Global New Venture Challenge (GNVC)

Dipa is a cofounder and managing partner at Valeo Ventures. Valeo is the exclusive investment manager for Cobalt Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City. She sits on the boards of Bicycle Health, Handspring Health, MedArrive, OncoHealth, and Spectrum.AI. Valeo is building a new venture capital fund partnering with hospital systems and health plans to create bespoke corporate venturing vehicles.

Dipa formerly led Corporate Development and Ventures group at Advocate Health Enterprises (AAE), an Advocate Health subsidiary that aims further the AH mission to help people live well by advancing innovative solutions that go beyond traditional clinical care. She led investments into Foodsmart, Xealth, and acquisitions into companies helping seniors to age in their home for longer. Dipa was also previously a managing director at Sandbox Industries, a venture capital firm which is the investment manager to the Blue Venture Fund. During her time at Sandbox, Dipa served on the boards of Contessa Health, Upward Health, Oncology Analytics, AbleTo, and Lumiata. Prior to Sandbox, Dipa was at Amgen Ventures, the corporate venture fund of Amgen. Dipa started her career in the Global Healthcare Group at UBS and the Healthcare Fund at Paul Capital Partners, which invested in late-stage pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Dipa holds a BS from the New York University Stern School of Business and an MBA from Chicago Booth where she received the Chicago Booth Leadership Award of Distinction. She has also completed the Kauffman Fellowship, a prestigious two-year program for venture capitalists. Dipa is currently an investor in residence with the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at Booth where she advises students and teaches workshops.

Dipa lives in Chicago with her husband and twin boys.

Sonia worked for Amazon 15+ years ago as part of the team that launched the clothing category. She then co-founded a venture-backed mobile shopping startup that was acquired by RetailMeNot, at the time the largest digital coupon marketplace in the U.S.. She led the mobile team at RetailMeNot for 2 years before joining Pritzker Group Venture Capital where she was a general partner. At PGVC her marketplace investments included Backlot Cars, Cameo, Coinbase, ShopThing, Machinery Partner, Maisonette, Yay Lunch, Batch and FuelMe. Sonia started her career as an engineer at General Motors in their advanced engineering group.

Mark is the Managing Director of Math Venture Partners, an early to mid-stage technology venture capital fund, and an Adjunct Lecturer of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Business.

He is a serial entrepreneur who started four companies, managed three venture funds, and was head of Innovation for Redbox as well as an early employee of Apple. He is the co-author of Exit Right – how to sell your startup, and has a popular podcast on the Noteworthy network: The Real Work with Mark Achler.

Mark is a frequent speaker, resource and ardent champion for the entrepreneurial community; where he is a mentor for TechStars, and several other entrepreneurial organizations.

Carlos is an Associate at Hyde Park Venture Partners and has been with the firm since 2021. Prior to Hyde Park Venture Partners, Carlos was an associate at Mesirow Financial in the Private Equity Real Estate team where he focused on acquisitions and asset management. Additionally, Carlos was a Co-founder and Director at Angeles Investors and received his BBA at the University of Notre Dame.

Venetia Kontogouris is the managing director of Venkon Group LLC, a company that invests in real estate and early stage ventures, with an emphasis on technology and cloud-based services. Current investments include Zumigo, Ruby Seven Studios, Flow Inc., Be Health, Energy Savvy, and Simple Mills. Prior to her employment with Venkon Group, Kontogouris was the senior managing director for Trident Capital, where she oversaw venture capital investing. She was one of the original members and co-managing partner for Funds IV, V, and VI with over $1.5 billion of venture investments under management. During her time at Trident Capital, she was responsible for many successful investments and exits including, Odyssey Logistics, Outsource Partners International, Microland, Advantec, Infotrieve, Sphere, Viant, Daou Systems, Vality, PBN/Taleo, IPro, Invention Machine, and CrossMedia.

Koichiro “Koh” Nakamura has led numerous investments including Coinbase, Palantir, and Square. He is also actively involved with Zoom, Fastly, Insightly, One Concern, Chainalysis, and Clearbanc among others. Koh, a Waseda University Law and Chicago Booth MBA graduate  and two times finalist of NVC, was a member of Kauffman Fellows Class 12, and was given the Jeff Timmons Memorial Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to that program. 

He was an early pioneer in Japan’s IT scene as a member of the founding team of Yahoo Japan, and led the seed investment into Scigineer. He co-founded Sozo Ventures in 2012 to guide globally ambitious founders looking to maximize Japan and Asian expansion opportunities. Koh, who says, “Iconic companies go global, and global markets go through Japan,” points to Palantir as the portfolio company that took the long-term view, which has rewarded them with a $150M joint-venture in Japan, and over $550M in the pre-IPO round from Japanese partners.

Koh, having shepherded hundreds of companies through international expansion, has shared his expertise in Nikkei, MarketWatch, Forbes Japan, Venture Capital Journal, Newspicks and many other publications.