ACTIVE SPARRING PARTNERS

TEAM PROFILES

Daniel Koppelkamm

Founder, Managing Partner & Investment Committee Member

Daniel founded Convergence Partners in 2018 to rapidly scale European Hightech companies in Asia utilizing a "market-first" approach. He has more than 15 years of Tech Venture Capital investing and company building experience. From 2009 to 2017, Daniel was an Investment Partner and Investment Committee Member at Jadeberg Partners, one of the leading Swiss/ German High-Tech venture capital funds. Prior, Daniel worked for more than 6 years at Man Group in London, Chicago and Hongkong, focused on technologie investments in the carbon and Cleantech space. Daniel also worked in technology investment banking at Credit Suisse in London and Madrid and in the business development division of Intel Corporation (UK). Besides his later stage venture capital investment activities, he has been an active business angel for several years focusing on HealthTech companies. Daniel holds an MBA and a BSc in Business Studies from Cass Business School London and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Raj Airey

Partner & Investment Committee Member

Raj has been in healthcare for 30 years, of which he spent 20 years in MD roles at Pfizer and Baxter in Europe and Asia. He is also a serial entrepreneur, having built and managed 3 high growth businesses. In the last years, Raj has been an active business angel and company builder in the HealthTech space. He is also an Accredited Executive Coach and mentor and member of the expert advisory board of EIT Health, a pan-European public private initiative that fosters innovation with in healthcare with EU, top universities, innovation hubs and large corporates. Raj is a graduate in science from the London University and has received executive education from both Harvard Business School and INSEAD.

Ke (Ken) Zhang

Partner & Investment Committee Member

Ken has over 20 years of experience in technology venture capital and strategy / business development in both Europe and China. Prior to joining Convergence, he was the head of the Europe team of Baidu Ventures, a Baidu initiated independent VC, based in Frankfurt. He also worked for several Fortune 500 companies, including 10+ years at Robert Bosch Group, firstly responsible for corporate strategy for the Asia Pacific region, then with Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC) in Frankfurt for 7 years, where he invested in European and Chinese Deeptech and HealthTech start-ups as well as spearheaded and built a strong base for the fund’s China structure / activities. Ken is deeply familiar with the venture capital landscapes in both Europe and China, especially in areas like in robotics, AI and IoT. Ken holds an MBA from University of Bath.

Stefan Säuberlich

Investment Director

Stefan has more than 10 years investment, M&A and operational experience with SME companies in the German-speaking region. Prior, Stefan worked as a Senior Investment Manager at Jadeberg Partners, a Swiss Hightech VC and Westlake Partners, a German private equity fund focused on landing and scaling life-science businesses in China. Other previous employers include Constellation Capital, a Swiss private equity fund and BDO. Stefan holds a degree in Finance and a CPEA from TU Munich.

Christian Rasmussen

Analyst

Christian has collected international experience in venture capital and private equity with a focus on event management and fundraising. Prior to joining Convergence, Christian developed and led the capital introduction program at PE Insights, a leading European private equity platform that connects Limited Partners, General Partners, and Target Companies through curated conferences. He also worked at EDC Real Estate in Denmark. Christian is currently studying International Business at Copenhagen Business School.

Dr. Laura Johnson

Operating Partner, Germany

Laura is supporting the landing and scale-up of Convergence’ portfolio companies in Germany. She has been working in MedTech innovation for 16 years with senior and executive roles at Siemens Healthcare in the USA and Asia. In the past few years based in Berlin, she has been VP of Clinical Affairs for Protip Medical, an Entrepreneur in Residence for Startup Bootcamp Digital Health, Head of Strategic Partnerships for the Berlin Institute of Health, active mentor to multiple young teams and startups in Berlin and a freelance business and clinical strategist. She is also an expert panel member to EIT Health and active contributor to the Charité Entrepreneur Summit. Laura is a graduate from Leeds Medical School and holds a M.Res. from University College London and a PhD from Kings College London in the application of Augmented Reality in neurosurgery.

Jörg Trinkwalter

Venture Partner, Germany

Jörg is supporting the landing and scale-up of Convergence’ portfolio companies in Germany. He has been active in Healthcare startup development for more than 10 years. Jörg is the CEO of Medical Valley, the main HealthTech startup development partner of Convergence. Medical Valley, the federal Digital Health Center of Excellence in Germany, is the key internationalisation partner of Convergence in the D-A-CH region and US. Jörg is also founder and CEO of several HealthTech startups such as TBrace GmbH and nice!innovations. He is also Chairman of the Board at Medandu, a fast-growing digital health company. Prior, Jörg worked for the business development agency in Erlangen. Jörg is a graduate of Technical University Hamburg.

