First Close Partners

Ed Zimmerman is an LP and member of Ada Ventures' advisory board since 2019. He cofounded and chairs the Emerging Companies / Venture Capital group at US law firm Lowenstein Sandler LLP, has taught venture capital as an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, and cofounded First Close Partners, a venture capital fund of funds. He and his wife Betsy Zimmerman have invested in over 100 VC funds and, as angels, in more than 170 startups; he also cofounded and leads the VentureCrush event series for startups and venture investors.

Carolina Huaranca Mendoza is a co-founder and General Partner at First Close Partners, a venture fund of funds that invests globally, where she also serves on the Investment Committee. She was previously a Principal at Kapor Capital, a seed-stage fund based in Oakland, California, where she additionally served as Principal and Director of Investments, focusing in part on emerging fund managers with an impact focus. Earlier in her career, she worked as a Sales and Product Marketing Manager at SchoolNet and founded Spriggle, a marketplace for science and math products for children; she is fluent in Spanish and has invested in startups across Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Partner at Northzone since 2004 focusing on disruptive businesses in energy transition, health, consumer and AI. Previously ran his own investment firm and was a McKinsey consultant; holds an MBA from the Stockholm School of Economics and has appeared on the Forbes Midas List.