Sofia Hmich

Sofia is Founder of Future Positive Capital, a new venture firm seeking Europe’s boldest entrepreneurs who use advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, synthetic biology, genetics, and other deep technologies to solve problems such as feeding the world’s growing population sustainably, tackling climate change and coping with an ageing population. Her investments includes Ynsect – the global leader in alternative protein supply, Meatable, who are pioneering the next generation of lab-grown meat, BioBeats, the world’s first unified computational platform for preventative mental health and What3Words – the global multi-award winning location technology company, providing unique 3-word identifiers for any location.

At the intersection of entrepreneurship and investment, her career has encompassed tech innovation throughout with stints at Index Ventures, Europe’s top venture capital firm, and Deezer, the worldwide digital music service, where she was in charge of international expansion. 

Sofia has been recognised by Forbes as “30 Under 30”, by the World Economic Forum as a “Global Shaper and is part of Founders Forum.

Mimi Billing

Alex Basu

Alex is a strong believer in the nascent deep tech revolution. He thinks that a renewed focus on innovation with atoms is greatly needed to solve some of the most pressing challenges of our time and to fuel future growth and societal value creation. Thus at Industrifonden, Alex is devoted to finding and supporting promising Swedish deep tech startups. Alex comes from a research background and holds a Ph.D. in Nanotechnology. Prior to joining Industrifonden, he was at the Nordic investment fund Alder.

Inka Mero

Inka is an entrepreneur, company builder, VC, angel investor, and new business executive. Her passion and expertise are in the new global digital and technology business build – from startups to big corporations.

“My passion is to work with and build world-class teams to grow new companies and businesses to a global scale. I believe that we are now facing a new era, where business opportunities arise from the need to solve big global problems through science, entrepreneurship, and capital. Hence, working with deep tech founders and the world’s leading scientists is an extremely impactful and concrete way for me to work for a better future.”

Sebastian Desand

Sebastian Desand is the Founder and CEO of the deeptech startup Ingrid Cloud. Sebastian is an entrepreneur with a Master at Law, a passion for deeptech & mathematics and years of experience from B2B sales and strategy. He was a finalist in Carnegie Entrepreneur of the Future 2017 and won the Åforsk Entrepreneur Award 2019 for most innovative entrepreneurs.

Aurora Airaskorpi

Aurora is a science communications specialist and coach and Head of Skolar, a community of researchers, research foundations, science communications professionals and research-minded stakeholders. She has a background in journalism, media research and strategic marketing and is currently employed by Kaskas Media, a communications agency specialised in science and research. In 2019 Aurora is producing and hosting Research Pitching Competition by Slush and Skolar, where an individual researcher can win €100K to advance their bold and new research idea.

Teemu Birkstedt

Teemu is a Data and AI enthusiast from over 20 years. Teemu’s focus is how to make an impact with AI. Work is done in a startup (co-founder of Saidot) and in university collaboration (Professor of Practice in Turku University). Saidot builds technology to help companies & governments make, use and protect trustworthy & transparent AI.

Teemu is a co-founder of a former AI startup growth company (Bigdatapump, 2012-2018) that has lately gone thru a successful M&A process.