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Formerly known as Google Ventures and established in 2009, GV is the VC arm of Alphabet, Inc. and stresses that it invests in the “best companies, not strategic investment for Google”. GV is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in San Francisco, Boston, New York, and London and it currently has over US$3.5 billion under management. It has invested in more than 600 companies across different sectors and stages, with more than 160 as lead investor and has seen 120 exits.  Its recent investments include in Lemonade and KeepTruckin's Series D rounds and in Harness' Series B.

Established in 1995 by Sean O'Sullivan, SOSV is a venture capital firm with six attached accelerator programs. Upon receiving investment from SOSV, portfolio companies join one of the accelerator programs that best suits their products. The accelerators are: Chinaccelerator, focused on the Chinese market; Indie Bio, supporting biotechnology and life sciences companies; Food-X, for food-tech and agriculture-focused companies; dlab, which supports startups exploring blockchain and decentralized tech; HAX, for IoT, robotics and other hardware-focused startups; and MOX, an accelerator specializing in mobile platforms and technologies. SOSV, along with the O'Sullivan Foundation, has also provided support for education initiatives such as Khan Academy and CoderDojo (which teaches coding skills to youth).

Visa is a US-based financial services company best known for its electronic payment system used worldwide for credit and debit cards. As the operator of the payment service, it also provides security and risk management solutions. It is listed in the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker code V.The firm prefers to invest and partner with innovative early-stage firms in the payments, fintech and emerging technology spaces to advance Visa's strategic and financial objectives. Some of its investments include Indonesian ride-hailing and payment super-app Gojek, cybersecurity firms MagicCube and LoginID, payment platforms Klarna and Flutterwave, as well as digital banking platform Greenwood Bank.

Microsoft is a US-based technology company that focuses on software products and services. Its Windows operating system is one of the most widely used in the world, and it is also a leader in the video games industry thanks to its Xbox video game platform. In the corporate world, it is best known for its Azure cloud computing services. It is one of the most valuable companies in the world alongside rival Apple, social media network Facebook, and internet giant Google. Microsoft is an active investor in the technology industry. It invests through its main business entity, as well as through subsidiaries such as M12, formerly known as Microsoft Ventures.

Ryan Mario Yasin is an engineer, designer and sustainable fashion entrepreneur based in London. Originally from Reykjavik, Iceland, Yasin graduated in aeronautical engineering at Imperial College London and has a master’s in global innovation design from the Royal College of Art.  As a 23-year-old design student, Yasin founded materials technology startup Petit Pli, and developed the design for the company’s first product, a pleated garment that could expand up to seven sizes to last children through their first few years of life. Petit Pli now makes expandable pleated clothes for children and adults, using a fabric derived from recycled plastic and a structure inspired by origami, architecture and space satellites. Petit Pli products have won a number of prestigious awards, such as the UK James Dyson Award, Time Magazine’s best invention of 2020 and the Red Dot Product Design Award.Yasin has a strong interest in photography and in the interplay between art and engineering. In 2020, Yasin was included by Forbes in its 30 Under 30 list for Europe.

Since 2005, Demeter Partners has been one of the major VC and private equity funds supporting technology companies in developing solutions for ecological and energy transitions. The firm typically invests €1m–€30m in early and growth stages of startups. With assets worth over €1bn under management, its portfolio in 2019 was estimated to have cut 4.3m tons of CO2 with 575 GWh of clean energy produced. In 2021, Demeter was named the “Best Sustainable Equity investor” by a panel of former Fortune 500 individuals, global experts and industry leaders to recognize Demeter’s commitment to the UN’s SDG and ESG strategy.

Juan García Perrote is an IESE Business School MBA graduate with over 10 years of experience in executive marketing roles. He is also serial entrepreneur in marketplace and digital marketing startups. He was the co-founder of Tick4all, the “last-minute of movie-tickets,” offering discounted seats at local cinemas, and COO of the referral marketing platform Fulltip. He was also partner and CEO of the digital marketing company Smart Client.Currently, he is CEO and founder of Ketplace, a marketplace sales management consultancy advising companies how to get the best sales performance in leading marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, and AliExpress. García Perrote is also a partner and advisor in The Beemine Lab, the first biotechnology company in Spain to produce cannabidiol-based cosmetics.

Founded by the charismatic Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group Corp is a multinational conglomerate with assets totaling about $342bn in 2020. SoftBank is best known in Japan for its mobile phone network and distribution business, and it was the sole distributor of the Apple iPhone in Japan until 2011. SoftBank also has subsidiaries in online gaming, publishing, and energy, and owns stakes in Alibaba Group and Sprint.Outside of Japan, SoftBank is known for its venture capital investments. In October 2016, it teamed up with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to lead a $100bn tech fund, named Vision Fund. Through Vision Fund, SoftBank has made some major high-profile investments into tech companies, such as TikTok developer ByteDance, e-commerce platforms like Coupang, Tokopedia and Flipkart, and coworking operator WeWork.

