Adara Ventures

Rocío Pillado López is a partner at Adara Ventures, a European deeptech venture capital firm managing over €350M across five funds. She invests in seed and series A stage companies in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and digital infrastructure. She holds a Computer Science Engineering degree from UPM/ENSIMAG and an MBA from Chicago Booth.

Ross Strachan is an investor at Adara Ventures who previously worked in corporate development and M&A at a large data, media and technology conglomerate, where he was involved in 29 investments and acquisitions across 15 countries. He began angel investing at 22 and moved into venture after working on a deal alongside Andreessen Horowitz in 2018. He focuses on AI and supports founders on commercial areas such as narrative, positioning and roadmap.

Alberto Echeverri joined Adara Ventures in 2023, focusing on energy and technologies that enable change across the energy system. He spent more than twenty-five years as an operator, including leading large P&Ls at General Electric and Siemens Energy, where his work spanned restructurings, scaling high-growth businesses, product launches, and building innovation programs internationally. He works closely with portfolio CEOs on the operational challenges of scaling.

Alexei Perley was born in Toronto and studied at IE University in Madrid, with an exchange at Cornell. Before joining Adara Ventures as a Visiting Analyst, he interned at a Canadian food robotics startup and worked at EY. He chose to remain in Madrid to develop his career in venture capital.

Andrea Cabanillas is from Madrid and studied Business Administration and International Relations at IE University. Before Adara, she interned at a social fintech connecting women entrepreneurs in Latin America with impact-driven investors, and she previously worked with an NGO in Kenya on a research project studying the effects of globalisation on Maasai communities. She joined Adara Ventures as a Visiting Analyst, later co-founding Baby VC in Spain and Portugal as Community Lead, and focuses on go-to-market strategy, international expansion, and the firm's platform, brand, and relationships.

Gonzalo Pinto grew up near Madrid and studied Financial Economics. Earlier in his career he worked in accounting and business development before joining Adara Ventures, where his work centers on finance and operational data quality.

Hilario Durán was born and raised in Seville, where he studied Business Administration, and worked in hospitality and delivery roles before becoming an accountant. He trained in Edinburgh and Cologne before building his career in Madrid. At Adara Ventures he handles valuations, reporting, and accounting to support fund operations.

Irene Alía is Head of Legal at Adara Ventures, where she manages the legal work behind the firm's funds and investments. She studied a double degree in Law and Business in Pamplona, completed a Master's at IE, and holds a Master's in International Business earned through an ICEX scholarship. Earlier in her career she worked at PwC in Madrid and held trade advisory roles in Bogotá and São Paulo before moving into venture capital.

Jesus Sainz holds degrees in Law and Business Administration and has been a member of the Spanish State Economist Body since 1969. His career includes decades in both the private and public sectors across Europe and the Americas, where he worked on attracting foreign investment (including securing the 1992 Seville World Fair and leading Promomadrid) and on corporate turnarounds such as restructuring the Warner theme park in Madrid. He has served as Chairman of Adara Ventures since 2003, focusing on early-stage deep tech investments.

Jorge Barón studied engineering across Madrid, Stuttgart and Waterloo and completed a Master's spanning Madrid, Milan and Munich. He began his career at Daimler in Stuttgart, then worked at BMW i Ventures in Munich on generative design, autonomous driving and vehicle cybersecurity. He joined Adara Ventures in Madrid as an analyst in 2019, focusing on infrastructure and hard technology markets in areas such as energy, health, defense and critical software.

Juan Cabañas leads technology and AI at Adara Ventures, where he works to make the firm AI-native by building systems and workflows that connect information and support decision-making. He studied Service Engineering, later studied Informatics and Business in Zurich and researched blockchain for energy systems at FEUP in Porto, and completed a Master's in Artificial Intelligence in Madrid while working in private equity.

Krystal Somaza grew up across the US, Mexico, and Venezuela, and holds a Master's from the University of Edinburgh in economics and finance. She spent seven years at a London startup building a MiFID II data solution, rising from intern to Head of Data Analytics, and later worked as an investor at Aramco Ventures focused on industrial technologies. At Adara Ventures she concentrates on early-stage deep tech, particularly infrastructure-focused companies.

María Alonso leads the finance function at Adara Ventures. She studied Business Administration in Spain and France and completed a Master's across Nantes, Bilbao and Bradford, then spent over a decade in finance roles at multinationals including Repsol, Dragados and FCC, including two years leading finance at a Dragados subsidiary in the US.

Mariam Amal was born and raised in Alicante, Spain, with family roots in Morocco. She began her career in Madrid's property market before moving into venture capital at Adara, where she handles internal operations including billing and administration.

Mónica Navas studied Mathematics at Millersville University and later completed a Master's in Corporate Finance and Law at ESADE in 2017. She joined Adara Ventures in April 2006 as Office Manager and progressed through Operations and Investor Relations roles over two decades. She now serves as Head of Compliance and Investor Relations, focusing on regulatory compliance and investor experience.

Nico Goulet studied aerospace engineering at École Centrale de Paris and earned a Master's at MIT's Gas Turbine Lab, followed by an MBA at INSEAD. He worked at Andersen Consulting in Paris and spent eight years at Monitor Company in Madrid, where he made partner, and later founded CityHop (1997) and the early-stage fund NETfractal (2000) before co-founding Adara in 2002. He focuses on categories where deep engineering is the differentiator, including cybersecurity, infrastructure software, and applied AI for regulated industries.

Roberto Saint-Malo is managing partner at BAMCAP Ventures, which he founded in 2011 and currently manages a portfolio of approximately 20 investments across Europe and the Americas. He has been involved in sourcing, executing, and managing private equity and venture capital investments since 1995, including founding Spain-based Adara Ventures in 2002. Earlier in his career, he served as CEO of Jumbo Comercial SA and worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Co.

Rocío Pillado is a Partner at Adara focused on early-stage deeptech spanning cybersecurity, health, infrastructure, data and AI. She studied Computer Engineering at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and ENSIMAG in France, holds an MBA from Chicago Booth, and worked for nearly a decade as an engineer and product professional across France, New York and Hong Kong, including trading automation and cybersecurity work for an investment bank. She also serves as Academic Director of the Venture Capital programs at IE Business School.