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Multidisciplinary team that focuses on innovation and technology, partnering with revolutionary startups.
BA MINUZZI
Founder and General Partner
Ba Minuzzi is a trailblazing venture capitalist and entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in raising capital and managing assets across the real estate and technology sectors. As the founding GP of BABEL Ventures, she has made history as the first Latina to establish a VC firm in Silicon Valley, breaking barriers and pioneering new standards in a traditionally male-dominated industry. Under her visionary leadership, BABEL Ventures is dedicated to supporting innovative and disruptive technologies that create lasting social and environmental impact while delivering strong financial returns.
BABEL was Ba's first venture capital fund, from which she expanded to launching multiple niche funds, including the crypto hedge fund Ausum Ventures, impact investing funds such as DuContra Ventures, and her own angel fund Barbarella Ventures. Ba's unique approach blends strategic investment with a deep commitment to diversity, sustainability, and positive change, driving the success of both her portfolio companies and the broader venture capital landscape.
RYAN BETHENCOURT
Partner
Ryan Bethencourt is a scientist, entrepreneur, and investor best known for his work as co-founder and venture partner at IndieBio. Ryan is one of the 21st century’s most prolific biotech investors and entrepreneurs through his work funding and building over 70+ biotech companies over the last decade. Ryan is also a Partner at BABEL Ventures and faculty member at Singularity, focused on harnessing biology as a technology to solve of our world’s most intractable problems.
He was previously head of life sciences at XPRIZE Foundation, the former CEO of Berkeley Biolabs and spent a decade developing human therapeutic with large companies like Pfizer, Merck, Amgen, Genentech. Ryan has funded and helped build include, Future of Food (Ava Labs, Memphis Meats, Clara Foods, Geltor, Miraculex, Finless Foods, The NotCo., SugarLogix), Medicine (Orphidia, SyntheX, QIDNI labs, Neuroqore, Ravata, Venomyx Therapeutics, Scaled Biolabs, GEA Enzymes, Mendel.ai, Bioaesthetics, Proteorex, Prellis Biologics, DNA lite, QuantumCyte), Biological Computation (Koniku, Catalog Technologies), Consumer Biotech (NERD Skincare, Amino labs, Mycoworks, Animal Biome), Environmental (Pembient, Bioinspira, UBA Biologics). Ryan has a BSs degree in Biological Sciences (Molecular Genetics) from Warwick University, a joint Masters in Bioscience Enterprise (MBE) from Cambridge University and MIT. He’s also been a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Candidate at the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh before pivoting to build startups.
MARCELO VALENTE
Partner
Marcelo is the founder of Shepherd, a Los Angeles based company bridging the worlds of entertainment and technology. After building a network of high profile clientele in his home country of Brazil, he moved to Los Angeles to further his education at UCLA and specialize in the entertainment business.
He went on to work with some of LA’s most influential musicians and actors connecting them with distinguished brands and projects in Brazil and U.S., establishing essential international partnerships. In 2017, Marcelo joined the team bringing on key investors who could raise awareness about BABEL’s portfolio companies.
DANIELA ARRUDA
Co-founder & advisor
Daniela is an investment professional with experience in international negotiation and financial intermediation. A lawyer by degree, Daniela is a entrepreneur and a leader in for-profit social entrepreneurship in Brazil.
She founded Confraria do Batom, a for-profit support group for successful women in business, and created the fashion brand Bag for Life (BFL) before joining forces with Barbara to launch INVESTHAUS, an investment and connection boutique firm from Brazil with operations also in the US.
A master networker with extensive knowledge of corporate structures and in-depth experience in assisting prospective investors do cross-border investments, Daniela is a Co-founder & Advisor of BABEL Ventures.
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