An Introduction to the Seed Fund

Prior to Alumni Ventures, Meera led finance and product initiatives at Yale University. She managed a $1B P&L, led M&A transactions, and secured business development relationships with corporate partners. She later led product for a cloud-based ERP implementation, giving her the fluency to connect with developers navigating today’s platform shift. Most recently, she worked with early-stage venture funds and incubators like Create Venture Studio and Polymath Capital Partners, launching and sourcing ventures in enterprise SaaS and infrastructure. Meera has a BA in Economics from Swarthmore and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Hilary is a senior leader in financial services with more than 15 years of experience working with investors across market cycles. Since joining Alumni Ventures in 2016, she has been instrumental in building and scaling the firm’s investor relations function, leading high-performing teams and partnering closely with investment, finance, legal, and operations groups to support investors throughout the lifecycle of their venture portfolios with rigor and transparency. Her background in retirement investment planning, including earlier Series 7 and 63 licensure, informs a disciplined perspective on portfolio construction, risk management, liquidity considerations, and long-term capital allocation. Hilary is known for her ability to bring clarity to complex investment topics and for upholding a thoughtful, investor-first experience. She graduated summa cum laude from Fisher College and is currently pursuing her MBA at Boston University.

Overview:

Ron brings a dynamic blend of operational leadership, global business acumen, and values-driven investing to early-stage venture capital. As Managing Partner and Head of the AV Seed Fund at Alumni Ventures, he leads investments in bold, frontier technologies that span sectors and geographies. Ron’s experience ranges from founding and scaling unicorn-status startups to guiding impact-focused portfolios that generate both financial and societal returns.

Before joining Alumni Ventures in 2019, Ron served on the Investment Committee at Yard Ventures, AV’s fund for the Harvard community. His own entrepreneurial journey includes co-founding and leading TravelPerk, an enterprise travel management platform that reached multibillion-dollar valuation and global scale. Prior to that, he launched the B2B division of Booking.com and held strategic roles at McKinsey & Co., US Airways, the Maersk Group, and Lycos.

Ron studied entrepreneurship at Babson College and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. A frequent speaker at global investor conferences and guest on top VC podcasts, he is also a passionate world traveler—having visited over 140 countries and all 50 U.S. states. He resides near Boston with his wife and three young children, and shares personal reflections and industry insights at ronlevin.substack.com.

Funds Actively Worked On:

• Seed Fund
• Yard Ventures

Investment Areas of Focus:

Ron’s investment strategy is grounded in the belief that moonshot ideas—when coupled with great execution—can generate asymmetric outcomes. He gravitates toward founders solving global-scale problems through advanced technology, with a particular interest in sectors such as:

• Enterprise software
• Fintech and edtech
• Life sciences and healthtech
• Clean energy and sustainability
• Space and advanced computing

He is especially drawn to companies that combine technical rigor with mission-driven ambition—ventures that challenge the status quo and improve lives across the economic spectrum.

His impact-focused philosophy is captured in his book, Higher Purpose Venture Capital, which highlights startups tackling root causes and symptoms of social and wealth inequality. Ron’s notable investments aligned with this “double bottom line” thesis include:

• Aprende Institute, empowering upskilling in underserved communities (edtech)
• Fido, extending digital identity and financial access in emerging markets (fintech)
• HopSkipDrive, transforming student and senior transportation (mobility) Provenance, enabling traceability and transparency in supply chains (cleantech)
• Surge Therapeutics, developing innovative cancer immunotherapies (biotech)

These companies reflect Ron’s broader vision: to support transformational technologies that deliver extraordinary outcomes—for both investors and the world.

Brittney brings to her role product and operational experience from her time with enterprise and startup companies. Most recently, she worked with Trove, a Series D startup, where she led product development for the launch of Canada Goose’s first circular economy program. Brittney is a graduate of Columbia University and holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.