Web3: State of the Industry and Future Trends

Ray is a seasoned venture capitalist with over 20 years of investing experience across a wide range of industries and geographies. Before joining Alumni Ventures, Ray was a partner and adviser at several global venture funds focusing on AI, Web3, FinTech and SaaS investment opportunities across the U.S. and Asia Pacific. Earlier, he spent more than 10 years in the corporate venture space: He was the managing director of HP’s new business ventures, responsible for startup technology evaluation, new business incubation, VC relationships, and minority investments, and earlier at Cisco Systems, holding several senior positions leading investment, M&A, internal incubation, and global consulting. Previously, Ray was a managing partner of a leading Internet consulting firm working with Fortune 1000 companies across North America. He earned a dual MBA degree from the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University.

Sophia brings a wealth of experience in capital advisory, corporate development, and operational optimization, establishing impactful collaborations with CXOs and Founders. With a diverse industry exposure encompassing cloud computing, mining and minerals, consumer goods, and Web3, Sophia has been at the forefront of transformative technologies. Since 2018, she has been immersed in the crypto universe, working at Galaxy Digital, Huobi US, and Crypto.com. In these roles, Sophia engaged with startups and institutional clients on capital raising and trading across the Americas, EU, and Asia regions.

Actively fostering innovation and mentorship, Sophia serves as a mentor and judge at prestigious institutions such as Yale’s Tsai City for Innovation, Berkeley’s Blockchain Xcelerator, Techstars, and Layer 1 protocols, including Ethereum, Algorand, and Solana. She maintains close ties with the blockchain communities at Stanford and Yale.

Driven by a passion for shaping the future through frontier technologies, Sophia is currently supporting AI data and applications deals within her team. She holds a BBA from Simon Fraser University, an MBA from the University of British Columbia, and an MAM from the Yale School of Management.

Chia is a Principal at Pantera Capital, covering Infra, DeFi, Web2.5. Chia dropped out of Harvard Business School to join Pantera, with a Cambridge law degree and a background in fintech VC and operating in e-commerce. He publishes research on DeFi, infra and fintech.

Richard Kim is a General Partner at Galaxy Interactive and a Managing Director at Galaxy Digital. His experience spans investing, trading, law, finance, management and strategy. He joined Galaxy Digital as COO in May 2018, before joining Galaxy Interactive in Dec 2018. Prior to joining Galaxy Digital, he was the COO of Global Foreign Exchange and Emerging Markets Trading at Goldman Sachs from 2015-18.

James is a partner for M12 in the Bay Area, investing in business and infrastructure software with a focus on DevOps, data science, fintech, and cybersecurity. Previously, he was an investor with FTV Capital, a growth equity fund with $4B of assets under management.