The owner of WeChat, Tencent is China's biggest online entertainment and social network company. While the company is best known for QQ and WeChat (with 846m active users, and counting), online gaming is actually its biggest money-spinner. Within China, Tencent is the distributor of various international online game titles, such as League of Legends and Call of Duty Online. The company also publishes Honor of Kings, known as Arena of Valor outside China, which regularly tops the list of highest-grossing mobile games globally.Tencent has invested in various gaming-related companies, including Epic Games (creator of Fortnite and the Unreal Engine creation framework), PlatinumGames (Japanese game developer), and Riot Games (creator of League of Legends). Outside of video games, it has developed and invested in products related to video streaming, such as bilibili and Kuaishou, music (JOOX), and even healthcare.

Founded in Moscow in 2021 by Sergey Azatyan who has worked in investment banking since 1999, Inventure Partners currently has nine portfolio companies across diverse market segments in Europe. In March 2019, the VC took a stake in the €5m Series A round of German car-sharing platform MILES Mobility. Inventure joined Refurbed’s $17m Series A round in March 2020 and also in the Series B round in August 2021. Two investees, insurtech Lemonade and medtech Amwell, were listed via IPO in 2020 with Lemonade reported to have achieved the strongest IPO debut in 2020 for a US company. The newly-formed VC has also successfully managed five exits: Busfor, fogg, Getgoing, 2can and Netology. It also partially exited Gett.

Founded in London in 1998, Kreos Capital is a pioneer growth debt provider. Kreos has completed over 630 deals worth over €3bn in pan-European countries and Israel. The Kreos Capital Group of companies and various funds are regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission.Kreos currently has 102 companies in its portfolio and has managed over 200 exits. Investee Riskified, an Israeli e-commerce fraud protection company, was listed on the NYSE at a $3.3bn valuation in August 2021. Kreos also joined recent investments in 2021 including the $54m Series B round of Austrian refurbished electronics goods marketplace Refurbed and the €9.5m round of Berlin-based HRtech expertlead.

Mark Pincus is the US co-founder of online social game maker Zynga, known for the mobile app games Words With Friends, Mafia Wars and FarmVille. He is also the managing member and co-founder of VC firm Reinvent Capital and a prolific angel investor worth $1.6bn, with early investments in Facebook and Twitter. To date, Pincus has invested in more than 50 startups and managed numerous successful exits including the aforementioned social media giants. His most recent investments include participation in the April 2021 $10m Series A round of US gaming app Underdog Fantasy and in the April 2021 €23.1m Series B round of Finland’s Yousician, the world’s largest music edtech.

LeapFrog Investments is an impact-focused investor, managing over $1.6bn in assets mainly investing in Africa and Asia. Its “profit with purpose” has led to investments in startups that provide healthcare, financial services and insurance for low-income consumers. Since it was founded in 2007, LeapFrog has attracted funds from Prudential, AXA, Swiss Re and Omidyar Network, becoming the first impact investor in the world to reach the $1bn milestone. It’s headquartered in South Africa and Singapore.LeapFrog is best known for its investments in the insurance sector. One of the most prominent companies in its portfolio is BIMA, the mobile-based insurance provider that has provided coverage in Ghana, Bangladesh, Cambodia and many other countries. In 2020, LeapFrog invested in Indonesian startup PasarPolis, which is a broker for a wide range of microinsurance products. In the healthcare and biotechnology sectors, LeapFrog has funded Indian genetic diagnostics company MedGenome, as well as Goodlife Pharmacy, a Kenyan company providing access to affordable medicine in the East African country.

Beta-i was established in 2010 as a Portuguese accelerator, incubator and event organizer to boost the Portuguese tech ecosystem. Beta-i is well-known for organizing some of Portugal's most successful accelerators and the annual tech startup event Lisbon Investment Summit. In 2019, it made its first investment in a startup Didimo by joining the seed round for the 3D digital twin designer platform.The company's best known acceleration program Lisbon Challenge is a twice yearly event open to all tech sectors, attracting around 10 participants based in Portugal and overseas. Its two-month programs have accelerated more than 200 startups, with about 75% coming from abroad. Beta-i also organizes the international energy accelerator Free Electrons, with EDP as one of its sponsors. Free Electrons has already accelerated 27 startups and is now running its third edition with 15 startups, five of which are Portugal-based. All the selected participants will have the chance to work for one year with at least one of the 10 global energy utilities that form the Free Electrons consortium. Another Beta-i event is The Journey, the first accelerator in Portugal dedicated to tourism tech startups from all over the world. Launched in partnership with the government's Portugal Tourism in 2017, the Lisbon-based program is part of the national Tourism 4.0 plan. The five-month program is now in its third edition and gives successful applicants the opportunity to develop pilot projects with Portuguese companies like the Vila Galé hotel chain, Barraqueiro transport company and Parques de Sintra, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

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