Unconventional Ventures

🎤 We're excited to share the serial entrepreneur within sustainability and environmental impact; Navid Samandari, as a House of Culture speaker! 💡 Navid is a seasoned founder and investor in sustainable development and environmental innovation. With a wealth of experience in creating scalable solutions, he’s passionate about driving positive change with a specific focus on the energy transition. ⚡ Navid’s practical insights stem from two decades as a startup founder and angel investor, most recently co-founding companies such as Seaborg Technologies, next-generation nuclear reactor developer, and its spinout Hyme Energy, grid-scale thermal energy storage. 🎟 Join us in Copenhagen on Sept. 10 by securing your free ticket today at houseofculture . unconventional . vc cc: Nora Thea

🎤 Today we are happy to announce ecosystem builder and impact champion Rolf Kjærgaard as a speaker at House of Culture. Rolf is a strategic advisor, board member, and investor with 20 years of experience in C-level executive positions and serves on boards of both private companies and organisations. Having served as CEO of Vækstfonden, Denmark’s sovereign investment fund and part of Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) today, Rolf is now working with the Novo Nordisk Foundation on crafting new frameworks for partnering across foundations on efforts and investments to take green technologies all the way from university-level science to industrial scale. This endeavor falls within the realm of ecosystem building, which has always been a strong motivating force for Rolf and involves working with others to enrich the infrastructure that powers innovation and makes the transition from novel idea to global reality as seamless and as rapid as possible. In addition, Rolf serves as Chair at Invest for Impact Denmark, and as a non-executive advisor at DE&I platform Above & Beyond. cc: Nora Thea

Happy to share that UV, through our GPs Nora and Thea, are the 🇩🇰 finalists as Investor of the year at Nordic Women in Tech Awards. “Investor of the year is a category that recognises an individual or organisation who has invested in women-led tech companies.” With 80% of our portfolio co’s having at least one woman in the founding team, it’s a category we definitely feel at home in. Thank you for the recognition, and high fives also to the other finalists belonging to this category: 🇸🇪 Helen Agering at Spintop Ventures 🇳🇴 WIN Ventures I 🇮🇸 Asthildur Otharsdottir at Frumtak Ventures 🇫🇮 Ekaterina Gianelli at Calm/Storm

🎤 Delighted to be able to start the week by announcing Dr Phaedria Marie St. Hilaire as a speaker at House of Culture. A Dominican born, former science academic researcher and corporate leader with 20 years experience in pharma and biotech. She has a proven track record of inspiring and driving cross functional, multicultural teams to deliver results from her leadership positions at global companies like Carlsberg Group and Novo Nordisk; and from the non-profit organisation, ProWoc - Professional Women of Colour Denmark that she co-founded in 2019. Phaedria is currently a Consultant in DEIB, leadership development and pharma outsourcing while serving on NGO & startup boards. She is also a part-time Business Angel Investor and was selected as one of the 10 most inspiring Business Angels in Denmark in 2023 and received a Cross-Border Angel Award in 2024. Phaedria is passionate about DEIB, and changing the gender and race narrative and has spoken globally on these topics. She strives to incorporate these principles in an inclusive leadership practice and her everyday professional and personal undertakings. She has been nominated for Nordic Diversity Awards and in March 2024 was awarded the ProWoc Impact Award for her global work within D&I. She believes in empowerment of self and others, continuous learning, self-reflection, and reinvention and is also Mentor and Certified Executive Coach from Henley Business School. 👉 Join us to learn from Phaedria on Sept. 10 by securing your free ticket today: https://lnkd.in/dYARYH7C

🪄 Every event needs its emcee, and for House of Culture we found ours in (🥁🥁🥁) Bob Thomas! 🛟🪧 Bob is a Partner at Stockholm-based software investor, Oxx. With years of experience in the finance industry, as an investor, advisor and operator, Bob knows the ins and outs of scaling software businesses. He’s applied his SaaS expertise to help companies in exciting areas like proptech, cybersecurity, AI, and software engineering. 🤹🏼♂️🕹️ When he’s not working his financial magic (or building software himself), Bob moonlights as a stand-up comedian, and an advisor / collaborator to creatives - particularly in the video gaming industry. 🗺️🧠 On September 10th, he will take us on a journey through an afternoon filled with Fireside chats as we are bringing together local and international leaders, innovators, and visionaries to explore and address critical societal and environmental challenges, providing both inspiration and insights to attendees. 🎟️👉 Tickets are free but limited, find out more and secure your ticket today https://lnkd.in/dYARYH7C

