Scale Up Now

Carolin has been in the venture industry for 11 years. Since joining Plug and Play in 2019, she has led over 100 investments and overseen 400+ as part of the EMEA Investment Committee. She supports leading corporations and governments across EMEA and has worked in 20+ countries. Previously, she was a growth-stage investor at Next47 ($2B AuM) and at Siemens Global Innovation Partners (€280M AuM).

Seed/pre-seed investor in tech startups with a Master’s in Business Administration and extensive international experience in advertising tech, mobile apps, video content, and gaming. Skilled in project and people management, strategic partnerships, and ecosystem development.

Partner at Boost Capital, leading deal origination and operations with a focus on Media, Entertainment, and AI. Formerly at Google and Meta, where he led EMEA Creator Programs and managed Android developers in Western Europe. Angel investor, mentor, and board member in several high-growth companies.

Lead investor for the Supply Chain Fund at Plug and Play. Originally from Valencia, Spain, now based in the U.S., Juan manages portfolios and delivers insights on trends across the U.S., EU, and LatAm. Holds an MBA in Finance from EDEM Escuela de Empresarios and has worked with founding teams of multiple European startups.

Natalia Olson is a serial entrepreneur and public policy maker with more than 20 years of experience working with international, regional and local entities in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the U.S.A. She is an expert in smart cities, economic development, commercialization of technologies, cybersecurity, venture capital, government, blockchain, environmental planning and infrastructure design. She is currently advisor an at Rapid Scale VC, Plug and Play, Futurity, Repscan and IDEDED. She was appointed to the U.S. Innovation Advisory Board to advise Congress and the White House on competitiveness and innovation. She served in the Obama Administration as the SBA Regional Administrator managing 34 billion dollars yearly and prior to that she has been honored with numerous prestigious awards such as Woman of Distinction for her work in sustainable infrastructure, the green economy, entrepreneurship and women empowerment globally.

Ricardo Álvarez-Cienfuegos holds a degree in Law and in Business Administration and Management from the Complutense University of Madrid, and he has an MBA in International Management awarded by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism and ICEX, having been selected from more than 3,000 candidates.
He began his professional career in banking and consulting at companies such as Banco Santander and Xerox. He later worked in California at the Trade Commission of Spain in Los Angeles, supporting Spanish companies in establishing themselves in the United States.
After this experience, he entered the entrepreneurial ecosystem, leading the international expansion of a biotechnology startup into the United States and managing the search for international investment in the field of preclinical research.
Since 2020, he has been part of Plug and Play, where he initially opened the Barcelona office and led the scaling of one of the company’s largest international projects with one of Spain’s main banks. He has also implemented and led various projects in different sectors, such as Desigual’s fashion accelerator or Vodafone’s 5G Lab, among others. He is currently the Director of Business Development for Spain and Portugal.

He spent eight years at Plug and Play’s global headquarters in Silicon Valley, where he built and led several of the company’s most strategic verticals, including New Materials & Packaging, Food & Beverage, Sustainability, Agtech, Animal Health, and Aerospace & Defense. Over the past 1.5 years, he has been based in Saudi Arabia, spearheading Plug and Play’s expansion and business growth across the Middle East.
In his global and regional roles, Omer and his teams support the world’s largest corporations, governments, and national innovation agencies in accelerating digital transformation, identifying investment opportunities, and enabling both organic and inorganic growth. He has played a key role in Plug and Play’s international expansion efforts in Brazil, Houston, Istanbul, Fargo, and through strategic collaborations such as the Alliance to End Plastic Waste.
Prior to joining Plug and Play, Omer held various roles in R&D, engineering, product innovation, and business management at Bridgestone Americas and Owens Corning, working at the intersection of materials science, technology commercialization, and industrial innovation.
Omer holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Boğaziçi University; M.S., Ph.D., and post-doctoral degrees in nanotechnology, polymer physics, and materials science from North Carolina State University; and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Drawing on his deep technical background and global leadership experience, Omer is recognized for building cross-border innovation ecosystems, shaping national technology strategies, and scaling Plug and Play’s platform across high-growth markets in the Middle East, Türkiye, and beyond.

Fabiola Gullì brings over a decade of experience driving impactful change in technology and innovation. She has held key consulting roles at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Ernst & Young (EY), leading global projects in innovation, technology strategy, and digital transformation. As Open Innovation Senior Manager at Plug and Play, she leads corporate and government innovation programs, fostering high-impact collaborations with Startups.

Max is a bridge-builder between corporates and startups, helping organizations navigate innovation with clarity and momentum. He has worked across diverse economies and ecosystems, supporting global teams in shaping strategies and collaborating with emerging technologies. His experience spans innovation consulting, venture development, and ecosystem design.

Max Pog is a bootstrap entrepreneur who has built companies in edtech, B2B software, and e-commerce. For the past 2 years, he's been hosting global virtual conferences connecting investors and startups.

For over 30 years, Nuno has worked at the intersection of people, data, technology, and innovation, helping leadership teams strengthen culture, sharpen value, and scale with clarity. His career spans creative industries, manufacturing, digital transformation, and now the AI-driven future. He co-founded VIEW, one of Portugal’s most awarded digital agencies, later acquired by Dentsu. During the acquisition, he became CEO of Dentsu Portugal while simultaneously founding and leading iProspect and Amnet. He later created Mindsetters, focused on customer experience and talent performance, and joined Faroboats (an innovation-led startup) as Managing Partner, helping build a fully sustainable, tech-enabled leisure-boating solution that has been recognized and awarded globally.

Yui is a Program Manager at Plug and Play Tech Center, leading international startup acceleration programs. She brings experience in project management and management consulting from roles at PwC Japan and Quid (NLP Social Listening startup), where she worked with Fortune 500 clients on digital transformation, product development, and data analysis.