Extreme Tech Challenge Global Finals
July 22, 2021
Speakers
Beth Bechdol
Deputy Director-General Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Patricia Bubner
Founder & CEO Orbillion Bio
Leon Farrant
Co-founder & CEO Green Li-ion
Elizabeth Gilligan
Founder & CEO Material Evolution
Jennifer Holmgren
CEO LanzaTech, Inc.
Matanya Horowitz
Founder & CEO AMP Robotics
Shilpi Kumar
Partner Urban Us
Aaron Nesser
Co-founder & CTO AlgiKnit
Barrett Parkman
Senior Advisor Extreme Tech Challenge
Rajeev Rajan
CTO Atlassian
Jenny Rooke
Founder & Managing Director Genoa Ventures
Victoria Slivkoff
Executive Managing Director Extreme Tech Challenge
Young Sohn
Founding Managing Partner, Walden Catalyst Ventures; Former Corporate President & Chief Strategy Officer, Samsung Electronics; Co-Founder, Extreme Tech Challenge; Chairman of the Board, HARMAN International Walden Catalyst Ventures
Bill Tai
Founding Chairman HUT8 Corp
Alexandra Tynion
Director, Venture Growth SeedInvest
Albert Wenger
Partner Union Square Ventures
Beth Bechdol is Deputy Director-General at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In this role, she continues her service to food and agriculture – now on a global scale. Motivated by building alliances and connecting people, Beth is responsible for FAO's Partnership and Outreach work, including Partnerships and UN Collaboration, Resource Mobilization and Private Sector Partnerships, South-South and Triangular Cooperation. She also leads programs in the area of Plant Production and Protection and oversees FAO's main technical advisory committee on agriculture, the Committee on Agriculture (COAG) as well as the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Secretariat. Before joining FAO, Beth was President and CEO of AgriNovus Indiana, the Midwestern state’s economic development initiative focused on advancing the agbioscience sector and developing 21st century talent. Beth’s dedication to public service in agriculture and her extensive trade and farm policy experience started in Washington, D.C. where she served in key roles as Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and as Economist on the Senate Agriculture Committee. Beth was raised on a multi-generation family grain farm in rural Indiana. She received her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in international law and international affairs and her master’s degree from Purdue University in agricultural economics.
Beth's Sessions
Keynote
Hear the latest from The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Patricia Bubner is a scientist and engineer working on building a future of food that is ethical and sustainable. She is the founder and the CEO of Orbillion Bio, Inc. which will be the first company to bring premium cell-cultured meats to the market. She has previously co-founded an agriculture & food systems project (themilletproject.org). Combining her work experience from the biopharma, food and sustainable materials industry, Patricia is now building a world class team to take cell-cultured meat production to the next level. Patricia holds an MSc in Technical Chemistry and a PhD in Biotechnology from Graz University of Technology in Austria, and did her postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley.
Patricia's Sessions
Cutting Out Carbon Emitters with Bioengineering
Bioengineering may soon provide compelling, low-carbon alternatives in industries where even the best methods produce significant emissions. By utilizing natural and engineered biological processes, we may soon have low-carbon textiles from Algiknit, lab-grown premium meats from Orbillion, and fuels captured from waste emissions via LanzaTech. Leaders from these companies will join our panel to talk about how bioengineering can do its part in the fight against climate change.
Green Li-ion solves the existential risk to the precious metals industry and the environment. Their patented deep technology is cleaner, faster and 4x more profitable than current lithium-ion battery recycling and the only technology to fully rejuvenate the battery cathode. For two decades lithium-ion batteries have been our preferred source of portable energy, but the sad reality is that with a lifespan of only 1 – 3 years, 95% end up as dangerous landfill. The precious metals used to manufacture them are often mined in socially and environmentally damaging ways. They are not being recycled, because it is simply not economical to do so with current technology. Green Li-ion changes this by removing inefficient processes and improving the purity of the output, making lithium-ion battery rejuvenation and reuse the new reality. Green Li-ion’s multi-cathode technology and control unit GLMC-1 enhances current lithium-ion battery recycling lines to produce 99.9% pure cathodes. This in turn delivers 4x profits for e-recyclers and lithium-ion battery recyclers, while halving production time. It’s also currently the only technology in the world that can handle all major lithium-ion batteries at one time; which means no sorting. Leon Farrant, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Green Li-Ion Pte Ltd, is an accomplished Leader exposed to the energy and engineering sectors as a CEO and executive management for over 15 years. Leon’s experience in driving performance of global energy industry companies saw him lead large, dispersed teams and projects to success. Leon is known for his consensus-building ability, vision and rigour. Strategy development and implementation for start-up and established business. Proven track record scaling hundred-million-dollar energy industry companies to success across four continents with a focus on best in class corporate governance and compliance. A socially and environmentally conscious leader that tries to support and give back.
