Creative Ventures is a deep tech venture firm investing in early-stage companies solving humanity’s most critical crises.
Who we are
Team
Our team includes financial analysts, operators, industrialists, and PhD technologists with deep subject-matter expertise. We aim to be the most rigorous manager in VC because the sectors we invest in require it.
General Partner
Champ Suthipongchai
General Partner
James Wang
General Partner
Alex Luce
Principal
Kulika Weizman
Venture Partner
Ted Thirapatana
Operating Partner
Daniel Lin
Senior Associate
Stamp Suksantiswad
Operations Manager
Orn Orpong
Senior Operations Associate
Sarah Chen
General Partner
Champ Suthipongchai
Champ was chief strategy officer at SHARP Electronics where he headed the digital transformation and technology sourcing effort. He also ran new product development initiatives and supply chain at Jonhson and Johnson. Champ holds an M.Sc. in industrial and operations Engineering and an MBA from University of California, Berkeley.
General Partner
James Wang
James was on the core investment team at Bridgewater Associates, founded a health-tech startup, and worked at Google X. He is a reviewer for various technical publications in AI, especially in reinforcement learning. He holds an M.S in computer science specializing in AI/ML from Georgia Tech and an MBA from University of California, Berkeley.
General Partner
Alex Luce
Alex has extensive experience launching and investing in bold entrepreneurial ventures enabled by revolutionary science. Previously, Alex led CalCharge, the energy storage subsidiary of the California Clean Energy Fund. He was also a co-founder of SuperCharge US, a nationwide battery manufacturing consortium, and a solar energy startup. He is a frequent reviewer for ARPA-E and the US Department of Energy.
Alex holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Material Science and Engineering from University of California, Berkeley.
Principal
Kulika Weizman
Kulika was a co-founder and CEO of a synthetic biology company producing functional ingredients naturally found in human breast milk. She also launched and led R&D projects for food and cosmeceutical applications using fermentation technologies at BIOTEC. Kulika holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology from University of California, Berkeley.
Venture Partner
Ted Thirapatana
After working at a startup in the first dotcom boom, Ted became a C-level executive at one of the fastest growing construction companies in Asia. An experienced investor and advisor, Ted is an expert on helping startups grow.
Operating Partner
Daniel Lin
Daniel is the founder of a tech-landing pad in Asia, FutureWard. With his experience as an international business development executive, Dan has been helping startups and tech companies expand their business internationally.
Senior Associate
Stamp Suksantiswad
Stamp is an ex-management consultant and digital project leader. His knowledge in project management and marketing is ready to support both Creative and its portfolio companies.
Operations Manager
Orn Orpong
Orn is an experienced office manager who has supported companies around the world. Here at Creative, she helps solidify and synergize our working culture.
Senior Operations Associate
Sarah Chen
Sarah has a background in public equity with expertise in financial analysis and investment research. She brings with her two years of auditing experience at KPMG, a global leading accounting firm. Here at Creative Ventures, she assists the investment and fund management teams with growth and operations.
Advisors
Our experienced advisors help bolster our capabilities and add perspective to our investment process.
Advisor
Michael Mayer
Technical Advisor
Brian Frank
Technical Advisor
Linda Pouliot
Advisor
Michael Mayer
Managing Director of Montreux Growth Partners.
Mr. Mayer began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where he was a Partner, working primarily with high technology companies and VC firms in Silicon Valley.
Early in his career at PwC, the firm sent him to Europe for a two year assignment, providing him broad exposure to multi-national companies (including HP and IBM) and to their international operations. That experience set the stage for a career that has had a strong focus on technology companies and global operations. His immersion into the VC scene of the early 1980’s led Mr. Mayer to leave PwC to join Berkeley International, a VC firm client, where he initially served as COO/CFO and later as President. During his nearly 25 years there, he was deeply involved in all aspects of VC investment and portfolio management, across a broad range of technology sectors, including healthcare. Berkeley’s investments included Oracle, AOL, 3Com, Cypress Semiconductor, LSI Logic, and Nellcor. He served on numerous portfolio company boards, and played an active, hands-on role at many portfolio companies. In 2008, Mr. Mayer was recruited to join the private equity firm, Geolo Capital. At Geolo, he was a Partner, with responsibility for portfolio management, due diligence/closings, and exits/M&A. He retired from Geolo in 2015 and joined MGP in early 2016, where he focuses on portfolio company and firm operations. Mr. Mayer graduated from Washington State University with a BA in Accounting and several honors, and was a Gold Medal winner on the CPA exam. Over the course of his long career, Mr. Mayer has served on many boards, including boards of both public and private companies, and non-profits.
Technical Advisor
Brian Frank
Brian is the Founder and General Partner of FTW Ventures. He is experienced in both Technology & Food, and understands the complexity of running startups at the intersection of these two, challenging spaces.
Prior to founding FTW, Brian led 3 venture-backed businesses to successful exits and directed innovative products in communication, mobile, social & AI/ML for both startups & Fortune 500 Companies over his 20+ year career.
Technical Advisor
Linda Pouliot
Linda is a serial entrepreneur with deep expertise in robotics, product management, operations, and manufacturing. She is the CEO and Founder of Dishcraft Robotics.
In 2004, Linda co-founded Neato Robotics and was VP Product Management and Operations. She led the design, development and manufacturing of Neato’s revolutionary laser guided vacuum cleaner. The company is now the number two player globally in consumer robotic vacuums.
After Neato, Linda became the Chief Operating Officer of Adiri (acquired by ReliaBrand), where she oversaw the redesign and manufacturing of the international award winning Adiri bottle. She then co-founded the game advertising platform Mahoot.