Finance Reimagined Women at the Forefront of VC Crypto and AI

[Music] [Applause] [Music] good evening everyone um we are I'm araria and I'll be your host today and we are wrapping up day two of ABAB Finance week with a bang uh this is a fantastic lineup there are three fantastic leaders who are like reshaping Finance as we know it and I'll do my best to get them to tell us all their secrets so Mark Maybe let's start with you you are the co-founder of ey Angels Adventure Capital platform you have deployed more than 400 millions in capital and in over like 120 startups I believe tell us how do you do it how do you all start it and what's what's your secret behind your strategy fantastic um thank you everyone for joining us I'll give you guys a bre brief background uh so I I grew up around Tech this was really you know from a very young age I studied physics and mathematic matics and computer science um I did my bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science at the techon which is in Israel like our MIT and a u MBA at Columbia University in New York um I was always working in these like huge corporates it was sap for many years I was writing code and leading our R&D teams uh I was at IBM and amdocs doing corporate strategy so I was always kind of the core p in in our household and and I love the fact that I was part of a huge organization with a lot of resources and as part of my role was really working together with leadership to find either m&a targets or to find ways to collaborate with young startups on kind of that whole onboarding and adoption processes of new technologies into large organizations and then 11 years ago I uh became an entrepreneur myself I like to call it some folks say moved over to the dark side but I call it you know I spread my wings uh and enjoy in the entrepreneurial world and founded I Angels um I Angels is an investment platform and VC based out of Israel we focused on early stage technology startups um and the motivation was really about breaking the VC model so the VC model traditionally was institutional Capital we're looking at very specific deals the ecosystem in Israel is relatively evolved so you have all the layers you have like the fundamental Angel layer in early stages VCS and later stage VCS and institutions and government support and you really have a full-blown ecosystem um but at the same time personally when I wanted to invest I could either put place my capital in a VC fund and that would that would really dictate a very high degree of capital investment into one manager or I could do Angel Investing Angel being an angel is very romantic we used to kind of talk to people and they say I want to looked the founder in the white of his eye I want to feel it in my gut and then they invest like $50,000 then it's gone like you don't even know what's going on with the company you have no shareholder rights you're not on the board you're not necessarily able to participate in followon rights which is by Design how you make money in the companies that are becoming successful so the motivation behind eye Angels was to create a very open and very transparent ecosystem of investors who are like-minded who want exposure to this asset class in Israel and wear their um eyes and ears in that ecosystem so we do deal origination and do diligence and we go in one large investment together we allow them to co-invest with us and we are uh essentially their shareholder rep and our business grew gradually to accommodate more types of different products like classical VC funds to enable institutional investors to join us as well uh and it's been a great journey so it's been 11 years now as as mentioned $400 million in in assets approximately 120 uh companies that we invested in over 26 profitable exits we have unicorns in the portfolio things that we led the seed round and are uh continuing to be lifetime investors for them uh serving on the board of publicly traded companies in our portfolio so it's been quite a ride and happy to answer more questions later fantastic thank you very much Eloise your CV is also impressive we have a PhD machine learning from Oxford University and we are one of the most copied popular investors on eoro obviously we've seen a boom in AI so we need experts like you more than ever how do you combine your academic expertise in AI with like real life investment knowledge yeah I think uh Mor's comment about like going to the dark side is so funny because um when you do like a PhD at a place like Oxford and then move into investing the irony is that like those two parties have much more in common than they like to admit often um and on the on the one side it's this concept of if you are developing like novel knowledge if you are pushing the boundaries of science um you have to do it in a way which is very very systematic very disciplined uh and more importantly which is replicable and scalable because otherwise you can never sort of go back and do it again uh and that translates beautifully into investing because that's exactly what you want to do in investing as well uh but then the flip side of that is if you are in this space of of novelty um I mean I I patented my first AI algorithm in 2013 when it wasn't as cool and sexy as it is now I had to like justify to the board at Oxford why I was in the biomedical engineering department and the real answer was the only person who would bet on my idea happens to be in that department uh but what happens when you're in that spaces is that you get very very comfortable with being uncomfortable and being in uncertain spaces and that again translates very well to investing um the the next step then is like how do we apply technology in order to