Webinar
Castor Ventures Fund Launch
Join Alumni Ventures’ Chris Sklarin and Evy Chen for an introductory session on Castor Ventures, a venture fund built for the MIT community and its network.
This webinar will explore the fund’s investment approach, highlight recent portfolio activity, and explain how Castor Ventures offers access to a curated selection of high-growth startups. Chris and Evy will share how their team sources and evaluates deals, builds a diversified portfolio, and supports innovative founders across sectors.
Whether you’re a first-time or a returning investor, this session will provide helpful context on how the fund fits into the broader venture ecosystem. You’ll also learn how to get involved and what to expect in the coming investment cycle. Reserve your spot today to discover how Castor Ventures is empowering MIT-connected investors to participate in world-changing innovation.
Why Attend?
- HomeLearn how Castor Ventures provides access to venture capital for MIT alums and affiliates
- HomeGain insights into the fund’s investment strategy and recent portfolio activity
- HomeHear directly from Chris Sklarin and Evy Chen about the fund’s goals and outlook
Alumni Ventures is America’s largest venture capital firm for individual investors.
About your presenters
Chris has 30+ years of experience in venture capital, product development, and sales engineering. As an investor, he has deployed over $100 million into companies across all stages, from seed to growth/venture. At AV, Chris has built Castor Ventures from Fund 2 – 9 to over 150 portfolio companies. Prior to Castor, Chris was a Vice President at Edison Partners, where he focused on Enterprise 2.0 and mobile investments. Previously, Chris served as Director of Business Development at a biomedical venture accelerator and at an early-stage venture firm. Earlier in his investing career, as part of JumpStart, a nationally recognized venture development organization, Chris sourced and executed seed-stage investments. Chris received his SB in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1988 and his MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Principal
Overview:
Evy brings a cross-disciplinary lens to early-stage investing, grounded in her experience as a founder, entrepreneur, and behavioral communications strategist. Her investment philosophy blends creative systems thinking with operational rigor, shaped by a career spanning startups, global markets, and behavioral economics.
At Alumni Ventures, Evy is a Principal on the Castor Ventures team, where she leads investments in consumer-facing technologies that drive behavior change. Her focus areas include neurotechnology, consumer AI, and next-generation commerce. She also plays an active role in Alumni Ventures’ Syndications, leveraging her founder mindset and strategic storytelling background to identify and support high-potential companies.
Funds actively worked on:
Castor Ventures
Syndications
Investment Areas of Focus:
Evy’s investment thesis is rooted in the belief that compelling, economically sound storytelling is central to unlocking market behavior and generating durable returns. She gravitates toward founders at the intersection of technology and human behavior—those reimagining how consumers interact, decide, and evolve with products and platforms.
Her unique approach is informed by her founding journey: she launched and scaled Evy Tea, a pioneering cold brew brand distributed nationally, and later founded Nudge Venture, a behavioral economics research studio focused on applied strategy. Recognized by outlets like the BBC and Forbes, her work exemplifies a blend of commercial instinct and narrative insight.
Having lived and worked across three continents, Evy brings a global perspective to her venture practice. She is a Sloan Fellow and holds an MS in Management of Technology from MIT, as well as a BS in Marketing Communications from Emerson College. She believes the most transformative consumer companies will not only drive transactions, but shape the way people think, act, and connect.