We are delighted to welcome you to the first CAMentrepreneurs and LucEnt Soc joint event in Cambridge!

Agenda for the evening:

• 18.00 – 18.30: Soft start: registration & informal networking
• 18.30 – 19.30: Panel discussion and Q&A
• 19.30 – 20.30: Mini-pitches from attending entrepreneurs & voting on the best start-ups
• 20.30 – 22.00: Nibbles, drinks & informal networking

Panel speakers (will be added as we receive their confirmations):

Dr Jason Mellad: a scientist entrepreneur passionate about translating innovative technologies into better patient outcomes. As CEO and co-founder of Start Codon, a Cambridge (UK) - based venture builder, he aims to identify the most disruptive healthcare founders and innovations from across the UK, seed fund them and leverage the exceptional resources of the Cambridge cluster to de-risk and drive the success of their start-ups. Previously he was CEO of Cambridge Epigenetix and Business Development Manager for Horizon Discovery’s diagnostics division. He also served as an associate at Cambridge Enterprise, the technology transfer office of the University of Cambridge

Ruth Coleman is an investor for Mercia’s Seed – pre-Series A Team with a focus on investing in early-stage technology companies. Based in London, Ruth’s role focuses on sourcing, transacting, and managing investments for the southeast region. Prior to joining Mercia, Ruth worked at Grey Innovation in Melbourne, a venture builder company where she led spin-out sourcing, early growth, and management. Ruth also worked at HealthXL where she advised pharmaceutical companies on their digital health strategies. Ruth holds a BSc in Biomedical Science from Trinity College and an MSc in Business and Biotherapeutics from Smurfit Business School and University College Dublin.

Hugo Villanueva PhD, is a health investor at Octopus Ventures, one of the leading health funds in Europe with over 25 investments. Based in London, Hugo focusses on deal sourcing and leading within Octopus with a particular focus on the bio/life science side of businesses. Prior to joining OV, Hugo was director of BD and Innovation at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, a leading science park in cell and gene therapy, where he advised biotech companies on finding investors, scaling up and running a TechBio accelerator. Prior to this, Hugo worked with leading accelerators in the UK and tried his own hand at biotech entrepreneurship.

Gemma Sturt is an early-stage investor at Pioneer Group, the UK’s largest life sciences ecosystem network. Pioneer Group’s science campuses have a national footprint across the UK, housing over 600 start-ups, CROs and SMEs, and has venture built a further 38 VC-backed Bio & HealthTech businesses. As Investment Manager, Gemma is focused on investing in companies developing frontier technologies from both within and externally to Pioneer’s ecosystem. Prior to her current role, Gemma worked with BioCity’s Seed fund and held commercial roles within several venture-backed start-ups.

Matous Palecek is the youngest ever Czech Venture Capital investor and the current head of operations for the UK branch of Nation 1 VC - a Prague-based early-stage VC fund focused on disruptive innovation across industries. In the past, he served as a business development manager for Groundcom - an aerospace startup incubated by the European Space Agency - and as the head of product for Multicode.ai - a disruptive IT HR SaaS business. He’s also the winner of the national round of the BASF Innovation hub and served as the head organiser for the 2018 TEDx conference in Grenaa, Denmark.