INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
VivaTech is right around the corner, and I&m excited to introduce you to the third batch of judges that will come to Paris for TechCrunch
Startup Battlefield Europe.
If you haven&t been to TechCrunch Disrupt, the Startup Battlefield is arguably the most interesting part of the
Before everybody started doing a startup competition, there was the Startup Battlefield
Companies like Dropbox, Fitbit, N26 and Yammer all launched on the TechCrunch stage.
And we&re bringing talented investors and founders to
Here the third round of judges (see part 1 and part 2).
Rob Moffat, Partner, Balderton Capital
Rob joined Balderton Capital in 2009 and
was promoted to partner in 2015
He is currently a board director or observer with five portfolio companies: Carwow, Wooga, Nutmeg, Prodigy Finance, and Patients Know
Best.
Other investments he has worked with at Balderton include Qubit, Citymapper, Housetrip, Scoot and Archify
Rob focus sector is fintech, in particular insurance and retail financial services
Marketing is a particular area of interest, and Rob is responsible for best practice sharing in marketing across the portfolio
Prior to joining Balderton, Rob worked for Google in London, as a Manager in the European Strategy and Operations team.
He started his
career with five years in strategy consulting with Bain, and holds an MBA from INSEAD and a Masters in Statistics from Cambridge.
Marie
Ekland, Co-Founder, daphni
Marie Ekeland is co-founder of daphni, a venture capital firm which invests in European tech startups and is
supported by an online platform and an international community of experts
She began her career in 1997 at J.P
Morgan in New York as a computer scientist
Since 2000, Marie has been acting as a VC, first at CPR Private Equity, then, from 2005 to 2014 at Elaia Partners, leading investments in
Criteo, Edoki Academy, Pandacraft, Teads, Wyplay, and Ykone
In 2012 she co-founded France Digitale, bringing together French VCs entrepreneurs to make the French digital ecosystem thrive
She serves as a board member for Parrot, Showroomprive
Marie holds an engineering degree in mathematics and computer science from Paris Dauphine University as well as a master degree in Economics
from the Paris School of Economics.
Antoine Nussbaum, Partner, Felix Capital
Antoine is a Partner and member of the founding team of Felix
He currently sits on the boards of Heetch, Frichti, Papier, TravelPerk 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 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 MA investment banker
Prior to this he was based in Paris and was part of the founding team of NT Valley, a software business dedícated to retail and hospitality
A graduate of ESCP European Business School and University Paris Dauphine, Antoine is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
Eileen
Burbidge, Partner, Passion Capital
Eileen Burbidge is a Partner at Passion Capital, the pre-eminent early-stage VC fund based in London
She brings extensive operational experience to her investment activities gleaned from business and product roles at Yahoo!, Skype, Apple and
elsewhere.
In addition to Passion Capital, Eileen is also the Chair of TechCity UK, which is the British government-backed organisation
supporting digital business across the UK
She is also HM Treasury Special Envoy for FinTech appointed by then Chancellor George Osborne; Tech Ambassador for the Mayor of London
office and served on former Prime Minister David Cameron Business Advisory Group.
Eileen was made an MBE for services to Business in June
2015 and holds a BSc Engineering degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Liron Azrielant, General
Partner, Meron Capital
Liron is a General Partner at Meron Capital and has over 10 years of experience in the investment and tech
Liron also manages the Young Venture Capital Forum in Israel & a professional organization connecting over 150 young partners, principals
and associates from all VC firms in Israel.
Prior to joining Meron Capital, Liron was a Principal at Blumberg Capital and led Cyber, SaaS,
Marketing-tech and Infrastructure IT deals
Prior to that, she was a Strategy and MA consultant at Bain Capital and PwC PE group in New York, where she lead commercial and operational
due-diligence projects for the largest private equity firms in the US
Before moving to the US, Liron was a technical Applications Engineer at Agilent Technologies, where she worked with blue-chip clients in
Europe, Asia and the US.
Liron has an MBA from MIT-Sloan, an M.Sc
in Computer Science from MIT and a B.Sc
in Math and Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
At 25, she was the youngest student ever to graduate MIT dual MBA / M.Sc
She started her bachelor degree at Talpiot, the elite Israeli Defense Forces program, and completed it while serving full-time as a
technology analyst and researcher at the Israeli intelligence unit 8200.
