This series is a joint initiative of Optica and the EPS Young Minds Program. Its objective is to foster innovation & entrepreneurship amongst young physicists and provide insights into the European start-up culture.

Meet the speaker, Olivia Nicoletti

Dr. Olivia Nicoletti is a Manager in the Start Ups and Emerging Companies team at PwC Italy. She has a background in venture capital (VC) and early stage deep tech venture growth, having been an Investment Manager at Italian deep tech VC firm Eureka! Venture, the first Italian firm with 60M€ under management, and Senior Associate with a deep tech focus at Angel CoFund, a £130M generalist VC firm based in Sheffield and London with a strong angel co-investment mandate. Prior to that, Olivia was Commercialization Manager at Cambridge Enterprise where she worked across the Technology Transfer and the Seed Funds teams for five years. During this time she helped many academics cross the commercialization chasm into successful spin outs and significant licensing deals, with success stories such as Nu Quantum, Riverlane and Universal Quantum. At Cambridge Enterprise she also helped develop an Associates’ Training Program as well as a more hands-on approach of coaching founders and founding teams. Before joining Cambridge Enterprise, Olivia was an editor and a writer for Nature Materials. Olivia holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK, and the equivalent of a MSc and a BSc in Physics from Università Statale di Milano, Italy. Olivia is an active mentor for women in tech, women entrepreneurs and women looking to move into VC.