Ruth Foxe Blader

Founder & Managing Partner, Foxe Capital

Ruth Foxe Blader is a venture capital investor, emerging technology and communications expert with 20+ years international experience at Fortune 500 companies and venture capital firms. Ruth is the Founder and Managing Partner at Foxe Capital, an early-stage fund investing at the intersection of technological and societal change. Having invested in dozens of companies, including successful exits like Lemonade (NYSE: LMND), Ruth is an expert and thought leader in Fintech and Insurtech. 

In 2024, Ruth founded Foxe Capital, where she independently managed a $100m dollar early-stage venture capital fund, as a subadvisor to Anthemis and Baloise. From 2017-2024, Ruth served as the Chief Investment Officer at Anthemis, a leading investment firm based in New York, London and Geneva. In addition to overseeing the investment team at Anthemis, Ruth made more than forty investments and sat on dozens of startup boards. 

Previously, Ruth served as the Head of Global Digital and Social Strategy at PepsiCo, where she founded and ran the digital incubator PepsiCo10. In 2012, Ruth joined Allianz SE, where she was tasked with launching the Allianz Digital Accelerator, which became Allianz X, Allianz SE’s $1 billion venture capital fund. 

Ruth is a frequent speaker and media commentator on venture capital and technology. She is a contributing writer for Forbes, and appears regularly in Bloomberg, Business Insider and the Financial Times. Ruth is invited to speak annually at industry events, like TechCrunch Disrupt, Fintech Meetup, Money2020, Insuretech Connect, Insurtech Insights and MoneyLive Summit. Ruth is also a frequent guest on prominent news programs and podcasts, like BBC Radio “Wake up to Money,” “The Full Ratchet,” “Tear Sheet” and “Fintech Insider.” 

An outspoken proponent of diversity in tech, Ruth co-founded unlock VC, the most active global organization for women in venture capital. Ruth is a regular entry on the Women in Fintech Power List and a member of the Board List. 

Ruth holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Iowa and Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, and a Master of Arts from CUNY. She resides in New York and France.

Katie Palencsar 

Founder, Material Ventures Group

Katie Palencsar is a seasoned investor, founder, and operator with a track record of launching businesses, building products, and backing exceptional entrepreneurs. She is the Founder of Material Ventures Group, a new-concept studio designed to advise, operate, and incubate both founder-led and concept-led companies.

Previously, Katie was a Partner at Anthemis Group, where she served as Head of Venture Studio and launched the Female Innovators Lab Fund — the first and largest fund dedicated to female founders in fintech. Under her leadership, the fund scaled globally with backing from Barclays, Aviva, Visa, and BMO, and invested across North America, the UK, and Europe.

A serial entrepreneur, Katie is also the co-founder of Generation Guest Group, a high-volume travel management company specializing in corporate and entertainment clients. Earlier in her career, she founded Unbound Concepts, a data SaaS company used by global publishers and over 40,000 educators. After its acquisition by Certica Solutions, she joined the executive team to lead product innovation, continuing through its subsequent acquisition by Instructure (formerly NYSE: INST).

Katie sits on boards across technology, venture capital, and education, and is recognized for guiding leadership teams through growth, innovation, and governance. She was named one of American Banker’s Most Influential Women in Fintech (2023) and is a recipient of the GE 99u Emerging Innovators Award, Drexel Educator of the Year, SmartCEO Voltage Award, and the Women in Fintech Powerlist. She also holds a U.S. patent in machine learning for text complexity analysis.

Katie’s work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Bloomberg, Crunchbase, and The Wall Street Journal. She is based in New York City and is deeply immersed in arts and culture — always building something new.

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Danielle Gershowitz

Partner, Cooley LLP

Danielle Gershowitz represents technology and high-growth companies throughout their life cycles on incorporation and formation matters, seed, strategic and venture capital financings, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and public offerings. She also regularly represents venture capital funds and strategic investors in financing and restructuring transactions.

Danielle works with innovative clients across industries – including fintech, artificial intelligence, digital health, life sciences, ecommerce and consumer products.