Tech4Eva Roadshow Global Investor Matchmaking 2025

Yvanka de Soysa is a biomedical scientist turned investor, with a passion for leveraging scientific innovation to transform healthcare for women. She is an Associate at Foreground Capital, bringing expertise at the intersection of translational science, venture capital, and entrepreneurship. Previously, she was an Investment Associate at Hevolution Foundation, where she invested in early-stage therapeutics targeting the root causes of ageing to extend human healthspan.

Yvanka previously worked across the life sciences ecosystem, including venture capital at 5AM Ventures, venture creation at Flagship Pioneering, and business development at Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroimmunology as a William Randolph Hearst Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. She earned her PhD in cardiac development and single-cell genomics at UCSF, where she was awarded the UCSF Discovery Fellowship, Genentech Foundation Fellowship, and Phi Beta Kappa scholarship. She holds a BA in Biological Sciences and International Relations from Smith College.

Simone has 25+ years of event management, strategy, marketing, community and relationship building experience. She joined the EPFL Innovation Park team in 2020 to launch Tech4Eva in 2021 and she currently manages the Tech4Eva accelerator operations, events and community marketing.

For 16 years she built the brand/network of Tech Tour as their Managing Director leading the events team to implement 25+ tech events per year. She has a proven ability to set up well-oiled processes and leverage networks to open partnership opportunities to build a strong ecosystem by maximizing objectives and engaging all stakeholders (corporates, investors, academia, tech start-ups in all digital sectors).

Previously she worked for the University of NC in Chapel Hill, USA, implementing the new graduate student program. She also worked at SCIP as their global operations & marketing manager both in Alexandria, VA & in London, UK, where she opened and managed their branch office to establish their European presence, as well as overseeing all aspects of international conferences & tradeshows.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA. She is fluent in English, French & German.