Sophia Zhao

Sophia Zhao is a Partner at Alumni Ventures where she leads and executes investments in transformative technologies across Web3, AI, and consumer sectors. Her portfolio includes investments in companies such as Bluesky, humans&, Lambda, Oura, and Groq. Since 2018, Sophia has been deeply immersed in the Web3 ecosystem, having held roles at Galaxy Digital, Huobi US, and Crypto.com, where she partnered with startups and institutional clients on capital raising and trading strategies across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. She’s been focused on AI for the past two years.

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Sophia’s career spans finance, startups, and capital advisory, where she has worked closely with CXOs and founders on cross-border opportunities, including fundraising from Silicon Valley and Asia, business development in South Africa, and institutional partnerships in Latin America and Europe. Her work has given her the privilege of learning from brilliant leaders and building a strong pattern recognition for identifying exceptional teams and the ingredients for building great companies.

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Beyond investing, Sophia is an active contributor to the global innovation community, serving as a mentor and judge for hackathons, accelerators, and tech programs including Yale’s Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking, Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator, Techstars, and Ethereum Global. She maintains close ties with blockchain and AI communities at Stanford, Yale, and beyond.

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Sophia holds a BBA from Simon Fraser University, an MBA from the University of British Columbia, and an MAM from Yale School of Management (Class of 2017).  A lifelong learner, she also finds joy in nature and growing herbs and edible flowers for food decoration.