🎤 Very excited to be able to introduce Yousef Hammoudah - whose work champions cultural and artistic inclusivity and innovation - as a House of Culture speaker! Yousef is a seasoned leader at the intersection of culture, technology, and brand strategy, with a career spanning three decades. Currently the Global VP of Brand Development & Community of Fotografiska International, he previously served as the Founding Executive Director of Fotografiska Berlin. A two-time Online Grimme Award winner and published non-fiction author, Yousef has worked with major brands like MTV, adidas, and EMI Music, and founded startups such as Hobnox GmbH and PANORAMA3000. He has also contributed to international brand agencies like Interbrand and Pixelpark and Cultural TV broadcasters like VIVA and Viacom. His work champions cultural and artistic inclusivity and innovation. 🎟️ Tickets for the event on Sept 10 are free but limited - secure yours today at https://lnkd.in/d8JxBR9K cc: Nora Thea

🎤 Today we’re proudly introducing Annika Sten Pärson as a House of Culture speaker. Annika is a social entrepreneur, investor, and board member with over 25 years of experience in various C-level executive positions and she serves on boards of both public and private companies. She is the Co-Founder and Partner at The Inner Foundation, a global mission and impact-driven foundation that invests in innovative solutions. Uniting public, private and non-profit efforts to improve inner health and promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Annika’s vision is to set out to propel new ways of investing in the accelerating global mental health crisis to improve and sustain inner health with a special focus on emerging adults. Annika is a founding member of the investment committee of First Close Partners. She serves on the board of Meela, The World Childhood Foundation, Strong Minds, 29k, and Ashoka Nordics among others — organisations that are making significant impact in their respective fields. As part of her dedicated work at The Inner Foundation, Annika volunteers as a therapist for young adults at the non-profit clinic 1825 – Therapy Center for Young Adults in Stockholm, an organisation she co-founded and currently chairs its Board of Directors. Cc: Nora Thea

🎤 We're very excited to be able to introduce Emma Joy Obanye as a speaker at House of Culture. Emma is an entrepreneur, advisor, mentor and tech geek from Hackney (in the UK) and has spent the last 18 years building products and leading teams in tech for both corporates and startups. On a mission to make the UK tech startup ecosystem more inclusive, diverse and equitable, Emma leads OneTech as CEO, which has supported over 3000 individuals with access to knowledge, networks and funding to start and scale their businesses. An entrepreneur herself, Emma does this whilst splitting her time between OneTech and her new venture The StartUp Game, an app and board game about the journey of entrepreneurship. Emma previously co-founded and exited the award-winning, music-focused loyalty and influencer platform Buddybounce. Emma was recognised by the Inclusive Boards and Financial Times as one of The UK's top 100 black and minority ethnic leaders. cc: Nora Thea

👋🇪🇸 Super excited to share that we’ve invested in Spanish-based femtech The Blue Box Biomedical Solutions, enabling a paradigm shift in breast cancer screening. ➡️Today, breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, despite having a survival rate of 99% if detected at early stages. 🔦Mammography - the standard screening model - is invasive and misses 44% of cancer cases in women with dense breast tissue, which represents more than a third of the screening population. 📉This is why we invested in The Blue Box - an innovation for more accurate breast cancer detection, which is as easy as taking a pregnancy test. Their main objective is to close a screening gap in order to make a dent in reducing mortality rates due to breast cancer. 🚺The technology enables a paradigm shift in breast cancer detection. It addresses the limitations of mammography and has the potential to significantly impact women's health, targeting a €20 billion market in Europe and the US. 🩵In short, The Blue Box heats up a urine sample so that a very specific set of breast cancer biomarkers are evaporated, which activates an array of 8 sensors. Using pattern recognition, their AI is able to spot certain patterns within this signal that are correlated with breast cancer, providing a groundbreaking and user-friendly approach to early detection. 💬 ”We are very lucky to have UV as our investor for our current seed round because they focus on people and founders, always seeking significance behind innovations. UV very quickly understood the vision of our product and saw the potential impact. Our company operates within the femtech sector, aiming to revolutionise various aspects and change current paradigms. It's crucial for us to partner with someone who understands how to craft a product strategy aligned with these goals, in other words, focused on the people we want to impact”, says Judit Giró Benet, co-founder and CEO of The Blue Box. 💬 ”We invested in The Blue Box because we believe it represents a true paradigm shift in breast cancer detection. This groundbreaking technology fills a critical void in the market. We were convinced by the passion and vision of founders Judit Giró Benet and Lidia Navarro Farré, PhD. Their relentless dedication to advancing women's health and their clear, strategic roadmap for clinical trials and market entry inspire our utmost confidence. We firmly believe in their ability to execute and scale this transformative technology, ultimately saving lives and improving women's health on a global scale, and are proud to be partnering with them on this impactful mission”, says Thea Messel GP at UV. 💫Thanks for great collaborations Grow Venture Partners Francisco Carlos Nora

Curious to learn more about investing in private companies? The podcast "Patric blir ängel" from Nordic Angels is a great (and holiday compatible) place to start. 🎧 What you'll learn from Andreas Grape & Patric Edhagen's conversation with Nora Bavey: - How to make money and ensure positive impact at the same time - Where and how to find promising companies that fit your thesis - What you need to be prepared to invest in order to make it worthwhile Full episode is available in your favorite podcast app. cc: Max, Thea, Elin