Dweep Chanana

Venture Partner

Dweep is supporting Convergence` deal-sourcing activities in Europe and also the landing and scale-up of portfolio companies in India. Dweep brings over 20 years of experience of investing in and growing new businesses, and has advised companies such as Cisco, Vestas, Ericsson, and Microsoft on corporate innovation, investments, and new business development. Dweep is a Managing Partner of Anchor Group, a Deeptech focused investment and advisory firm, headquartered in Geneva. He previously led the venture investment activities of Momenta Partners, a leading global IoT advisory firm. Dweep has also worked in technical roles at Lucent and Hughes, with experience across India, USA, Kenya and China. Dweep holds an MBA of Geneva University and a degree in Engineering from Delhi Institute of Technology

Lingxi Zeng

Venture Partner, China

Lingxi is supporting the landing and scale-up of Convergence’ portfolio companies in China. He has been working with Healthcare industry leaders and startups in China for more than 10 years and has extensive experience in cross-border acceleration of HealthTech startups. He is the CEO of Shenzhen Leaguer Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., the main China startup cross-border development partner of Convergence. Prior, Lingxi was Vice Chairman of Holistic Integrative Medicine Committee of the Shenzhen Hospital Administrator Association and Deputy Secretary of the Shenzhen Life-Tech Industry Alliance. Lingxi also held executive positions at Sanhe International Group and Guohong Investment (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. Lingxi holds a Master's degree in Regenerative Medicine from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing.

Dr. Songia (James) Wen

Venture Partner, China

James is the Co-Head of the International Division of the Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen, a strategic China partner of Convergence Partners. James has more than 9 years operational and investment experience in the HealthTech and BioTech sectors. Prior, James worked as a product development manager at Shenzhen Ruiyang Biotechnology and as an investment associate at China Biocapital Corp. Other previous employers include Nanopower (CTO), the renomated Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable (Consultant) and Astra Zeneca (Lab Analyst). James earned his PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hongkong and his BSc in Biochemistry at Imperial College London.

Xingyue (Michelle) Chen

Venture Partner

Michelle is supporting our deal-sourcing capabilities in Benelux, based in Amsterdam. She has over 15 years experience of business development, partnership development, investment, IP commercialization and marketing in diverse sectors of IT, consumer electronics, life science of international companies such as Alibaba, LG Electronics, Elsevier and Seagate Technology. She was instrumental in establishing Alibaba`s extensive ecosystem in Europe. Michelle has a multicultural background and extensive experience of cross-border development between Europe and China. Michelle holds a degree in Business Administration, Marketing and Public Relations from Shenyang Normal University and Tsinghua University./p>

Dieter Kondek

Venture Partner, USA

Dieter is supporting the landing and scale-up of Convergence’ portfolio companies in the US. He has over 35 years’ experience as an entrepreneur, startup investor and senior executive in the technology industry. Dieter is currently CEO & Founder of MergingMinds, a Florida based Global Business Accelerator for startups and international technology companies. He co-founded multiple successful startups and served as CEO and in senior leadership positions at both venture capital-funded and publicly listed companies in the software and infrastructure technologies industries. His career began at IBM Corporation in 1976. Subsequently he co-founded the largest IBM PC reseller in Germany. He was Managing Director at public listed Computer 2000 AG from 1988 to 1994, which was subsequently merged with Tech Data Corporation, Florida largest Company by market cap and the second largest IT Distributor worldwide.

Shervin Sharghy

Venture Partner, South East Asia

Shervin is supporting the landing and scale-up of Convergence’ portfolio companies in South East Asia. He has been an active investor and advisor in the Asia-Pac healthtech market since 2014. He is the co-founder of myDoc, one of South East Asia`s largest digital health platforms and Lifeforce Capital, an Asian Healthcare Private Equity fund. Prior, Shervin pursued a 14-year investment banking career, including 12 years in Morgan Stanley in Hongkong, London and Rome. In this capacity, he has led several landmark healthcare M&A financing deals, including a US$18Bn Bridge Loan Facility for Shire’s acquisition of Baxalta Inc. in 2016. Shervin holds a LLB Law (Honours) from Kings College London.

