ABOUT
Team
Bobby Amiri
Program Manager
Bobby Amiri is a Silicon Valley native and emerging market-focused entrepreneur and investor with over 20 years of experience in the tech industry, with roles ranging from IBM to HP. By taking a hands-on approach toward advising founders and by investing in early-stage startups since 2015, he's helped accelerate more than 150 startups from emerging markets which have gone on to raise over $325M. Bobby co-founded the Pioneer Accelerator with Google Developers Launchpad while with Global Silicon Valley Labs (GSV), one of the largest innovation hubs in Silicon Valley, and has been a Founding Partner for iLab Collective since its launch in 2018.
Isabelle Johannessen
Program Coordinator
Isabelle is a Startup Program Manager for MTB's Silicon Valley and New York offices, and holds a Master of International Business & Innovation, and Bachelor of International Marketing. She has experience in community building, program management, event management and marketing and previously worked for the American Chamber of Commerce, helping American corporations succeed in the Nordic markets. Isabelle has managed more than 20 startup acceleration programs and worked with hundreds of startups from countries such as South Korea, Spain, Japan and Italy. Her areas of focus with startups are regarding new market expansion, customer discovery and marketing strategies.
Serena Orizi
PR & Social Communication
Director
Serena is a journalist with over 15 years of experience in PR & Media Relations. She has worked both in public administrations and private corporates, and finally as a freelancer.
For 12 years she has been Head of Communication, PR & Media Relations of Mind the Bridge. On its behalf she has been leading the communication of SEP-Startup Europe Partnership (project led by the European Commission) and Corporate Startup Stars Awards (a MTB initiative) coordinating 50+ PR Managers of the winning international Top Corporates.
Non-Equity Assistance
Desafía San Francisco is a public initiative sponsored by ICEX and Red.es that helps Spanish technology companies scale faster and globally.
Our portfolio companies raised more than $230M in total and created +3000 jobs. The median total investment is $1.45M from venture capital firms and accelerators such as but not limited to 500 Startups, Adara Ventures, Alma Mundi Ventures, Angel Ventures, BBooster (Draper Venture Network), BrightCap Ventures, BStartup, Caixa Capital Risk, Deerfield, Demium, Encomenda, Endeavor Catalyst, GP Bullhorn, Inveready, JME Ventures, K Fund, Keiretsu Forum, Kibo Ventures, Lanzadera, MassChallenge, Plug And Play, Samaipata, Seaya Ventures, Seedrocket, Startup Sesame, Techstars, Telefonica Ventures, The Venture City and Wayra.
Among our alumni are three winners of South Summit's Global Startup Competition (2017, 2018 and 2019).
Crunchbase ranks us as the #1 non-equity accelerator in San Francisco.
ICEX Spain Trade and Investment is a public corporation of the Spain’s Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism. ICEX Spain Trade and Investment in collaboration with the Trade Commissions of Spain are offering companies and professionals that are interested in doing business with Spain, a dedicated area from which they can access all the information that they need.
Red.es is the public corporate entity attached to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. Red.es develops programs to boost the digital economy, innovation, entrepreneurship, training for young people and professionals and support for SMEs through the promotion of efficient and intensive use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