Leon's Sessions
Waste Matters
According to the EPA, the U.S. alone produces 292.4 million tons of waste a year. Can technology help this massive – and growing – issue? Leon Farrant (Green Li-Ion), Matanya Horowitz (AMP Robotics), and Elizabeth Gilligan (Material Evolution) will discuss their companies’ unique approaches to dealing with the problem.
Dr. Gilligan is founder and CEO at Material Evolution, a sustainable concrete company. Her work encompasses the use of waste materials and new ways of creating building materials. She has published and exhibited her work globally while working with some of the world’s most globally impactful companies. She has deep domain expertise and is using that to change how materials are developed.
Elizabeth's Sessions
Waste Matters
According to the EPA, the U.S. alone produces 292.4 million tons of waste a year. Can technology help this massive – and growing – issue? Leon Farrant (Green Li-Ion), Matanya Horowitz (AMP Robotics), and Elizabeth Gilligan (Material Evolution) will discuss their companies’ unique approaches to dealing with the problem.
Dr. Jennifer Holmgren is CEO of revolutionary carbon recycling company, LanzaTech. Prior to LanzaTech, Jennifer was VP and General Manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP LLC, a Honeywell Company. Under her management, UOP technology became instrumental in producing nearly all of the initial fuels used by commercial airlines and the military for testing and certification of alternative aviation fuel. Today, under Jennifer’s guidance, LanzaTech is working towards deploying carbon capture and reuse facilities globally to make fuels and chemicals from waste carbon. In 2015, Jennifer and her team at LanzaTech were awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Presidential Green Chemistry Award and she received the BIO Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology and the Outstanding Leader Award in Corporate Social Innovation from the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago. She was named most influential leader in the Bioeconomy by Biofuels Digest in 2017 and received the Digest Global Bioenergy Leadership Award in 2018. She was also the recipient of the 2020 William C. Holmberg Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Advanced Bioeconomy from the Digest, the most widely read online bioeconomy journal. Jennifer is on the External Advisory Council for the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University and the Director and Chair of the LanzaJet Board of Directors. LanzaJet, Inc., is a new company that will produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for a sector requiring climate friendly fuel options. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, a dog lover and committed greyhound rescuer, Jennifer holds a B.Sc. degree from Harvey Mudd College, a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Prior to LanzaTech, Jennifer was VP and General Manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP LLC, a Honeywell Company. Under her management, UOP technology became instrumental in producing nearly all of the initial fuels used by commercial airlines and the military for testing and certification of alternative aviation fuel. Today, under Jennifer’s guidance, LanzaTech is working towards deploying carbon capture and reuse facilities globally to make fuels and chemicals from waste carbon. In 2015, Jennifer and her team at LanzaTech were awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Presidential Green Chemistry Award and she received the BIO Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology and the Outstanding Leader Award in Corporate Social Innovation from the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago. She was named most influential leader in the Bioeconomy by Biofuels Digest in 2017 and received the Digest Global Bioenergy Leadership Award in 2018. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, a dog lover and committed greyhound rescuer, Jennifer holds a B.Sc. degree from Harvey Mudd College, a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Jennifer is also the Director and Chair of the LanzaJet Board of Directors. LanzaJet, Inc., is a new company that will produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for a sector requiring climate friendly fuel options.
