Maria Jose Alvarez
Maria Jose Alvarez
WNT Ventures Managing Partner
Maria Jose is Managing Partner of WNT Ventures, a New Zealand based deep tech Venture Capital. With over a decade of experience as a founder turned investor, Maria Jose has seen first-hand the evolution of the NZ deep tech landscape.
MJ is a Biotechnology Engineer and the Founder & CEO of VidaOx, a Chilean biotech start-up that gave a second life to wine waste. In New Zealand, MJ has invested and worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs. At WNT Ventures, MJ is focused on investing Fund 3, managing portfolio companies from Fund 2 and 3, and raising Fund 4, a $35 - $50m fund to build another cohort of world-changing, deep tech companies.
Maria Jose's passion is supporting entrepreneurs through investment, commercialisation, and growth. Besides her role at WNT Ventures, Maria Jose is an Independent Committee member in several organisations focused on science and technology ventures in Chile and NZ, such as Return On Science, and Start-Up Science, the Seed Accelerator and Investment arm of the Chilean Ministry of Science. MJ is a NZ Woman of Influence 2021 finalist in the Diversity category, a TEDx speaker, and a mentor to early-stage start-ups and entrepreneurs.
MJ is a Biotechnology Engineer and the Founder & CEO of VidaOx, a Chilean biotech start-up that gave a second life to wine waste. In New Zealand, MJ has invested and worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs. At WNT Ventures, MJ is focused on investing Fund 3, managing portfolio companies from Fund 2 and 3, and raising Fund 4, a $35 - $50m fund to build another cohort of world-changing, deep tech companies.
Maria Jose's passion is supporting entrepreneurs through investment, commercialisation, and growth. Besides her role at WNT Ventures, Maria Jose is an Independent Committee member in several organisations focused on science and technology ventures in Chile and NZ, such as Return On Science, and Start-Up Science, the Seed Accelerator and Investment arm of the Chilean Ministry of Science. MJ is a NZ Woman of Influence 2021 finalist in the Diversity category, a TEDx speaker, and a mentor to early-stage start-ups and entrepreneurs.
Related Sessions
New Zealand Innovators Changing the World
WED, OCT 18, 2:00 PM
Conference
The New Zealand Innovation ecosystem has benefited from over a decade of growth. In the last 10 years we have become world-renown from our science and engineering capabilities (deeptech), growing companies like Aroa Biosurgery, Mint Innovation, and Rocket Lab, amongst others.
The world needs science innovation more than ever, and as we acknowledge the urgency of developing solutions that tackle our biggest issues, a new generation of entrepreneurs as arisen, focusing on Biotechnology, Energy/Cleantech, Agriculture, and Innovative Manufacturing.
In this session you will hear the experiences of the entrepreneurs’ scaling companies from New Zealand going global. The inspiration behind their founder journeys, their biggest learnings while building companies that stand the test of time, and how do they manage to drive change in this economic environment.
