Disrupt Berlin 2018
November 29 – 30, 2018 — Berlin
Speakers
Sophia Bendz
Partner Cherry Ventures
Anne Boden
Founder & CEO Starling Bank
Niko Bonatsos
Founder & Managing Director Verdict Capital
Philippe Botteri
Contributor
Mike Collett
Founder & Managing Partner Promus Ventures
Kim-Mai Cutler
Sonali De Rycker
Partner Accel
Lucas Di Grassi
Formula E Driver Audi Sport
Sophie Hill
Founder & CEO Threads Styling
Bindi Karia
Innovation Expert + Advisor, Connector of People & Business bindi ventures
Brynne Kennedy
Founder and Chairwoman Topia
Saul Klein
Co-Founder Phoenix Court
Luciana Lixandru
General Partner Sequoia Capital
Alan Mamedi
Matt Miesnieks
Rafal Modrzewski
Co-founder & CEO ICEYE
Harry Nelis
Partner Accel
Antoine Nussenbaum
Partner Felix Capital
Magnus Olsson
Chief Xperience Officer & Co-founder Careem
Sofie Quidenus-Wahlforss
Founder & CEO omni:us
Aline Sara
CEO & Co-founder NaTakallam
Robby Stein
Vice President of Product, Google Search Google
Sitar Teli
Founder & Managing Partner Connect Ventures
Matt Turck
Sophia is a Partner at Cherry Ventures. Based in Stockholm. Sophia brings her expertise on Nordic startups and a growing interest in the femtech space. Sophia joined Cherry from Atomico, where she also served as Partner and created the firm’s well-known Angel Program. Sophia is passionate about supporting ambitious, early-stage founders, an interest she discovered through 40+ angel investments of her own across Europe and North America. For seven years, Sophia also served as Spotify’s Global Marketing Director, developing the audio platform from an apartment-based Swedish startup into an international household name. Aside from venture capital, she also acts as Board Director at the non-profit organization Race for the Baltic, is cofounder of AllBright.se, and is an innovation advisor to the Swedish Prime Minister. Sophia is a graduate from Stockholm University.
Anne Boden is the founder and CEO of Starling Bank, a leading UK digital bank. Starling offers personal, business, joint and children’s banking services across more than 3.5 million accounts in the UK. It also provides a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) proposition through its subsidiary Engine, using the proprietary technology platform that it uses to power its own bank. Since founding Starling in 2014, Anne has led it from a fast-growth fintech to a leading bank that stands firmly in a category of one. The bank is headquartered in London; has offices in Southampton, Cardiff, Dublin and soon Manchester; and its employee base, which is more than 2,000, is growing by the day. Anne’s technology know-how shaped her 30 year career in banking and she is widely considered as a thought-leader in the fintech sector. She was awarded an MBE for services to fintech in 2018 and chairs the UK government’s taskforce on Women-Led High-Growth Enterprises.
Niko Bonatsos is the Founder and Managing Director at Verdict Capital. Niko leads the first money round in ridiculously ambitious tech founders who are building in categories that don’t yet have a name. Niko has been an early stage VC for 15+ years now and was an early investor in companies such as Discord, General Intuition, Hive, Mercor, Pylon, Remote.com, Snap and Triumph Arcade. Prior to becoming a VC Niko was a perpetual student and collected a few degrees from NTUA, the University of Cambridge and Stanford University.
Philippe Botteri is a partner at Accel and focuses on SaaS, enterprise and marketplace businesses.
Mike Collett is Founder and Managing Partner of Promus Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Chicago, San Francisco and Luxembourg investing in deep-technology software and hardware companies in the U.S., Europe and New Zealand. Mike has been a venture capital investor in software and hardware for over 15 years. He has invested in more than 70 private technology companies, including areas such as artificial intelligence/machine learning, space, fintech, robotics, synthetic biology, computer vision, connected car, blockchain, healthcare, insurance, agriculture, nanotechnology and others. Mike currently serves on numerous Boards of Directors of private technology companies, including Spire, Gauss Surgical, ICEYE, CrossLend, Rhombus and others. Mike previously was Founder and Managing Partner of Masters Capital Nanotechnology Fund, a venture capital firm. Investments included companies in quantum cascade lasers, quantum dots, photonic integrated optoelectronic devices, nano-engineered fabrics and others. While at Masters Capital, a hedge fund, Mike invested in private technology software and hardware companies. Prior to venture capital, Mike was a Vice President at Merrill Lynch in their Mergers & Acquisitions group as well as an Associate at Duff & Phelps. Mike holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Math and Bachelor’s of Arts in English from Vanderbilt University. He also holds a Masters of Business Administration in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis. Mike and his wife Paige have four children and live in Chicago.