capitalize on that and that's where something like itoro has come in really well into my journey when I had some algorithms that I built in 2016 and I wanted to test them um and this is where data or technology is really democratizing access to investing allowing people into these spaces somebody like me being able to to test what I was building in like a sort of more academic space uh and allow other people to see that allow other people to copy it and and building a successful portfolio from there fantastic thank you Diana moving on to you I think you're the person who experienced Finance the most in every single like shape and form from traditional Finance to crypto and you also was you also were like head of innovation at HSBC could you tell us as someone who's been on both sides of Def fense how do you think traditional finance and crypto are going to go moving forward are we seeing them converging or colliding yeah I think that's a really excellent question and the answer uh is probably both uh so I blockchain at its heart is is a technology that allows the removal of centralized intermediaries and for them to be replaced with math and code um and that creates a lot of opportunities and and obviously also um presents a potential enormous disruption for um the traditional Finance industry for many Industries which are centered around being a trusted intermediary um but I think similar as to how we we saw the fintex unbundling and then rebundling that it would be very much uh a partnership and and we see a lot of opportunity for that in terms of the the innovations that are happening I mean what we're focused on at 1kx is a lot of the open- source protocols that can actually form a new open foundation on public blockchains and on top of which can be built with the the business cases and all of the the knowledge the necessary regulation and the in structure of traditional Finance um so it's sort of similar it takes me back very very um early in in my career this is like mid 90s and my first job was actually building interet sites for nil Technologies um and at the time then it was like the inter the open internet was seen as as very risky and and what institutions wanted were instead intranets um and this was sort of the first foray and I feel that's a similar um you can really see the comparel today with the idea of using private blockchains but really the the end State and where we can take advantage of these efficiencies of the composability and and of the open Innovation is with public blockchain so it's going to be that Evolution that really creates these partnership opportunities for both worlds to to synergize fantastic um now let's bring it all together right this is a question for all of you of course you've all made fantastic contributions to finance and Innovation so I was wondering how do you see see crypto and AI coming together and shipping the next 10 years of the finance industry if you had a crystal bow what is that going to look like well I think this is going to be a very very interesting decade um I share sometimes with people who are close to me that I really think it's one of those things that you can perhaps experience once in your career for us in VC um you have to understand that it's very much correlated to what's going on with capital markets and as we saw the correction in capital markets that by definition dictates what's going to happen in the private Market because if going public is the Holy Grail then you need to kind of try to evaluate how these companies can grow into that place uh if previously it was all about you know Revenue multiples now it's ibida multiples it's a completely different uh State of Mind public companies who are not profitable are being penalized and everything trickles back down to privates um so we saw a correction happening in private markets lagged somewhat maybe one year after you know the correction in the in the public uh sector and uh these days it's really inspiring and really fantastic to be an investor because things are kind of back to normal back to fundamentals you're able to uh create analysis on companies you're able to take the time and do actual due diligence there's no fomo um and so it's a great time to be an investor and have dry powder to invest I see and I want to jump on to like the next point I see entrepreneurs that are launching companies that they were perhaps never before able to create businesses around and scale them to uh in the same velocity just in light of the fact that the warrant the the right technological tools and it Chimes into kind of the whole AI models and how it creates the ability to develop technology much faster make organizations much more efficient uh I'm not necessarily looking about talking about um companies that create AI platforms but rather Leverage The the new capabilities to launch your businesses much faster to get customer adoption much faster to write code much faster to have better QA to have better governance so it have better sales customer success so these things these um these uh uh I guess that Trends are uh becoming the building blocks of building successful and sustainable businesses and we're seeing these companies launch in in a in a much faster way so for me as a venture capitalist I think it's going to be a fantastic vintage we try to kind of encourage entrepreneurs to step out um and harness the tools the capabilities and the technologies that are just going to make their businesses so much faster so much more Global uh and so much uh uh more successful fantastic ELO is building on mors experience in v in in VC my question is do you think AI will help VC companies make better investment decisions what's your take