Future of health

Gian focuses on health investments and splits his time on deal origination and assessment of investment opportunities. Prior to joining the Octopus Ventures team in 2018, Gian spent two years in Canada building a biotechnology company called Pebble Labs tackling vector-borne, animal and plant diseases, and Trait Biosciences within the cannabis industry.
“Healthy individuals are the backbone of our society and overall happiness. I feel privileged to back pioneering entrepreneurs who can make people live fuller lives and exceed expectations.”
Gian holds a degree in Industrial Economics from the University of Nottingham. He spent two months training in Muay Thai Boxing in Thailand and plans to spend two weeks a year training there.

Kamran focuses on deal sourcing, assessing investment opportunities and transacting on early stage investments focusing on all Future of Health opportunities. Prior to joining the team in 2018, he founded a start-up incubator in Tehran following five years at J.P. Morgan.
“I get excited by the idea of searching for and backing companies that seek to positively impact millions, if not billions, of people around the world, as they redefine the Future of Health.”
Kamran holds a degree in Geography from the University of Oxford. He is an avid sportsman who enjoys playing football, tennis, golf, ping pong and competitive games of backgammon.

As well as being a Partner and heading up the firm’s portfolio management strategy, Luke sits in the Future of Health investment team, helping identify and invest in the next generation of companies that will revolutionise the health landscape.
Luke joined Octopus Ventures in 2009 but began his career as a scientist, working to understand human disease using computational methods and big data, revealing the role that evolution played in disease development, before transitioning to Management and Technology Consultancy, specialising in the Capital Markets.
Alongside his role at Octopus, Luke is Chairman of UMI3, the University of Manchester’s technology transfer office. He also sits on the University’s Global Leadership Board. Luke holds a BSc (hons) in Biochemistry and Biotechnology, an MSc in Computational Biology and a PhD in Computational Genetics, all from the University of Manchester. When not at work, Luke likes to spend his time travelling, eating, training and doing stuff involving cars.

Rebecca joined the Ventures team in 2012, and focuses on the assessment of investment opportunities, deal origination and ongoing portfolio management within the Future of Health team. Rebecca has experience of working with a number of early stage businesses across a range of different sectors and has led investments into and served on the boards of a number of investee companies including BridgeU, Elliptic, Trouva, Uniplaces, Outfittery, Eve Sleep, Tails.com and most recently AppearHere amongst others.
Prior to joining Octopus, Rebecca spent five years working in the Corporate Finance department at Deloitte, firstly in the Transaction Services department and later in the Corporate Finance Advisory division, where she was involved in a diverse range of M&A and capital market deals across a range of sectors.
Rebecca is a qualified chartered accountant, and has a first class honours degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Southampton.

Uzma has been a research scientist in the fields of Photochemistry and Synthetic Biology. Whilst undertaking her PhD she worked with the University of Manchester Innovation Company to assess the commercial feasibility of technologies developed at the University, realising her passion for cutting edge technologies. Uzma joined the Ventures team in 2018.

“Through this experience I learnt about the many challenges of spinning out companies and taking disruptive innovations from the lab bench to the market.”

Uzma is focused on assessing investment opportunities, conducting preliminary due diligence and executing deals. Her experience straddles the Deep Tech and Future of Health Pods, and she is now focused on Frontier Technologies within health and biotech such as synthetic biology, nanotech, ‘omics, gene editing and computational biology and platforms at the intersection of technology and biology, including human augmentation and neurotech.

Uzma enjoys baking and cooking and has now equipped her kitchen to a semi-professional level!

Will built an alcoholic drinks business and was a rare-breed pig farmer in Essex before joining Octopus Ventures in 2013. He currently sits within the Future of Health team looking closely into areas such as patient-driven medicine, clinical decision tools, digital health and disease prevention.
“Healthcare feels like one of the ultimate places to build valuable businesses right now with so much latent consumer demand, especially in some of the least glamorous areas.”
Will studied Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at Oxford. Outside of work Will is a keen offshore sailor having sailed around Britain on two occasions as part of the Round Britain and Ireland race.