Sara Rona is a managing director of Global Gateway for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and is the head of UK/Europe and Middle East North Africa (Turkey, Egypt, UAE and Jordan) for the bank. Sara manages an expansive global portfolio of tech startups and venture capital firms who are expanding stateside and need cross-border banking services as they scale. Additionally, Sara brings 15 years of global experience and strives to provide value beyond banking by helping clients with their international strategy and being a bridge into the US.

Sara joined SVB in 2018 and has been in finance for the last 15 years at a variety of different financial institutions including HSBC, IFC-World Bank and Deutsche Bank. She has an MBA in international business and has spent time living in Dubai, Bangkok, Paris, London, and the US with volunteer work in Afghanistan and Kenya. In her free time, Sara is planning her next scuba dive or ski weekend.

Larry Li is a Founder and Managing Partner at AMINO Capital. The firm is a global venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, with investment theme of data moat and network effect. With over $1 billion in capital under management, Amino has funded hundreds of companies in seed-to-growth stages across Consumer, PLG SaaS, Frontier Tech, AI and Web3, including 35 successful exits, around 20 unicorns and over 35 companies which are valued over $100M.

With an international career spanning over 16 years, Matthieu has been a dynamic force in the realms of innovation and sustainability, bridging the gap between the USA and Europe at BNP Paribas before joining Cathay innovation in October 2024.

Founded in Paris in 2015, Cathay Innovation now manages over $2.5B AUM with additional offices in San Francisco,  Berlin, Shanghai and Singapore and has invested in over 100 startups including Chime, Pinduoduo (NASDAQ: PDD), Glovo, Wallbox (NYSE: WBX), Owkin, Ledger, ZenBusiness, Alma, Descartes Underwriting and more.

Most recently, Matthieu served as the Head of BNP Paribas’ innovation lab in San Francisco and was the US Venture Partner for the BNP Paribas Solar Impulse Venture Fund, a €172M climate tech early stage fund. Matthieu has advised global leaders in mobility, energy, financial services, retail, and food & ag sectors, guiding them on their innovation strategies and climate journeys.

His leadership has been recognized, with the Financial Times Sifted naming him one of the top 36 European climate tech leaders to follow in 2022. Since December 2024, he is also board member of the French Tech San Francisco board member of the French Tech San Francisco gathering entrepreneurs, top executives, investors, engineers and public leaders bridging the French and Silicon Valley tech ecosystems.

Steve Schlenker has been investing in technology for 4 decades, initially as an analyst at the buyout firm Interlaken Capital from 1990-1993, then as the chief investment officer for technology investments at the family office SUN Capital Partners from 1995-2000, and since as co-founder and managing partner of DN Capital, now one of the longest standing early stage (seed and A) venture firms in Europe. Steve co-leads DN Capital’s enterprise software team and invests principally in applied AI solutions and in consumer fintech focused on financial inclusion. Companies where Steve has led the investment round for DN Capital and had board level responsibilities have returned over $500 million of profits to DN Capital investors. Select prior portfolio include Auto1 (IPO in DAX, $10 billion initial trading market cap), Remitly (IPO on Nasdaq, $7 billion initial trading market cap), Endeca ($1.1 billion exit to Oracle, Lagan (partial exit to Kana and later exit to Verint for $0.5 billion) and Robin Systems ($0.3 billion exit to Rakuten), and his AI portfolio (excluding the rest of the DN team’s investments in AI) includes Brigit ($0.5 billion exit to Upbound), Sanas (recent $0.5 billion valuation), MEXT, Himala, Respaid, Abotify, Tensorpool and Relation Theraputics. Steve has an undergraduate degree from Wharton with a dual concentration in entrepreneurial management and finance, summa cum laude, and an MBA from Harvard Business School with High Distinction where he was a Baker Scholar.