elevator Ventures, the CVC entity of Raiffeisen Bank International. In the role of a leading growth partner for fintechs in CEE, Elevator Ventures leverages RBI Group’s expertise, network and corporate strength in order to help promising scaleups expand across this dynamic region and beyond. In his former role as Head of Fintech Partnerships at RBI, Maximilian managed the cooperation of disruptive fintechs with RBI and the startup partnership program and accelerator Elevator Lab.

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 Managing partner at Silverline Capital. 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.