Connecting Accredited Investors with Deep Tech Startups

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Our Mission

What if you were able to unleash innovations, grow great businesses, and truly impact the way we live? And what if you could do it while potentially achieving investment returns? Propel(x) is making that vision a reality.

Propel(x) is an investment marketplace that gives investors the power to discover and fund visionary science and technology startups. As a premier platform for Deep Tech innovation, Propel(x) seeks to help the next generation of great companies.

We are on the cusp of scientific and technological breakthroughs that could
define the next century. Propel(x) is the investment marketplace that aims to help discover and fund these great innovations that move humanity forward.

Our Community

We are on the cusp of momentous scientific and technological breakthroughs that will define the next century. Propel(x) is the investment marketplace that aims to help discover and fund these great innovations that move humanity forward.

The Team

Swati Chaturvedi

Co-Founder, CEO

Swati has been a management consultant, an investment professional and is now an entrepreneur. Prior to starting Propel(x), Swati was an investment professional at Exigen Capital, where she worked on IT Telecom, Travel, and BPO deals. Before that, she was a management consultant working across a variety of industries. Swati is the co-founder of the MIT Alumni Angel Investors group. She founded and led the group 2013 – 2015, and continues to be on the screening committee. She has an MBA from the Sloan School of Management, an M.S. from MIT, an M.S. from UC Berkeley, and a Bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Outside of work, Swati loves to spend time with family, watch movies and read (when time permits, increasingly less these days).

Lisheng Wang

Co-Founder, Investor Development

Lisheng has a background of 15 years in financial services, management consulting, and IT. His resume includes risk management at Wells Fargo, corporate strategy at KeyBank, consulting at The World Bank and Public Strategies, and software engineering at Microsoft. Lisheng co-founded the MIT Alumni Angels Group with Swati, where he currently serves on the steering committee. Lisheng has an M.S. in Technology and Policy from MIT and a B.S. in Chemistry from Fudan University in China. He is a huge fan of soccer and basketball, enjoys reading, and loves traveling with his wife and two young kids. He is devoted to community service and is on the Board of Trustees at Montessori de Terra Linda.

Jason May

VP, Engineering

Jason has over 20 years of experience implementing software solutions across a wide range of industries. In 1998, Jason co-founded Billpoint, an online payments startup that was funded by Sequoia Capital and acquired in 1999 by eBay for $125 million. Jason conceived, designed and led the implementation of Billpoint's software platform. Jason was a founding employee of Cambridge Technology Partners, where he spent nine years leading multi-million-dollar technology custom software implementations for major CTP clients including HP, Charles Schwab and Lockheed. Jason holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Harvard University, and holds 3 U.S. patents.

Mark Zhu

Director, Business Development

Mark Zhu recently joined Propel(x) as Director of Business Development to grow the participation level of institutional and international investors in the Propel(x) community. Mark will also be developing relationships with early stage companies in the Eastern US. Prior to joining Propel(x), Mark has been an investor with Gibraltar Ventures (Prudential Financial), Connecticut Innovations, and DTE Energy Ventures. Over the eight years, Mark had invested over $30 M in approximately 15 early stage companies in energy, materials, FinTech, and software areas. Some of the notable deals include A123, Blooom, Device42, Digital Currency Group, QD Vision, SDC Material, and SeeClickFix. Before starting his investment career, Mark had been a control and systems engineer with United Technologies and Praxair developing alternative energy solutions and advanced control systems. Mark was a co-inventor on four US patents. Mark received his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University.

Andy Reed

Operations Manager

Andy joined Propel(x) with a diverse background in finance, entrepreneurship and operations. Prior to joining, Andy was an investment banker for Robert W. Baird, where he focused on M&A in the Industrials and Business Services groups. Andy is passionate about early stage company development and financing, especially in high-impact areas like life-sciences and energy. He previously worked with Picoyune, an early-stage Mercury sensor startup and helped develop their initial go-to-market strategy and identify early customers. Andy spent the first chapter of his career as a co-founder and manager of a cycling store in San Francisco. Andy holds an MBA from the Cornell Johnson School of Graduate Management, where he received the Roy H. Park Leadership Fellow award, and a B.A. from Oberlin College in Religion and Politics. Outside of work Andy spends as much time as possible cycling, open water swimming, playing squash and cooking with friends. When possible, he volunteers as a rooftop solar installer. He is a San Francisco “local,” but still enjoys finding new hidden corners of the city.

Board Members

Chaomei Chen

Board Member and Investor

Chaomei Chen, a retired business executive from the financial industry, lives in San Francisco, USA. As a leading expert in risk management and operations, Ms. Chen held Chief Risk Officer, Chief Credit Officer, and Executive Vice President positions at LendingClub, JPMorgan Chase Card / Wamu, Wamu Card Services, Providian Financial Corporation, FleetBoston Financial Services and PNC National Bank, where she was responsible for the company’s overall risk management strategy and execution. Chaomei also held management positions at Household Credit Services, American Express, and Citicorp in the past.
Ms. Chen currently serves as director on the board of YRD,Ltd, and Propel(x). She has also served as advisor at LendingHome, NYCA, Upstart, HCG, IceKredit, Nova, TomoCredit and Sixup. Ms. Chen is a member of the Board of Trustee at Johns Hopkins University and a member of the Advisory Board of Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Ms.Chen also serves as advisor for US Chinese Dance Association and a trustee emeriti for San Francisco Ballet.

Ronjon Nag

Board Member and Investor

Dr. Ronjon Nag is an inventor, entrepreneur and a Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute Interdisciplinary Fellow based at the Stanford Center for Language and Information (CSLI). He is founder of the R42 Institute which invents, informs and invests. He is a founder and advisor/board member of multiple start-ups including Propel(x). His companies have been sold to Apple, BlackBerry, and Motorola. He has been awarded the Mountbatten Medal in the Royal Institution of Engineering and Technology, and has been winner (Bounce Imaging-Chairman) of the $1m Verizon Powerful Answers Award.

He has been a pioneer of smartphones and the ‘app stores’ they depend on. He has worked on neural networks, touch screens, mobile search, voice recognition, text prediction and handwriting recognition.

Advisors

Pierre Caramazza

Advisor

Pierre is an asset management executive with experience leading product management and development, sales, and strategic relationship teams. He is passionate about designing and executing strategy to remain ahead of the continued evolution in the investment management space.

Currently, Pierre is Head of US Product and Specialty Sales at Franklin Templeton. He is responsible for the creation and execution of product strategy and development for the U.S., the distribution of ETFs, SMAs, and other non-traditional vehicles.

Veda Narayanan

Advisor

Veda is a customer-focused business executive focused on providing technology leadership and product strategy to high-growth startups.

Veda has spent almost 25 years at The Walt Disney Company in various leadership roles. He has a proven track record of success in launching and scaling various digital transformation initiatives ranging from brand management, digital engagement, contract and identity management, product lifecycle to enterprise-wide infrastructure.

Scott Andersen

Advisor

Scott Andersen is a 19-year plus former prosecutor and securities enforcement attorney at FINRA, NYSE and the NY State Attorney General’s Investor Protection and Securities bureau. He has spent his career building, prosecuting and defending criminal, civil and administrative securities regulatory enforcement cases. He is a cum laude graduate of Albany Law School and is admitted to practice in New York, Massachusetts (inactive), Arizona, the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, and the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York. Scott is an Adjunct Professor at his alma mater, Albany Law School, where he teaches on securities fraud, financial crimes and internal investigations.

Investors in Propel(x)