Andreas Schwarzenbrunner, Andy, found his way into Venture via politics – and is always up for a debate! As a former economic policy advisor, he not only developed an insatiable passion for politics, but also profound expertise with different economic and technological affairs. This gave him an exceptionally good eye for promising ideas and trends.

Vishal is the co-founder and CEO at QuantrolOx, an Anglo-Finnish spinout from Oxford University using machine learning for automated characterisation and tuning of qubits. Vishal is a serial deep-tech entrepreneur. Previously he was the CEO and co-founder of Secondmind an AI company. Vishal’s work experience spans fundamental research, manufacturing, operations, R&D, product management, corporate strategy and business development. Vishal was previously Head of Automotive at Nokia, Founder of Chleon Automotive and Chief Business Officer of VocalIQ, which was acquired by Apple in 2015. Vishal acts as an advisor to Silo AI, PolyAI, Alpha Diagnostics and BioInception Labs. He has immigrated 11 times, lived in 15 cities from the Equator to the Arctic across six countries.

Smriti Mishra has been nominated one of the finalists at the Nordic Women in Tech Awards in the Rising Star of the Year for exceptional creativity or ability within the industry. Smriti Mishra is a technologist, AI speaker, mentor and AI & Data Science Leader. With a background in artificial intelligence, signal processing, startups and leadership, her career expands over several industries including green tech, healthcare, and finance. Smriti is currently a director at AI4Diversity which is the world’s largest nonprofit initiative that engages and educates diverse communities about AI. She also contributes to community learning through her blogs, LinkedIn, mentoring and speaking events. She also contributes towards removing gender parity in technology through Google Developers Women Tech Makers and Female tech makers magazine.

Sabrina Maniscalco is a Professor of Quantum Information, Computing and Logic at the University of Helsinki. She has been working on Quantum Technology for over 20 years, focussing on noise in quantum devices, complex quantum systems and quantum simulations. She loves the mountains, the sea, her converted campervan Zag, and all food from her Mother Island, Sicily.

Luke joined NEA in 2017, and is currently a Principal on the technology investing team focused on consumer and enterprise companies. Luke is a Board Observer of Aquabyte, goop, PlayVS, and Sitetracker, and is also involved in NEA’s investments in Inkitt, Cleo, Gen.G, and several other early-stage companies. Luke also works closely on Connect Ventures, which is our investing partnership with CAA, working alongside companies like Blacktag, Spire Animation, Unless Collective, and the entire Connect Portfolio. Luke has also worked closely with Bloom Energy, Cloudflare, Snap, Uber, and helped orchestrate NEA’s spin-out of NewView Capital.

Mikko is Chief Scientist, Co-founder of IQM Ltd. He is also an Associate Professor (tenured) of Quantum Technology at Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. IQM is the European leader in quantum computers.

Lisse-Lotte Hermansson loves working with science, digital solutions and exceptionally tech savvy individuals. Successful track record in international business development and 20+ years of global life science experience with EFPIA HTA WG and Orphan WG 2007-11 and chaired MedTech EU (EDMA) HTA and CDx WG 2011-16. Worked with due diligence, HEOR and health policy globally. M.Sc Econ. (Helsinki School of Economics) and M.Sc HE (Karolinska.)