on it and what's your vision for the next 10 years yeah I think definitely in the short term there is this um great application of sort of AI forward companies so these are the companies that are applying increasing productivity um but the way that we are looking at it right now in the sort of deep AI the generative AI is really sort of the tip of this Iceberg so if you think about that that's sort of like this area over here where we're all using data that already exists as like a Humanity we happen to have this data we're spending a lot of time and energy with data Architects and data Engineers to sort of form it into a a usable way to increase um to increase our productivity what we're sort of looking at more longer term is saying that what are the novel data streams that we need to build so that's sort of this vacant spot on the other side where nobody's playing um in order to collect these data for the next three four five years so that by by that time we can build the found foundational models that will get us into the future and that's a sort of very different question because here you have a blank canvas where you're able to think about data from the perspective of understanding the capability of what AI can do and it's not to say that in the short term we're not going to reach uh get a lot of benefit through productivity through generative a AI maybe some multimodal models um that's all great but I think on the other side is really the long-term future where we see uh these spaces coming together in terms of entirely new ecosystems that allows us to do innovations that we can't even imagine at this point in time thank you Diana would you like to add something to that yeah I think there's a lot of really interesting potential synergies between Ai and crypto um firstly the sustainability of Open Source software and we see how important um open source networks and models can be and crypto can be a layer to incentivize that also the the crypto ecosystem as a hot bed for real-time Innovation um just the amount of brain power that's in the space that's constantly experimenting on a global scale and putting their energy into projects like AI we're seeing a lot come out with AI agents as well and how crypto can potentially be a financialization layer because an agent probably isn't going to be able to open their own bank account um they can certainly use crypto and self-executing code um and then also with compute as well with trends like deepend so decentralized physical infrastructure and how that can support in in an open way um to necessitate the the compute power that we'll need to to power AI as well fantastic and just to touch on the topic of inclusivity because you are all like inclusivity Champions at least in my eyes and inclusivity is a critical consideration in shaping the future of Finance how do you think uh the VC sector the AI uh practice I and crypto can help enhance inclusivity not just in the product they produce and not just the stuff they build like across the whole ecosystem so it's a great question and I'm getting asked a lot because uh it's hard to not see that I'm a woman but I have to say so for us again we we manage our own uh money but also you know our LP's money so we do have fiduciary I can't invest just for the sake of in inclusivity however uh Based on data and we're a very data driven organization we look because there are many VCS that say oh we invest in women oh we want to invest in women um leaders women Founders and then when we look at their portfolio there's like nothing there for us and I I double checked the numbers just before coming here our portfolio has 20% um women Founders in the portfolio now the average um in Israel thank you the average in Israel based on Startup Nation centrals report is 10% and the the average in in in the US is actually um 15% but declining in recent years so it's not actually becoming better it's becoming worse now we are a woman-led woman founded fund where the we two female Founders and owners of the VC which is also an anomally especially when you're performance- driven and not founding the business just to support other women but we found that we're not looking to invest in women we're looking to invest in the best Founders and so it happens that for us the number is twice as as much as it is in in in our ecosystem in our industry and it's it's only because perhaps as women uh Founders entrepreneurs we don't see it as a limitation we see it as a secret weapon um I'm a mother of five children I have always been working I was always career-driven I think we can do this in parallel it's a non-issue at all we can be boss ladies we have uh the entire management team at eye angels are all women again people ask me do you guys discriminate men and we said no we just chose the best person for the job true we have more inbound because we're women uh and by now it's already like a cool thing to have but um I think um you know it's really our role as Venture capitalists and as leaders in in financial industry to to pave way to to make this uh uh the not the less walked in uh path but something that is uh uh really welcoming uh career women um successful AC women in AC Academia um and that they know that they can do they can do it all they can do it all at the same time um it's really our job to shape this industry and uh we make it a point to support as much as we can and the best way is really to be active and to to invest and to look for the best people and and not not uh uh not think for one second that if it's a woman she can't do the exact same thing as uh as a man CEO would do thank you for that Elise what's your view yeah I mean in very much in the same way I think teams