Programme Fellows
Abdullah Albesher
Investment Manager, Aramco Ventures
With a background in Chemical Engineering, Abdullah has built a career in investment management spanning 6 years.
Loukik Arora
Principal Investment Associate, Cambridge Enterprise (Ventures)
Loukik is an Investment Associate at Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, where he has invested in over three years in research-based deep-tech and life science spin-outs from the University of Cambridge. Previously, he worked as a project fellow at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology and as a freelance R&D consultant. He also contributed to the development of the MedTech innovation ecosystem in Singapore while at APACMed. Loukik holds a PhD in Medicine/Pharmacology from the National University of Singapore and a Masters in Entrepreneurship from Strathclyde Business School.
'My aim is to build on learnings from this programme to run my own fund in the future'.
Ben Balmforth
Senior Associate, NATO Innovation Fund
Ben is a Senior Associate at the NATO Innovation Fund, taking an interest in quantum, semiconductors, photonics, and AI. Previously, Ben was an Investment Manager at XTX Ventures and Amadeus Capital Partners.
Ben is a Chartered Accountant and holds a MSci in Mathematics and Physics from Durham University.
'I am extremely excited to be a part of this Fellowship, to learn from technology domain experts, entrepreneurs, academics, and veterans of the VC industry. I am most looking forward to building strong relationships with my peers and understanding how we can best work together to create a robust environment for foundational science and technology entrepreneurship'.
Thomas Grant
Venture & Growth Capital Investor (Head of Venture Investments), Aviva Investors
Thomas is an equity investment analyst and portfolio manager. He transitioned into VC in 2021, focusing on Healthcare and Technology investments and is a CFA Charter holder. Thomas has a natural sciences academic background.
'My ambitions for the programme are to make long-term connections across the investment landscape. I am also wanting to develop technical skills to better appraise early stage technology and fully understand the nuances of spin-out investments'.
Caroline Haegeman
Investor, Delin Ventures
Caroline holds a PhD in Oncology from Imperial College London. She previously advised leading pharma companies at BCG and founded an e-commerce business during her studies. She later supported biotech spin-outs at Panacea Innovation. Currently, she is a seed-stage biotech investor at Delin Ventures and part-time COO for a Cambridge-based biotech company.
'Through the programme, I aim to accelerate my journey in launching successful VC funds, championing the most innovative life sciences startups by providing them with strategic guidance, operational insights, and essential funding'.
Chloe Hall
Senior Investment Manager, British Patient Capital
Chloe Hall is a scaleup-stage deep tech investor at British Patient Capital, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank. She focuses on companies commercialising academic research in sectors such as semiconductors, quantum computing, AI, space, health, and climate tech.
Chloe is a Fellow of the Newton Venture Program and a CFA charter holder with a Chemistry degree. She has prior venture capital experience from her time at Legal and General, a leading global asset manager based in the UK.
’My ambition for this Fellowship is to develop a stronger thesis for investing in deep tech companies at the scaleup stage and to build out a network of peers, advisors, and co-investors that can support this aim’..
Tom Hall
Senior Investment Manager, Martlet Capital
Tom leads deep tech investing at Martlet Capital, a Cambridge-based pre-seed and seed stage investor. He previously invested with leading UK angel investors, Cambridge Enterprise, and Cambridge Capital Group. He also has experience in technology operations and finance.
'I am passionate about the advancement of deep tech solutions to address significant global challenges and megatrends. The UK is well placed to deliver on this by leveraging its world class scientific pedigree to create category leading companies. The Fellowship offers an exciting opportunity to further develop investors’ knowledge and networks to identify and support such companies, and in turn contribute to enhanced innovation-led economic growth'.
Laura Jaques
Investment Partner, National Security Strategic Investment Fund
Laura is a Senior Investment Manager at NSSIF, the UK Government’s corporate venturing arm for dual-use advanced technologies. She has experience across start-ups, corporate and government, and a track record in managing multi-million-pound R&D budgets, leading equity investments, and serving as a Board Observer.
Laura holds a Masters with Distinction from King's College London and a First-Class degree from Durham.
'I am looking forward to advancing my expertise in the deep tech space and expanding my network of peers'.
Katie Lockwood
Co-founding Partner, Twin Path Ventures
Katie combines a strong foundation in IP law with a passion for early-stage venture capital. As the former Head of Investment Readiness at Capital Enterprise, she has guided hundreds of start-ups through their early-stage journey and forged authentic connections with early-stage funds to help them fundraise. With a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a masters in Bioscience Entrepreneurship from UCL, Katie bridges the gap between science and business.
As a previous IP lawyer, Katie has worked on high-stakes patent litigation and corporate deals in life sciences, medtech, and telecoms. She is keen to dedicate her career to the advancement of tech innovation.
Madhav Mahendra
Principal, KHP Ventures
Madhav is the Principal and part of the founding team at KHP Ventures, the first NHS anchored VC fund. Over the last 3 years, he has invested in 15+ early stage ventures across digital health, medtech, and hospital ops-tech. Every deal is underpinned by his multi-stage investment expertise that leverages a deep clinical, scientific, and health policy network. His career spans investment management, private equity/credit, and venture capital – experience that has now been applied in building the first health system VC firm in the UK.
'The Science and Technology VC Fellowship provides an invaluable opportunity to expand my network and deepen knowledge of the UK life sciences ecosystem. This provides critical alignment with KHPV's ambitions to further expand their current investment mandate after successfully raising a £30M first fund'.