Jennifer's Sessions
Cutting Out Carbon Emitters with Bioengineering
Bioengineering may soon provide compelling, low-carbon alternatives in industries where even the best methods produce significant emissions. By utilizing natural and engineered biological processes, we may soon have low-carbon textiles from Algiknit, lab-grown premium meats from Orbillion, and fuels captured from waste emissions via LanzaTech. Leaders from these companies will join our panel to talk about how bioengineering can do its part in the fight against climate change.
Dr. Matanya Horowitz is the founder and CEO of AMP Robotics, an industrial artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics company applying automation to modernize recycling and enable a world without waste. Horowitz developed and commercialized AMP’s breakthrough AI platform, AMP Neuron™, and robotics system, AMP Cortex™, which automates the identification and sorting of recyclables from mixed material streams. AMP’s AI platform continuously trains itself by recognizing different colors, textures, shapes, sizes, patterns, and even brand labels to identify materials and their recyclability. Neuron then guides robots to pick and place the material to be recycled. AMP’s technology recovers recyclables from municipal waste, precious commodities from electronic waste, and high-value materials from construction and demolition debris at superhuman speeds with extremely high accuracy. Horowitz earned four bachelor’s degrees, in electrical engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, and economics, along with a master’s degree in electrical engineering, from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He holds a doctorate in control and dynamical systems from the California Institute of Technology, with publications and research in control theory, path planning, and computer vision.
Matanya's Sessions
Waste Matters
According to the EPA, the U.S. alone produces 292.4 million tons of waste a year. Can technology help this massive – and growing – issue? Leon Farrant (Green Li-Ion), Matanya Horowitz (AMP Robotics), and Elizabeth Gilligan (Material Evolution) will discuss their companies’ unique approaches to dealing with the problem.
Shilpi is a Partner with Urban Us (https://urban.us), an investment platform focused on urbantech and climate solutions. She specializes in customer development and product strategy for early-stage companies, with experience as both a consultant and early employee. She previously led go-to-market and early sales efforts at Filament, a startup focused on deploying secure wireless networks for connected physical assets. Shilpi has a background as an investor, focused on hardware, mobility, energy, IoT, and robotics. She is passionate about leveraging technology to decarbonize industry, upgrade cities, and fight climate change. Before Urban Us, Shilpi worked with with VTF, First Round Capital, and Village Global. Shilpi graduated from Duke University with a degree in Neuroscience and Economics.
Shilpi's Sessions
Going Green
Sustainability is the key to our planet’s future and our survival, but it’s also going to be incredibly lucrative and a major piece of our world economy. Hear from these seasoned investors and founders how VCs and startups alike are thinking about greentech and how that will evolve in the coming years.
Aaron Nesser, Co-founder and CTO of AlgiKnit, is a sustainability-driven scientist and designer working to transform the textile ecosystem with compostable kelp-derived yarn. Before AlgiKnit he worked to develop organics and textile recycling systems in New York City. He completed his Masters of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute, and his Bachelors of Biology at Beloit College.
Aaron's Sessions
Cutting Out Carbon Emitters with Bioengineering
Bioengineering may soon provide compelling, low-carbon alternatives in industries where even the best methods produce significant emissions. By utilizing natural and engineered biological processes, we may soon have low-carbon textiles from Algiknit, lab-grown premium meats from Orbillion, and fuels captured from waste emissions via LanzaTech. Leaders from these companies will join our panel to talk about how bioengineering can do its part in the fight against climate change.
Startup program leader with a proven track record of scaling some of the world’s largest startup programs and tech events to empower startup success. VC, venture-backed founder, and tenacious driver of partnerships with a vast network of corporates, startups, and investors across global startup ecosystems. Strategic thinker with an eye for emerging innovators, passionate leader of cross-functional teams, and meticulous executor.
Barrett's Sessions
The Extreme Tech Challenge 2021 Global Finals: Startup Pitches Part 2
The reason we’re all here – the XTC Category and Special Awards Winners get their chance to pitch their transformative tech ideas to a panel of expert judges and hear their feedback, in this second and final round. Pitchoff #2 features one category and four special awards: Mobility & Smart Cities, COVID-19 Innovation Award, Female Founder Award, Ethical AI, People’s Choice.
