Michael Fanfant is a Palo Alto-based General Partner at Runa Capital. He looks for early stage startups with solutions across B2B SaaS and regulated industries like fintech, edutech and digital health. Michael joined Runa in 2017 after co-founding Octane Lending, where he was also COO. He serves on the board of Octane Lending, which was valued at more than $900 million during its Series D round in 2021.
Silicon Valley
Vladimir Gorbunov, Founder/CEO crypto firm Choise.com
Vladimir is a entrepreneur with long-standing experience in establishing and developing fintech projects. The total capitalization of Vladimir’s projects exceeded $1 billion at the beginning of 2022. As a professional businessman, Vladimir is interested in developing new, never-before seen solutions that would benefit society and improve the quality of everyday life. As the CEO of Choise.com, Mr. Gorbunov is responsible for managing the company’s development, building operational processes, and achieving short-term and long-term goals in accordance with the established mission.
Wayne Van Dyck,Founder/CEO ClimateCapex
Wayne was a Wall St investment banker and venture capitalist; owner/operator of the number two rock broadcasting stations in Los Angeles; Founder/CEO of the first utility wind energy developer (backed by Chevron); CEO of an international telecom that introduced the first direct dial telephone and wireless service to Moscow; Founder of two software companies. He is now CEO of ClimateCapex, a fintech platform for clean energy project finance.
Kamyar Naficy, Founder/Principal KNECTCOMMS
Kamyar Naficy is the Founder and Principal of KNECTCOMMS, a marketing and communications consultancy to the finance, technology and fintech sectors. He previously worked in senior marketing and communications roles at JP Morgan, London Stock Exchange Group and UniCredit. He holds a BA from the London School of Economics and an MPhil (Masters) in Management Studies from Cambridge University.