Tal Gal-On

Venture Partner

Tal is supporting our deal-sourcing capabilities in Israel, based in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Tal consults Israel's leading corporates, NGOs as well as government institutions, facilitating strategies for China entrance as well as engagement with local partners. Tal serves as the Head of the Israeli Centre of the Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen (RITS), as well as the Head of China for the EEMBC (Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium). Tal holds an M.A from Tel-Aviv university and a B.A in Business administration & finance from the IDC, and he is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Dr. Arvind Madan

Advisor

Arvind is the former National Director of Primary Care and National Deputy Medical Director for the NHS in England. In these roles he wrote and helped implement national NHS policy, reporting directly to the Secretary of State for Health and Chief Executive of NHS England. Arvind has been a practising GP for 24 years and is a founding partner in one of London’s largest primary care organisations known as the Hurley Group, covering over 115K registered patients and 250K urgent care cases a year. Arvind is also the Primary Care Lead for Deloitte UK, both nationally and internationally. In 2012 he developed eConsult which was the first online consultation platform allowing patients to access a range of self-help tools and consult their own GP remotely. Today this model of care is available to over 12 million patients in over 1,300 practices in England, with a further 9 million patients being onboarded.

Prof. Erich Reinhardt

Advisor

Erich is the former CEO of Siemens Healthcare and Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG. The development of Siemens Healthcare under his leadership was embossed by restructuring, innovations, as well as portfolio expansions. The turnover grew from 3.3 billion Euro (1994) to over 11 billion Euro (2008) during this time. At present he is Chairman of the Board at Medical Valley EMN. Erich is further a member of the Board of Directors of Varex Imaging, a member of the Board of Trustees of the University Hospital Erlangen, a member of the Advisory Board at DiaMedCare in Switzerland and member of the Supervisory Board of Osler Diasnostics Ltd in Oxford, UK. Over the last years Erich Reinhardt had various supervisory board mandates in companies like – DAKO, Gambro, BSN, Varian, I-MED and was a member of the Scientific Committee of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany. Erich is an honorary professor at the University of Stuttgart.

Dr. Renchen Liu

Advisor & Investment Committee Member

Renchen is the Deputy Dean of the Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen (RITS) and in charge of establishing, coordinating and managing RITS international businesses, with an emphasis on international technology transfer, investment, acceleration and M&A. Dr Liu also sits on the investment committees of several funds raised and managed by RITS and its investment arm Leaguer Group. Before joining RITS, Dr Liu worked on research in biomedical engineering and consulted on international technology transfer at University of Oxford. Renchen earned his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Tsinghua University and D.Phil in Biochemical Engineering from Oxford University.

Dr. Patrick Pfeffer

AdvisorCommittee Member

Patrick is the Founder and CEO aescuvest, Europe`s leading Digital Health crowdfunding platform. He is a bioinformatics scientist with a passion to help society by pushing the frontiers of health with new ideas and products. Before founding aescuvest in 2014, he pursued a consulting career as specialist in digital marketing for pharma and health media companies. As general manager of WebMD Global he drove the European expansion of Medscape, a global platform for physicians and healthcare professionals, into the French, Spanish, and German markets. As an advisor for systemic marketing and partnering strategies, he worked for multi-national projects in the health sector. Patrick graduated with a degree in bioinformatics and a doctorate in pharmaceutical chemistry. He also holds a diploma in business administration.

Florian Nöll

Advisor

Florian is the former Founder and Head of the Germany Startup Association and is currently Vice President of “Beirat Junge Digitale Wirtschaft” of the German Economics Ministry. Prior, he was the Co-Founder of the European Startup Network. Florian is an entrepreneur at heart, having founded a web agency at high school and later launched several startups like smartorder.de, bondea and Spendino. Florian was also the initiator of the well known "Startup Lounge" event series. Florian is further engaged at the Allbright Foundation and as a European Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum. Since 2019, Florian has been the Head of Digital Ecosystems at PwC Germany.

Dr. Jenny Hao

Advisor

Jenny brings more than 20 years` experience in the pharma and medical devices industries. She has held senior level positions at Pfizer, Novartis, and Takeda in the US, EU and China. Jenny is an expert in market access, marketing, reimbursement and commercialisation of healthcare products around the world. Jenny is also an active business angel of healthcare startups like SOM Biotech and Digipharm, actively supporting their international scale-up. Jenny graduated with a medical degree from Capital Medical University in Beijing and received an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University in the US.

STRATEGIC PARTNERS