Rajeev Rajan is the Chief Technology Officer at Atlassian where he oversees Atlassian Engineering, IT, Security and Trust, and the Technical Program Management teams. As CTO, he is focused on cloud transformation and continuing to grow Atlassian into a world-class engineering organization. Rajeev previously acted as the Vice President and Head of Engineering for Meta and spent over two decades at Microsoft, where he held a number of roles, including building and leading the team responsible for Office 365’s cloud infrastructure.
Rajeev's Sessions
The Extreme Tech Challenge 2021 Global Finals: Startup Pitches Part 1
The reason we’re all here – the XTC Category and Special Awards Winners get their chance to pitch their transformative tech ideas to a panel of expert judges and hear their feedback. XTC is a global platform that connects exceptional purpose-driven startups with a network of investors, corporations, and mentors to help them raise capital, launch corporate collaborations, and scale their world-changing startups.Pitchoff #1 features these categories: Agtech & Foodtech, Cleantech & Energy, Edtech, Enabling Tech, Fintech, Healthtech
Dr. Jenny Rooke has been deploying capital at the frontiers of life sciences innovation, with a penchant for technology-fueled solutions and category-defying opportunities. Jenny got her start in venture at Fidelity Biosciences, a Cambridge-based healthcare VC, during their Fund I formation. Jenny then brought her unique toolkit of genetics domain expertise, strategic business acumen, and venture investing to the Gates Foundation, where she deployed and managed over $250M in funding in genetic engineering, diagnostics, and synthetic biology. She also played a key role in establishing the foundation’s investing function. In 2014, Dr. Rooke began independently investing under the brand 5 Prime Ventures, financing her investments using what has become the largest life sciences syndicate on AngelList, and one of the highest-performing AngelList syndicates of any sector. Jenny founded Genoa Ventures in 2018, building on the 5 Prime Ventures track record, in order to scale a proven, differentiated investing strategy, to ensure continued access to the very best deals, and to maximize portfolio returns.
Jenny's Sessions
Going Green
Sustainability is the key to our planet’s future and our survival, but it’s also going to be incredibly lucrative and a major piece of our world economy. Hear from these seasoned investors and founders how VCs and startups alike are thinking about greentech and how that will evolve in the coming years.
Victoria Slivkoff is the Executive Managing Director of Extreme Tech Challenge, the world’s largest startup competition and ecosystem for founders building tech innovations to improve the world, as inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She also serves as the Head of Ecosystem at Walden Catalyst Ventures, a VC firm helping early-stage companies in the U.S., Europe, and Israel build the next generation of category-defining businesses in deep tech, with a focus on AI and data. Victoria is passionate about driving high-impact vision, strategy, and operations to transform complex innovation ecosystems at scale, and serving as a trusted partner for entrepreneurs with breakthrough technologies creating future-defining companies. Victoria comes from a multidisciplinary background in corporate development, investment, investor relations, business strategy & operations, and management consulting. She’s experienced in forming public-private partnerships to drive investments and scale innovative technologies in the U.S., Middle East, Latin America, Asia, and Europe.
Victoria's Sessions
Welcome and Introduction
Announcement of the Extreme Tech Challenge 2021 Winners
The judging panel will crown the global winner of Extreme Tech Challenge 2021 and also announce the winner of the Female Founder Award.
Young Sohn is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur whose passion is building businesses and fostering emerging technologies that have the potential to transform the world for the better. Currently, he serves as Chairman of the Board of HARMAN and is a Founding Managing Partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures. He most recently was Corporate President and Chief Strategy Officer of Samsung Electronics, where he led strategy for global innovation, investment, new business creation, and spearheaded the company’s $8 billion acquisition of HARMAN. Young served as CEO of two successful, public Silicon Valley companies and on the boards of Arm, Cymer (ASML), and others. Under his leadership as CEO and board member, he took PLX Technologies, Synnex Technologies, and Inphi public. He was also a seed investor in some of the industry’s most innovative companies including Berkeley Lights, Fungible, Zoom, Graphcore, and TTTech Auto. Young co-founded the Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), a global startup competition inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He also serves as a senior advisor to the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, is a member of the board of directors at Cadence, and is an advisor for the University of California Innovation Council.
