Bio

I am a managing partner at Zaz Ventures—the top EU deep tech innovation funding consultancy which has raised €1bn of funding for various innovative companies & consortia. My team has funded breakthrough companies like CorTec (DE), Maeve Aerospace (NL), Dronamics (BG), Aurora Propulsion Technologies (FI), Ekkono (SE), Nuventura (DE), Lili.AI (FR), Tilkal (FR), Nowi (NL), Antabio (FR), SusPhos (NL), Transmetrics (BG), Restore Medical (IL), DAC/AirEnergy (PL) & many others. As a consultant I have led 50+ SMEs to funding under Horizon 2020 & Horizon Europe SME Instrument/EIC Accelerator in ICT, IoT, AI, security, aviation, space, transport, logistics, energy, wastewater treatment, robotics, additive manufacturing, biotechnology & other areas. I am an expert in smart & circular urban solutions—applications of novel technology in urban environments. I focus on tight integration of transport, energy & urban infrastructure with the help of ICT. I facilitate strong collaborations between municipalities, urban designers, architects & technologists, with particular emphasis on startups & SMEs. I have worked on various projects with architecture, urban design & construction companies, municipalities & innovation accelerators in Belarus, Finland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Malaysia, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom & other countries. In 2017 together with Boyd Cohen (the author of the Smart City Wheel model) I developed & taught a people- & innovation-centric smart city induction course to the municipality officials at the State Academy of Public Administration in Astana (Kazakhstan). In 2016 I was nominated for the Global Smart City Leader & Promoter Award by the Smart Cities UK program. I have spoken at or moderated 50+ smart city events & conferences, including the main program of World Urban Forum 10 in Abu Dhabi. I am an Advisory Board member of the Smart Cities Asia (Malaysia) & Different Smart City (Romania) conference programmes & a scientific chair of the Smart City Symposium organised by the Prague Technical University. I am a member of the Vehicle-to-Grid expert group (Netherlands) & an external reviewer for the smart city concept of Astana (Kazakhstan). My full profile including the list of past speaking engagements is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wN5ZMap86v1_hKZHUOgPZ4fl5f7qbYSl9nUVMmM8Dv0