Kim-Mai Cutler is an operating partner for Initialized Capital, an early-stage venture firm and was previously a journalist covering technology, finance and policy issues at TechCrunch — best-known for her long-form work on the Bay Area.
Sonali joined the Accel team in London in 2008 and has witnessed the European ecosystem come of age firsthand. She focuses on consumer (especially marketplace), next generation financial services and software companies. Sonali was responsible for Accel’s investments in Spotify, which went public in 2018; Letgo, which joined forces with OfferUP in 2020, and Avito, which was acquired in 2015 by Naspers. In addition, Sonali led Accel’s investment in Calastone, which was acquired by The Carlyle Group in October 2020. Sonali’s current portfolio contains a number of high-potential companies, including: Kry, the pan-European digital health platform; Monzo, the digital, mobile-only bank; Primer, the automation platform for payments and commerce; Shift Technology, the leader in AI-driven fraud software; sennder, Europe’s number one digital freight forwarder; Soldo, the spend management platform, and Wallapop, the mobile marketplace for online goods. Recent investments include eldercare online marketplace Lottie, Omnea, the AI-powered procurement orchestration and supplier risk management platform, and Taito.ai, which automates performance enablement with AI. Prior to Accel, Sonali was a partner at Atlas Venture. Sonali was born and raised in Bombay, India. She attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Lucas di Grassi is a founding member of Formula E, has competed in every race up until now and is the most successful driver on the grid in terms of podium positions. He was Champion in the 2016/2017 season and has never finished a season outside the top three of the drivers’ championship. In addition to his role as Audi factory driver, Lucas di Grassi is an entrepreneur for innovation, sustainability and electric mobility: As an advisor of Roborace the Brazilian is developing autonomous driving. As co-founder of Zero Summit he is organizing the first ever technology and business meeting for a zero-carbon future in Latin America which is scheduled to debut this November. Since 2018, Lucas di Grassi is the official United Nations Ambassador for Clean Air. In this role he was holding several keynotes, for example during the 2019 UN Climate Week in New York. His most recent project: 2021 marks the start of a world championship for electric scooters. Lucas di Grassi lives in Monaco together with his wife Bianca and his son Leonardo. When not fighting for trophies in his Audi race car, he enjoys bike rides in the mountains around Monaco, has some fun with an eFoil board on the Mediterranean Sea or takes his family on a trip in his all-new Audi e-tron Sportback.
Sophie started her career in buying & merchandising roles at HQs of some of the leading fashion retail brands. This exposure to retail inspired her to found Threads in 2010. Threads uses unique technology to create a new world of retail. With social media & content, instant messaging & strong brand partnerships Threads is the leader in what they define as luxury chat commerce. Sophie is now dedicated with her team to continue to lead in this space and pioneer the next generation of retail. Education from Leeds & Harvard university.
Bindi Karia works as a Venture Partner at large London-based VC Draper Esprit, and has held positions in and around the tech industry for as long as she’s been working. She’s been a strategy consultant at PwC Consulting, worked in corporate environments like Microsoft Ventures, served within a startup at Trayport and was an advisor across a number of organizations (Startup Europe, Techstars Startup Weekend, Tech London Advocates, European Innovation Council, WEF Digital Leaders). She’s been a banker with Silicon Valley Bank and currently works as a Venture Partner at a large London-based VC firm, as well as serving on the advisory board for seven different startups and sits on the Digital Board of Centrica plc. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the conversation and understands the differing perspectives involved in each startup’s journey to success. seven different startups. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the conversation and understands the differing perspectives involved in each startup’s journey to success.
Brynne Kennedy is the Founder and former CEO of Topia, the talent mobility suite that helps companies move their employees between locations. Brynne founded Topia after working in investment banking and private equity. She has raised more than $100 million in venture capital funding for Topia and grown the company to operate worldwide. Topia contributes a % of revenue to support refugees and at-risk populations, and Brynne has pledged a % of personal exit proceeds to charity. Brynne holds an MBA from London Business School and a BA from Yale, where she was a Division 1 gymnast.