Young's Sessions
Powering the Future Through Transformative Tech
XTC’s co-founders Young Sohn, Chairman of the Board at HARMAN International, and founding Managing Partner at Walden Catalyst, and Bill Tai, Partner Emeritus at Charles River Ventures jump into the breakthrough tech innovations that are transforming industries to build a radically better world. How can business, government, philanthropy, and the startup community come together to create a better tomorrow? Hear from these industry veterans and thought leaders about how technology can not only shape the future, but also where the biggest opportunities lie, including some exciting news about XTC and The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Announcement of the Extreme Tech Challenge 2021 Winners
The judging panel will crown the global winner of Extreme Tech Challenge 2021 and also announce the winner of the Female Founder Award.
Bill Tai has been funding startups as a Venture Capitalist since 1991 and has had 23 of his startups become listed companies. He is among the first investors in Bitfury, Canva, Color Health, Dyad.net, Tweetdeck/Twitter, Wish.com and Zoom Video, where he was the first backer to commit at the company’s formation. Operationally he is Founding Chairman of Hut8 Mining (NASDAQ: HUT), an energy infrastructure company with subsidiaries HighriseAI (GPU cloud) and American Bitcoin (NASDAQ ABTC) operating BItcoin mining data centers. He was also Founding Chairman & CEO of iAsiaWorks (IPO via Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley) a builder / operator of data center infrastructure in 10 countries through Asia, Founding Chairman of Data Sciemce pioneer Treasure Data (acquired by SOFTBANK) and Founding Chairman of IPinfusion (Tokyo:4813). Originally trained as a chip designer, he joined LSI Logic, a seminal Silicon Valley startup formed by the CEO of Fairchild Semiconductor after earning a BSEE with Honors from University of Illinois. After an MBA at Harvard he was issued Badge #A001 during the formation of TSMC (NYSE:TSM), now among the world’s 10 most valuable companies (~$2.5 Trillion USD market value as of 2026. ) He has served as Board Director of 8 publicly listed companies (AWRD EGHT HUT8 IAWK NPIX TMTA TUNE and IMGO) that grew from startups he funded at their formative stages. He is founding Chairman of ACTAI Global 501(c)3, a community of Athletes Conservationists Technologists Artists & Innovators supporting 1) environmental conservation and 2) economic empowerment via entrepreneurship.
Bill's Sessions
Powering the Future Through Transformative Tech
XTC’s co-founders Young Sohn, Chairman of the Board at HARMAN International, and founding Managing Partner at Walden Catalyst, and Bill Tai, Partner Emeritus at Charles River Ventures jump into the breakthrough tech innovations that are transforming industries to build a radically better world. How can business, government, philanthropy, and the startup community come together to create a better tomorrow? Hear from these industry veterans and thought leaders about how technology can not only shape the future, but also where the biggest opportunities lie, including some exciting news about XTC and The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Alex has always had a passion for technology and entrepreneurship. At Georgetown, Alex was on the executive team of the world’s largest student-run business. After graduating, she helped build out the university’s innovation program, finding ways for technology to solve campus wide issues. She then worked at Ralph Lauren in the company’s corporate Marketing department before joining SeedInvest. Outside of work, Alex is actively involved in the community. She co-founded Hark Society, a non-profit dedicated to enhancing education and cultivating passion in the lives of underserved children in New York City. Alex continues to be involved in various philanthropic organizations in NYC.
Alexandra's Sessions
Powering Clean Energy Startups
Learn how SeedInvest has enabled startups in the clean energy sector to raise significant capital and successfully launch their businesses.
Albert Wenger is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures.
Albert's Sessions
Going Green
Sustainability is the key to our planet’s future and our survival, but it’s also going to be incredibly lucrative and a major piece of our world economy. Hear from these seasoned investors and founders how VCs and startups alike are thinking about greentech and how that will evolve in the coming years.