Global technology investor, Amadeus Capital Partners has expanded its investment team with the appointments of Edward Kliphuis and Kai Schmitz as Partners and Ana Bernardo-Gancedo as a Healthcare Analyst.With Managing Partner Andrea Traversone, Kliphuis will lead the Amadeus “Scale” investment activities, supporting the next generation of Europe’s transformational companies.
Kliphuis joins from M Ventures, a EUR400 million AUM corporate VC-arm of Merck KGaA, where he was responsible for healthtech, frontiertech and sustainability investments. Kliphuis led, among others, investments in Akili Interactive Labs (first FDA-approved prescription videogame), Wiliot (battery-free Bluetooth tags) and Sonde Health (voice-analysis for health and wellness). Prior to M Ventures, Kliphuis was at Kempen & Co, covering listed small- and mid-cap Life Sciences equities. He started his career as an analyst in the biopharma investment team of M Ventures.
Kliphuis says: “I’m really proud to be joining Amadeus with its 23-year track record in venture capital and growth investing. Amadeus has a long history of forward thinking with investments such as Vocal IQ, Solexa and Graphcore. The Scale team will be applying this knowledge and experience to backing entrepreneurial businesses in healthtech, industrial technology and agritech across Europe.”
Schmitz, based in Bogotá, Colombia, will invest in growth opportunities in Latin America alongside existing Partner Pat Burtis. The team invests in emerging technology champions in Latin America, focusing on FinTech, EdTech, SaaS and Next Generation eCommerce.
Schmitz has 20 years’ experience in emerging markets. He joins Amadeus from IFC, one of the largest emerging market investors, where he was Regional Head Latin America for FinTech. Before that Schmitz was a senior expert at the World Bank where he advised central banks on payment market regulation and infrastructure. He is an independent Board member at Minka (Open Banking platform, Colombia), Movii (digital bank, Colombia), Koin (PoS Lender, Brazil) and RS2 (SaaS platform, USA). Earlier, he co-founded payment companies in the UK and the US focused on Africa and Latin America respectively. Originally a lawyer, he worked at law firms in his native Hamburg and London.
Schmitz says: “I’m looking forward to working alongside my long-term ally Pat Burtis to capitalise on our previous experience in the booming Latin American technology market and provide badly needed growth capital for successful digital innovators. With a track record of USD1 billion in commitments to over 160 global technology companies, Amadeus offers a tremendous platform for investing in Latin America’s leading tech companies.”
Bernardo-Gancedo joins the Amadeus Early Stage Funds team as a Healthcare Analyst from OC&C Strategy Consultants, where she conducted due diligence and strategy projects for private equity and corporate clients.
Bernardo-Gancedo is Spanish and holds a PhD in Biophysics from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Chemistry from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.
