Tech investing at Advent is extremely rewarding.
London is a global hub for both finance and technology, so making the move from Australia to work in tech investing was truly exciting. I joined the technology team at Advent for the breadth of opportunity that it offered. Investing across two funds, Advent Tech and GPE, has given me experience on both growth equity and traditional buyout investments. Furthermore, as technology runs across all industries, I have worked across multiple sectors and collaborated with Advent’s other sector teams.
I am an entrepreneur and software engineer, as well as an investor.
As well as being an investor, I have successfully launched a number of businesses including an education start-up, a consultancy firm, and an ecommerce business. I also completed an intensive coding bootcamp where I trained to become a software engineer. My experience as a founder and software engineer has helped me to engage better with other founders and understand software investments at a deeper level.
We can back incumbents or disruptors in nearly any industry.
The launch of Advent Tech offers significant flexibility in the companies and industries we can invest in. Sometimes it makes sense to back the incumbent, and to help make their business models more innovative and tailored to their customers. At other times, a disruptor is likely to emerge as the market leader. Having the flexibility to adapt our strategy to the dynamics of the industry gives us an edge in investing.
We need to harness technology to solve the world’s greatest challenges.
Take global warming, for example. It is concerning that even though we put the world on a Covid-19 induced lockdown, we have barely reduced carbon emissions. It shows that even the most draconian and unsustainable measures from a behavioral perspective are unlikely to be enough to change the trajectory of global warming. I think the only way to address the root problem is by fundamentally changing our sources of energy, which will only come from major breakthroughs in renewable and clean energy that is both cost-effective and widely accessible.