are really important um and if we do talk about inclusivity in AI the sort of Buzz that everybody's talking about now is like the biases that we have in the data as well as in the models that we're building and how do we hold um ourselves accountable for making sure that we don't sort of perpetuate uh excluding um you know different groups um you know the facial recognition male female sort of like the classic case uh but that inclusivity really sort of extends I mean uh 10 years ago I was working in taking AI from like Europe to rural Africa and in a lightweight manner low resource setting 10 years later now we're actually bringing those models back because suddenly uh it's all restricted we don't have enough resources to run the compute so we're learning so that sort of like cross collaboration across cultures across l languages across gender is so important to make sure that we can learn from each other but also to transfer our knowledge before between those different sectors because things I have learned from working in solar I have taken to ICU in Oxford it doesn't make any sense but it sort of brings a fresh perspective to an old problem and by having that diversity in the in the teams and making sure that as Leaders we are the examples of that but also making sure that we sort of include a variety of people in the team is quite important Diana what about the crypto industry yeah well I would Echo everything that's just said that it's really not about needing to have quotas or specifics but it's about finding the right people but I think in that it's really important to make sure that you have that you're looking in in all areas and not just what comes easily or naturally um and I think that can mean venturing outside of of uh even within crypto specific experience although you know we have seen a lot of positive shifts it's fantastic to to go to crypto conferences now and see so many more women and it really is just about hiring the best talent and then also um being a a role model a mentor and and supporting people in opening those doors for for more to want to to want to enter the space um and and to find it to be a community where they can take part as well and we do actually even see women creating their own communities within crypto there's shifi there's boy club and there's really fantastic initiatives um that have been led by by women to bring others in uh that are certainly striking a chord I mean crypto at its core is about uh being open and Community Driven and and we need everyone to be part of that and and yeah it we're definitely making strides brilliant uh one to add I think I mean again as you mentioned the abundance of of different um different perspectives is really important it's not about necessarily men or female but it's interesting to think about some traits or values that I can kind of bring up uh that come to mind about different attributes that women have so for example women are much more um they could be perhaps more risk averse but then again on the flip side of that same coin is that they execute on what they said that they're going to execute it's less of the case for me to sit down with a women woman founder and for her to over build the budget in a way that's not realistic it's more common for me to sit with a a female founder and her uh fundraising um goals are going to be reasonable as well they're not going to say okay I'm going to raise I'm going to do $1 million the first year and $50 million the next year and I'm going to so I think it's the flip side of that you need both as you mentioned you need like the variety not to be prone to group think not to go in One Direction uh and really enjoy the kind of like the gifts of of different uh types of people International Al different genders and different you know different perspectives so I think it's critical final question I'll put you all on the spot best piece of advice for Prospect entrepreneurs more would you like to go first best piece of advice I know just do go out there ask tough questions um don't go to listen to the the people who are just going to reiterate what you already know um try to get as many opinions around the room try to you know push the envelope be um I don't want to say a dreamer because it's not dreams it's reality and we're shaping the future together and things that I wouldn't have thought of you know in 10 years are going to be you know Commodities in my children's life and as they become young adults and this many times you know I think about it what kind of world will we have here in 20 years when they kind of roam the world um and this is exactly what I want to invest in the kind of entrepreneurs that are looking for tough problems big problem problems that want to change the future that are going to change the world for the better um and uh and these are complex problems but we have uh perhaps now more than ever before the the engine that's going to bring us there Elise yeah I mean I think just just to get started but also more importantly is don't feel that it's a stupid question like I still ask questions and my husband will be like I can't decide whether you're just being an idiot right now or like what's your problem and I'm like well I'm English Second Language I don't know that word like tell me what that means so nothing is a stupid question just ask it's the only way that you're going to expand your Insight and just be Fearless which I think will help you solve those really complex problems that we need solutions to Diana yeah I think it's quite similar to what they said but my favorite line is you can just do things brilliant thank you ladies and gentlemen the future of Finance la [Music] [Applause] [Music]