Speakers

Kirsten has spent over a decade working alongside some of Europe’s most exciting high growth startups.Early in Kirsten’s career as General Manager at Seedcamp she travelled extensively across Europe meeting the best local entrepreneurs and backed some of Europe’s trailblazers, such as Wise, UiPath and Revolut.

Next Kirsten became CyLon’s Managing Director and grew Europe’s first cyber security accelerator into a global programme with a footprint across Europe, Middle East, and Asia. At CyLon she accelerated over 100 companies to a portfolio value of over £600m. Kirsten is a proud Angel investor in several of UK’s most disruptive cyber security startups including: Tessian (exited to Proofpoint), Immersive Labs, Cybersmart, Zamna and RiskLedger. Building upon this experience and deep European connections Kirsten joined Octopus Ventures in 2021 to launch First Cheque Fund, its first dedicated pre-seed fund. The fund is deliberately anti-thematic believing that the best founders are not restricted to any one sector. To date the Fund has backed over 60 startups across Europe.