Saul is a serial tech entrepreneur, operator and investor with nearly 30 years experience starting, building and exiting global companies in the UK, US, Israel and Europe. As co-founder and managing partner of Phoenix Court, Saul backs entrepreneurs building global businesses based on innovative science and technology, to have the maximum positive impact on society. Phoenix Court, founded in 2015, is the home of LocalGlobe, EMEA’s number one venture fund (source: Dealroom Investor Prominence Ranking 2023) as well as Latitude and Solar, supporting companies at the breakout and scaleup phases. Phoenix Court also invests in over 60 emerging managers in the US, EMEA and APAC through its Basecamp programme. Phoenix Court’s mission is to be a good long-term neighbour and help people realise their full potential. To achieve this, 10% of profits of the management company and 2% of carry in all funds are allocated to the Phoenix Court Works foundation supporting organisations across Somers Town, one of the UK’s most deprived neighbourhoods, close to St Pancras and Kings Cross. Before founding Phoenix Court, Saul spent eight years as a General Partner at Index Ventures from 2007 until May 2015. He was co-founder and original CEO of LoveFilm, as co-founder and original CEO (acquired by Amazon in 2011) and part of the original leadership team at Skype (acquired by eBay in 2005). He co-founded Platoon (acquired by Apple in 2018). Saul was also co-founder of Seedcamp (2007), Europe’s first accelerator with seed investments in companies such as Revolut and UiPath; co-founded Zinc with LSE (2018) and Newton Venture Program with London Business School (2020). In 2012, David Cameron appointed Saul to be the UK’s first Technology Business Ambassador to Israel and he was awarded an OBE in 2016 for services to business. He is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, advising the Prime Minister on science and technology policy issues across government since March 2020 and in April 2023 was appointed a founding NED on the board of the new Department for Science, Technology and Innovation. Saul serves on Camden’s STEAM Commission and the London borough’s Economic Renewal Commission. He works closely with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on its regional innovation strategy. He was also a trustee of Comic Relief for six years. As his Twitter handle notes, Saul is first a husband and second a father to three children aged 17, 15 and 9, before being a founder, operator and investor. Saul is serial entrepreneur with two decades of experience building and exiting companies in the US, Israel and Europe. He has a passion for working with seed and early stage businesses. Most recently Saul co-founded Kano and Seedcamp, as well as a co-founder and original CEO of Lovefilm International (acquired by Amazon). He was also part of the original executive team at Skype (acquired by eBay).
Luciana Lixandru is a Partner at Sequoia, where she focuses on enterprise and consumer technology companies across Europe and co-leads Sequoia’s early-stage investment business in the US/Europe. She works closely with companies like Pennylane, Veed, Robco and Tacto and is passionate about helping founders unlock their potential and think on a global scale. Prior to becoming Sequoia’s first partner in Europe in 2020, Luciana worked at Accel for eight years, where she led investments in UiPath (PATH), Deliveroo (DROOF), and Miro, among others. Luciana has also held positions at Summit Partners and Morgan Stanley. She has a B.S. in Economics and Mathematics from Georgetown, and resides in London.
Rafal Modrzewski is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of ICEYE. ICEYE is launching and operating a constellation of small radar imaging satellites, providing access to timely and reliable Earth observation data. ICEYE is the first company that has successfully miniaturized a SAR satellite, making it possible to launch more units to reliably image any location on Earth, every few hours, every day. With its growing SAR satellite constellation, ICEYE offers its partners a set of unprecedented satellite imaging capabilities, accessing any area of interest faster, more frequently, and at a lower cost. Since co-founding the project in 2012, which became the company in 2014, with Pekka Laurila, Modrzewski is responsible for overseeing the organization’s growth and implementing ICEYE’s overall vision. Modrzewski brings with him deep domain expertise in SAR engineering, and he has received the 2018 Forbes 30 under 30 Technology award based on the world-first achievements of ICEYE. Prior to co-founding ICEYE, Modrzewski researched innovative products at VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) in the RFID and wireless sensing group. He attended Warsaw University of Technology in Poland, where he studied Electrical Engineering and co-founded the Multimedia Technologies Science Group. Modrzewski continued his studies in Radio Science and Engineering at Aalto University where he led the on-board data handling team working on Aalto-1, Finland’s first nanosatellite.
Harry Nelis is a partner at Accel, a global venture firm that has partnered with companies from inception through all phases of private company growth for the last 40 years.
