Webinar
Emmet Street Ventures News from the Portfolio
Join Alumni Ventures’ Chris Sklarin, Evy Chen, and Jamal Grant for Emmet Street Ventures: News from the Portfolio, a live webinar offering timely updates and insights into the fund’s recent activity.
See video policy below.
This session will spotlight key portfolio companies, recent funding rounds, and emerging trends across the tech sectors the fund is actively backing. You’ll gain visibility into how AV evaluates opportunities, monitors progress post-investment, and supports its startups through growth and exits.
Whether you’re a current investor or simply exploring venture as an asset class, this session will provide a valuable behind-the-scenes look at the fund’s progress. Reserve your spot today to stay informed on how Emmet Street Ventures is backing innovative founders and disruptive technologies.
Want to access our Emmet Street Ventures Syndicate startup deals to see, evaluate, and optionally invest? No cost, no commitment.
Why Attend?
- HomeGet recent updates on Emmet Street Ventures’ portfolio companies and exits
- HomeUnderstand the fund’s investment approach and latest activity in today’s market
- HomeHear directly from the team about how they support and scale venture-backed startups
Alumni Ventures is America’s largest venture capital firm for individual investors.
About your presenters
Overview
Chris Sklarin is Managing Partner of the Castor Fund at Alumni Ventures, where for over eight years he has led investments in transformative technology companies redefining how we compute, communicate, and cure. He has deployed more than $120 million across all stages—from seed to growth—building Castor Ventures and expanding the portfolio to over 150 companies. The Castor portfolio features industry leaders such as Algorand, Boldin, Capital RX, Enable, Groq, Ocient, Qedma, RapidSOS, Synchron, and Unlearn AI, each tackling high-impact problems with ambitious solutions.
With over 20 years in venture capital and more than a decade in product development and sales engineering, Chris has also held venture roles focused on enterprise and mobile investments, served as Director of Business Development at a biomedical venture accelerator and an early-stage firm, and sourced seed-stage deals at JumpStart, a nationally recognized venture development organization in Cleveland. Chris holds an SB in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
Funds actively worked on
- Castor Ventures
- Syndications
Investment Areas of Focus:
Chris targets companies at the forefront of software, AI, data infrastructure, and connectivity, backing teams that are not just innovating but reengineering the physical and digital infrastructure powering the modern world. He believes the next generation of breakthrough companies will emerge from foundational shifts in technology and is committed to supporting the leaders driving that transformation.
A core component of Chris’s strategy is leveraging the powerful innovation engine of the MIT ecosystem. As an MIT alumnus, he taps this network to source compelling investment opportunities and connect with top-tier investors. Chris’s investment approach is informed by his early career as a software and sales engineer, with technical expertise in databases, telecom systems, and software architecture. This hands-on background sharpens his diligence and ability to assess technical complexity and market viability.
Evy Chen Senior Principal, Castor Ventures, Neurotech Syndicate & AV Women’s Fund
Evy Chen is an investor and operator whose thesis is simple: behavior is the real moat. She invests in technology that shifts human behavior at scale — across consumer, AI, deep tech, and neurotech — from Seed through Series B.
As Senior Principal at Alumni Ventures, she leads investment strategy and deal execution across Castor Ventures (AV’s MIT fund), the AV Women’s Fund, and the AV Neurotech Syndicate, which she co-founded.
Her portfolio reflects that conviction. She backs founders missioned to better human lives — Synchron, the brain-computer interface enabling people to control digital devices through thought alone, restoring not just function but agency; and Psyonic, the world’s first touch-sensing bionic hand, giving amputees the ability to feel again. These are companies that don’t optimize existing behavior — they unlock behavior that didn’t exist before.
That perspective is earned. Evy bootstrapped Evy Tea from a farmers market into a nationally distributed brand, and founded Nudge Venture, an applied behavioral economics research studio. She holds an MS in Management of Technology as a Sloan Fellow and Dean’s Fellow at MIT Sloan, and a BS in Marketing Communications from Emerson College.
Principal
Jamal Grant is a Principal at the MIT Fund of Alumni Ventures. He has worked as an engineer and entrepreneur with experience across aerospace, consulting, venture capital, and the social impact sector. He began his career at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, working on satellite systems for NASA and the DoD, and later joined Bain & Company’s Private Equity Group, advising on technology and software investments. Outside of work, Jamal enjoys traveling, spending time with family, and working on his documentary, Ubuntu Rising, focused on economic mobility and progress in South Africa since the end of apartheid.