HUMMINGBIRD - Key Persons
Akshay leads investments across Southeast Asia, India, and the Indian diaspora worldwide.
Previously, Akshay worked at Citigroup, where he raised equity capital for large corporations, and at Artivest (acquired), where he helped build and grow a platform that enables retail capital to access alternative investments. During graduate school, Akshay had the opportunity to work with MIT's $25 billion endowment fund.
Barend is the founder of Hummingbird Ventures (2010) with 15+ years of venture capital experience.
He is involved with Showpad, Deliveroo, Elder and Automata, Pristyn Care and Khatabook.
Previously, he started his career in the US as a financial analyst for SG Cowen in Boston, Massachusetts, focusing on internet and data-networking companies.
Barend holds a Master of Science degree in Economics from the University of Louvain, Belgium.
Firat is a Partner at Hummingbird Ventures. His current portfolio includes Armut, Argent, Aspire, Billiontoone, Brigit, Ciceksepeti, Instacarro, Kernal Biologics and Layer.
He previously worked with Frontier Car Group, Gram Games, Peak Games and Merlin prior to their acquisition. He is interested in marketplaces, frontier tech, fintech and gaming.
Previously, he worked at J.P. Morgan at the Emerging Markets Structuring and Solutions group. He received B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Management Science and a Master of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.
Haya focuses on deep tech ventures, she believes that the most urgent problems hold the biggest opportunities. She joined Hummingbird's investment team after working for six years with entrepreneurs across Europe in the earliest days of their startups.
Haya holds MSc degrees in Physics and Engineering from Mines Paris and ESPCI Paris, and was a research scholar in biophysics at Harvard.
Job Titles:
- Investor / Investor / Jordan
Jordan focuses on Fund of Funds. Prior to Hummingbird, Jordan worked as a strategy consultant at IQbusiness. He is also the founder of Vineyard Holdings, an investment firm, where he invested in public equities and crypto projects.
Jordan holds a Bachelor with double majors in Law and Economics from Stellenbosch University (South Africa).
Job Titles:
- Controller / Controller / Kobe
Kobe is the Controller at Hummingbird Ventures. Prior to joining Hummingbird, Kobe worked at Johnson & Johnson where he held various finance roles across the pharmaceuticals, consumer healthcare and corporate divisions and was based in Belgium, China and UAE.
Kobe is a CFA charterholder and holds a Master in Financial Management from Vlerick Business School (Belgium) as well as a Master of Science in Economics from the University of Leuven (Belgium).
Lola predominantly focuses on investments in Europe and Latin America. She is involved with Automata (UK) and Basecamp Research (UK) as a board director and has also partnered with Anima Health (UK), Eva (Mexico), Hubflo (France), Soda (Belgium) and Zippi (Brazil). Lola was previously co-founder of a social impact initiative to attract more female candidates to engineering studies.
Job Titles:
- Legal Manager / Legal Manager / Lucas
Lucas De Four is the Legal Manager at Hummingbird. He used to work as a Finance & Project Lawyer at DLA Piper and Van Bael & Bellis (Belgium) prior to joining Hummingbird. His main focus was to assist clients in complex project finance transactions and acquisition finance.
Lucas holds a Master in Finance from Vlerick Business School (Belgium) and a Master in Business and Company Law from the University of Leuven (Belgium).
Lukas is the firm's CFO and General Counsel, overseeing the fund management, portfolio investments and investor relations.
Mickel, who became part of Hummingbird in 2022, used to work as an M&A Consultant specialising in Valuations and Financial Modelling at Eight Advisory and took up finance and risk management roles at AXA.
Mickel is a CFA charterholder and holds a Master of Science in Business Engineering from the University of Leuven (Belgium).
Job Titles:
- Investor / Investor / Nikita
Nikita joined Hummingbird's investment team in 2021 from Sandbox & Co. where she evaluated late-stage education, media and gaming investments in Europe and North America.Nikita holds a M.Ed in Technology, Innovation and Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a bachelor's degree in History from the University of Oxford.
Pablo leads the biotechnology practice at Hummingbird. Previously, Pablo was an Investment Manager at UKI2S, investing in early stage cell and gene therapy companies, and worked as a Corporate Development Associate at the gene editing company Horizon Discovery. He holds degrees in Neuropharmacology and Biochemical Engineering from University College London and an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge.
Job Titles:
- Finance & Operations Coordinator
As Finance & Operations Coordinator, Sigrid is responsible for ensuring smooth operations for legal and finance teams and partners.
Siya joined Hummingbird in 2022 to look at investor relations and fundraising. Prior to this, she was an early product manager at a venture-backed digital health startup in India. Siya holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science from New York University, where she spent four years across Abu Dhabi, New York City, and London. She is a classically trained singer, actor, and occasionally dabbles in documentary filmmaking.
Teal focuses her time on supporting the Talent needs of Hummingbird's portfolio founders. Prior to joining Hummingbird, Teal worked as a talent consultant in San Francisco and Amsterdam for early-stage startups and VCs across the US and Europe.
Teal graduated from Acadia University (Nova Scotia, Canada) with a dual degree in Sociology and Spanish.
Tendai is focused on empowering biotechnology and healthcare founders building companies that are scaling outcomes in health. A Zambian transplant who has lived on 3 continents and explored 13 countries, she is passionate about ensuring the next generation of health care technologies and therapeutics are equitable across diverse patient groups.
Previously, she was a Venture Partner at End Poverty Make Trillions, an initiative advocating for universal basic income.
Tendai received a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, where she built tools to identify the leptin signaling proteome in the hypothalamus, and a bachelor's in Biology and Chemistry from Williams College.
Wouter leads Hummingbird's fund-of-funds, Nomads. Prior to joining Hummingbird, Wouter spent 10+ years in venture capital as founding partner of Greyhound Capital, leading $500M+ Funds' I and II capital raises, and as the MD at Atomico leading value creation. In addition to his time in venture, Wouter was the Founder of The Big Search, Europe's largest executive search firm for technology.
Wouter graduated with a MSc Business Administration from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.
Yavuzhan focuses on funds investing as a part of the Nomads team, partnering with early-stage venture investors from North America to Africa, from software to deeptech. Prior to Hummingbird, he was an early-stage investor focused on CEE and Turkey. He also worked at Oliver Wyman where he advised financial institutions on strategy and risk. He studied mathematics at Bogazici University and did his graduate studies in finance at the London School of Economics.