Antoine is a Partner and member of the founding team of Felix Capital. He currently sits on the boards of TravelPerk, Papier, Frichti, Heetch and Urban Massage. He previously was a Partner at Atlas Global, a private equity fund originally part of GLG Partners. Prior to Felix Capital he has worked closely with various early-stage digital startups including Mirakl, Reedsy, 31Dover, Pave.com and actively helped them launch their businesses. He has also been involved since inception with Huckletree, a fast growing coworking operator dedicated to the European digital community which was started by his wife. Antoine moved to London in 2006 when he joined ABN AMRO as an M&A investment banker. Prior to this he was based in Paris and was part of the founding team of NT Valley, a software business aim at retailers. He started his career as a brand and intangible asset valuation consultant at Sorgem Evaluation. A graduate of ESCP European Business School and University Paris Dauphine, Antoine is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
Magnus Olsson is the co-founder and Chief Xperience Officer at Careem and oversees product and technology. He started his first IT consulting company at 15 before studying computer science at Lund University in Sweden. Post graduation, Magnus joined management consulting firm McKinsey & Company but after five years at the consultancy, his life took an unexpected turn. Olsson had a brain aneurysm that almost killed him, and this forced a rethink about life. He quit his job and started looking for something to do that was meaningful. With former McKinsey colleague Mudassir, they decided to do something meaningful and big together. That became Careem. Today Careem is the leading ride hailing app in MENA, Turkey, and Pakistan and is the region’s only tech unicorn. Careem operates in more than 120 cities across 14 countries with more than 3,000 employees and 800,000 captains. When not at Careem, Magnus spends significant time mentoring start-ups and supporting the tech ecosystem. He lives in Abu Dhabi with his wife and two children.
Sofie Quidenus-Wahlforss is an experienced managing director with a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Her strategic skills coupled with a passion for AI led her to create omni:us with the goal of redefining the way people work and how companies are handling their business operations. omni:us is as an MI-based, SaaS solution to massively optimize workflows, and empower businesses to make comprehensive data-driven decisions. Prior to omni:us, Sofie founded Qidenus Technologies which quickly became the leader in the market of robotics and digitization. Sofie is also the patent owner of the Vshape scanner Technology and winner of several awards including the Woman Technology. omni:us is an Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS) provider for cognitive claims management. Built on a fully data-driven approach, omni:us is transforming the way insurers interact with their insured parties. It provides all the necessary tools and information to make fast, transparent and empathetic claims decisions, whilst improving operational efficiency and reducing loss adjustment expenses. The company is headquartered in Berlin, with research partners in Barcelona and representations in the UK, France and the United States. For further information visit omnius.com.
Aline Sara is the Co-founder and CEO of NaTakallam, a social enterprise that connects refugees and displaced persons with work opportunities in the language sector through the freelance economy. Lebanese, born and raised in New York, Aline completed her Baccalaureat at the Lycée Français in New York City and graduated in psychology from Tufts University in Boston. She then moved to Beirut and worked in conflict resolution and human rights before transitioning into journalism, focusing on human and women’s rights and wider socio-political affairs before, during and after the Arab Uprisings. In 2012, Aline returned to New York for her masters in International Affairs at Columbia University. She then worked as an international election observer in Tunisia, Guyana and Haiti while continuing to write as a freelancer on the side. In 2015, in light of the challenging work situation for the million+ Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and while searching for ways to practice her own Arabic skills, Aline came up with the idea for NaTakallam –to hire refugees as online tutors– which has grown into a larger social enterprise working in multiple languages and communities. To date, the venture, which is disrupting the way we typically think of humanitarianism, has provided over $350,000 in cash to displaced people worldwide. Besides income to refugees on the one hand and a service to students and clients on the other, NaTakallam helps foster intercultural exchange and raise awareness around the daily challenges of fleeing conflict zones, notably through its academic partnerships with schools and universities.
Robby Stein is Vice President of Product, Google Search, working on the development of generative AI products and experiences that help people search and access information effortlessly. Robby started his career at Google in 2007, where he worked on new product launches for Gmail and ads. Today, Robby has over 17 years of experience as a product leader and entrepreneur, and several products Robby and his teams have built are now among the most widely used in the world. Before rejoining Google in 2024, he was the Head of Product at Artifact, an AI-powered newsfeed. Robby also led consumer products at Instagram for 5 years — where he built and scaled the products and teams around Stories, Feed, Direct Messaging, and Reels. Prior to these, Robby was the co-founder and CEO of Stamped, a social recommendations startup acquired by Yahoo in 2011.
Sitar Teli is a founder and managing partner of Connect Ventures, a venture firm she and her partners started in 2012. Since its founding, Connect has invested in over 40 companies across Europe, including Fiit, Kheiron, Citymapper, Typeform, OurPath, and Soldo. Prior to starting Connect Ventures, Sitar was at Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, where she led that firm’s investment in SoundCloud’s Series A.
Matt Turck, a Managing Director of FirstMark Capital, invests across a broad range of enterprise and consumer startups. Prior to FirstMark, he was a Managing Director at Bloomberg Ventures, the investment and incubation arm of Bloomberg LP, which he helped start.