Nicholas Nelson
SuperAngel
Nicholas is one of the original thought leaders and investors in defence tech and his research is focused the nexus of defence innovation and European security and resilience. He is the founder of Offset Ventures, the first defence technology focused venture investor (2020) in Europe. In addition to this, he holds fellowships at the University of Oxford and the Georgia Institute of Technology (US).
Amy Nommeots-Nomm
Business and Corporate Development Manager, Google Deepmind
Amy is a chartered engineer, with a Masters and PhD in Material Engineering. Her last role was as a deep tech investor at Octopus Ventures investing at Seed and Series. Amy runs a network of women in deeptech investors.
‘My aim with joining the Science and Technology VC Fellowship is to continue to grow and develop as an investor.
Edmund Phillips
Investment Partner, National Security Strategic Investment Fund
Edmund began his career investing and advising in the energy transition. After completing a venture and technology focussed MBA, he joined NSSIF in 2021, where he leads investment across science and technology.
'I am looking forward to reinforcing my skills as a deep tech investor and being part of a cohort of investors with a similar focus'.
Rebecca Rosser
Ventures Associate, Plug and Play Tech Center
Rebecca is a Ventures Associate at Plug and Play UK, focusing on early-stage ClimateTech investments. She leads scouting and investment efforts, manages a 30-company portfolio, and advises corporations like Jaguar Land Rover on strategic start-up collaborations..
Previously, Rebecca worked at the European Investment Fund (Luxembourg), supporting its mission to improve access to finance for small businesses and start-ups across Europe. She also gained experience in Social Finance (Netherlands), where she conducted research, data analysis, and financial modelling related to Social Impact Bonds.
Rebecca holds a master’s in business Analytics and Big Data from IE University.
'Through the Science and Technology Venture Capital Fellowship, I aim to deepen my expertise in venture investing, build a strong network within the industry, and contribute to fostering a robust innovation ecosystem in the UK'.
Oliver Sims
Investor, Octopus Ventures
Oliver leads Octopus Ventures biotech fund and invests in early-stage companies across Research Tools, Drug Discovery, Diagnostics, and Engineering Biology. Fuelled by a background in Biomedical Science and Biochemistry, working in business and corporate development at biotech companies. His operational experiences have been with biologics drug discovery, gene editing tools, breath diagnostics, and digital prediction and mitigation tools for bipolar patients, Oliver has also founded his own start up to support mental health management for patients.
Oliver transitioned from business development to investing by moving to Meltwind which is the family office of Jonathan Milner who is one of the UK's most successful biotech entrepreneurs.He also serves as an advisor to the UK government on Engineering Biology.
Tej Panesar
Partner, Prism Ventures
Tej has over 20 years’ experience in venture, investment banking and private equity. Prior to joining Prism Ventures as a Partner, he was the Life Sciences Investment Director at British Patient Capital (BPC), the largest investor in venture capital in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. There he led transactions totalling £425m and spearheaded their life sciences investment strategy, building out a specialist team to support their ambitions in the sector.
In 2021 Tej led the launch of the prestigious £200m UK Life Sciences Investment Programme (LSIP) and was part of the negotiating team that secured a related UK collaboration with Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala.
'The Science and Technology Venture Capital Fellowship represents an opportunity to deepen my skillsets in life sciences investing, build networks and develop a solid overview of the UK ecosystem'.
Arnie Sriskandarajah
Managing Director, Head of Alternatives, Round Hill Capital
Arnie currently manages technology VC, growth equity and special situations at Round Hill Capital. He previously built the corporate venture arm of FTSE listed Capital & Counties Properties and was a senior executive at Bloomsbury AI ($30m+ exit to Facebook), The Collective (>$400m in debt & equity financing) & Rocket Internet's HelloFresh ($2.5bn IPO).
Arnie has been featured in Wired's 100 Most Influential People in Technology and was recognised in Forbes 30Under30 in 2016. He is an active angel investor in European startups and has advised the European Commission's Startup Europe initiative.
'As part of this Fellowship I am looking to explore opportunities at the cross section of deep tech, climate and the built environment'.
Marie Tai
General Partner, Spacewalk VC
Marie is a chemical engineer by background, and has worked as an Investment Professional at Goldman Sachs, Hitachi Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Possible Ventures. She has invested in companies across the globe in stages pre-seed to pre-IPO,
Marie is currently building Spacewalk VC, a global deep tech VC with a differentiated investment approach, based out of Europe.
Eliza Warner
Investor Associate, In-Q-Tel
Eliza Warner is investor for In-Q-Tel, a strategic investor on behalf of US, UK, and AU intelligence communities. The fund focuses on early-stage investments into deep tech and dual use technologies.
Previously Eliza worked in both impact investing and at Jigsaw, an alphabet company focusing on human rights focused technology development.
Eliza has an MBA from London Business School and a BA from Duke University in Political Science and Arabic.
Millen Wolde-Selassie
Early-Stage VC and Angel Investor
Millen's career spans derivatives sales trading to founding an e-commerce company before joining Octopus Ventures. At Octopus, she deployed £1-10M tickets across Pre-seed to Series B investments, focusing on the intersection of consumer technology, AI, and future of work.
Having grown up in Germany to African immigrants,Millen studied at LSE and HEC Paris and now leverages her multicultural background and multilingual capabilities to build and maintain meaningful relationships across the European tech ecosystem.
'Through the Fellowship, I aim to deepen my expertise in deep tech commercialisation and widen my networks, believing the next standout consumer companies will emerge from the intersection of technical innovation and cultural shifts. I am passionate about fostering diversity of thought in venture capital and contributing to the UK and Europe's position as a leader in science-based innovation’.