We are only 10 days away from attending Wolves Summit and you start to wonder what is the best part of the event? Some are interested in getting acquainted with the latest technology trends. Others have the compelling stage content on top of their list. However, for the majority, connecting with an investor is the main goal.

We have over 100 VCs joining this year to meet with startups. The vetting process is extremely important and this year we released only a limited number of in-person startup passes. Investors want to return to their HQ with promising prospects to invest in, so the pressure is on to make sure the companies are of a high enough standard.

The list of investors is adding up every day, but for today, here are our top ten investors we can't wait to see at this year's conference. So let us introduce them.

Kelvin Tan, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of GTR Venture 

Kelvin is co-founder and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of GTR Ventures, based in Singapore. Previously, he was Deputy Director at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). As the secretariat for the MAS-led trade finance committee, he was deeply involved in Singapore’s Networked Trade Platform (NTP) project — an award-winning trade information management platform and precursor to the Global Trade Connectivity Network (GTCN) project between Singapore and Hong Kong. Prior to the MAS, as Senior Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – the private lending and investment arm of the World Bank Group — Kelvin worked on structured trade finance deals, bilateral trade finance programs with banks. Besides trade finance, he has significant trade policy experience, having started his career at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Singapore. 

John Courtney, Partner Boardroom

John is a Lifetime Award-winning entrepreneur who has founded 7 businesses over 45 years. He has been ranked #30 on City AMs list of “Top UK Entrepreneurs” and #2 on a list of “Top UK Marketing Influencers”. John has been a Judge at the National Business Awards and the Amazon Scale-up Awards and a panellist at many conferences: Tech for Britain, Online Influence, Like Minds for Entrepreneurs. He is a super-connector with 37k Twitter followers and 25k LinkedIn connections. John is CEO of BoardroomAdvisors.co.uk, providing directors to start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs.

William de Gale, BlueBox Asset Management

Having qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand in London, William spent 5 years in the Household Cavalry, reaching the rank of Captain. He then joined Mercury Asset Management (which became Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and then BlackRock), spending the next 20 years investing in technology stocks for the Global Equity team. For almost 10 years he ran BlackRock's offshore global technology fund, before leaving in 2017, co-founding BlueBox Asset Management and launching the BlueBox Global Technology Fund in 2018. He published "The Successful Technology Investor" in 2019, which sets out his rather unusual approach to investing in tech stocks.

Paolo Privitera

Paolo, MIT MBA, is currently the CEO and co-founder of Evensi, the world's largest events discovery and promotion network, with more than 200 million events, 50 million users, 10 million event organizers. The company has been approved for an IPO. Paolo is a Silicon Valley-based global entrepreneur and strategist with a passion for innovation and growth using the power of data, strategic analysis, creativity, and teamwork.

Born and raised in Venice Italy, he founded his first Internet company in 1994 at 16 years old.

A US resident since 2002, Paolo has more than 25 years of experience in tech and internet-based businesses. During this time, he has founded 6 companies, invested in more than 50, and advised hundreds. Paolo has received 10 career awards and 4 of the companies he founded had an exit. He is also a mentor and advisor at 500 Startups, Google Launchpad, China Accelerator, Alchemist, Start-Up Chile, Health Wildcatters, Nana Bianca, The Vault Korea, Galvanize, and Future Food Institute. He loves to give back and help other people and companies. Resilience is his best asset.

Marvin Liao, ex-500 Startup Investor

Marvin wears many hats. He is an investor, executive coach and former advisor to several large Family Offices. Previously he was a Partner at Venture Capital Fund 500 Startups, running the SF based accelerator program as well as investing in Seed stage startups. He has invested in over 414 Pre-seed & Seed stage startups during the 6 years spent there. Marvin also spent 10.5 years at Yahoo! He presently serves on the boards/advisory boards of several internet advertising and ad technology companies across the globe. Marvin is a frequent speaker at many Digital Marketing & Tech Startup Conferences.

Dr Maciej Kraus, Managing Partner, Movens Capital

Maciej Kraus, Ph.D, is a partner at Movens Capital, a private equity firm based in Warsaw, Poland. Previously he ran the Sales Strategy and Pricing Practice at PwC. Maciej started his career at Nestle, moved to strategic consulting, founded his own consulting company that he successfully sold to PwC. Maciej has over 15y of experience in  more than 150 projects in over 50 countries for both multinational companies, SMEs and start-ups.

Maciej authored two books on pricing and sales strategy: “9 steps to higher profits. Without cutting costs or letting workers go”; “ A practical guide to higher profits and income in a market with rising pressures.The naked mind”.Second one is a practical guide for understanding neuromarketing for any size business. Proven principles and tools of neuromarketing for profitability and business success. He is also a guest lecturer i.e. at Stanford GSB, London Business School and  Kellogg School of Management 

Sarah Missen, Partnerships Manager, CRL

Sarah has spent her career, working with clients across all industries across the globe to deliver innovative and quality solutions through loyalty, digital and innovation channels. More recently, Sarah has been developing and building programs to allow corporate clients to collaborate with startups to fuel business growth and achieve their innovation goals. She's now on a mission to help build innovation hubs, amplify social impact, accelerate innovation, and curate collaboration through mutually beneficial, long-lasting and purpose-driven partnerships for all our Plus X hubs.

Aleksandra Byrka - Investment Director – LT Capital

Aleksandra is an investment director responsible for smooth pre-investment processes and supporting portfolio companies, financial analyst, M&A advisor. She is a Warsaw School of Economics graduate with the degree in international finance.  

Katarzyna Dąbrowska – InVentures

Katarzyna has extensive experience in Capital Investments and Corporate Financial Strategies. She has been managing Funds with an asset value exceeding PLN 3 billion  - Złoty Portfel (2012 and 2014) and Fund of the Year (2009 and 2012). 

Alessandra Farnum - Mouro Capital Alessandra focuses on UK and European investments for Mouro, with a keen interest in some of the new verticals we are exploring around insurtech, future of work and education.  She is close to investments in Crosslend, Nivaura and Edgify, where she serves as aBoard observer. She previously worked with  Samsung Ventures where she led deal sourcing in fintech and insurtech. Outside of Mouro, you can often find her at an East London park playing with her puppy.

Education: BSc International Business, Marketing (University of Maryland, College Park), MSc Economics and Management (Bocconi University)

Kirstie Irmana – Sequoia

Ex-Senior Associate Consultant at Bain & Company at Sequoia helping daring founders build legendary companies from idea to IPO and beyond. She holds a degree in Mathematics and Economics from the University of California and from the National Taiwan Normal University.  

Zoltan Kis, DayOne Capital

Zoltan is a Manager at Day One Capital Fund Management, whose mission is to back technology-driven companies and guide them to global markets by leveraging their  complimentary corporate and investor experience. Zoltan is enthusiastic about data analytics and modelling, acquiring a lot of experience in these fields. He graduated from Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem.

This is to give you a little glimpse into what to expect. We’re lining up more investors, so keep an eye on our website at www.wolvessummit.com . See you soon at Wolves Summit!

If you’re looking to attend this year’s conference we still have a few in-person tickets remaining.

>> If you are an investor or executive looking to attend, save 50% on your in-person pass
>> Startups have access to a limited offer of €250 for two on-site tickets. Get yours today.