Meet our team members
Thijs Povel
Founding Partner
Thijs Povel brings over 15 years of Venture Capital expertise, with experience across VC funds, Corporate Venture arms, and Family Offices. He has served on the boards of high-growth startups and assumed interim CFO and CEO roles when needed. A Physics graduate from Imperial College London, Thijs specializes in investments in Deep Tech, B2B, FinTech, SaaS, and Academia. He founded Dealflow to support the scaling efforts of Europe’s most promising founders.
Eric Büchli
Head of Office
Eric studied at the University of St. Gallen and the London Business School. He worked at UBS in the Investment Banking division on the ETD and DCM divisions between his studies. Having visited more than 40 countries, Eric is also an avid traveler. Eric Joined Dealflow.eu in January 2020 and he covers the position of Investment Associate. At Dealflow.eu, he is mostly involved with investor outreach, the IT infrastructure, and the hiring process.
Antonio Vieira de Almeida
Investment Manager
After more than 5 years working in M&A and Corporate Law, at Vieira de Almeida & Associados, António decided to move into the business world. To this end, he obtained his MBA from INSEAD, in France and Singapore, and then joined BCG as a consultant in the Lisbon office. António joined Dealflow.eu as an Investment Manager in October 2022 and currently oversees the start-up support from the EIC Programme.
Guy de Nicolay
Venture Associate
Graduating from the prestigious London School of Economics in Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation, Guy is a Venture Partner at Dealflow.eu. In 7 years of experience, he has been a strategic consultant for business and impact ventures in Europe, Asia, and South America. Now, At Dealflow.eu, Guy is responsible for venture partnerships.
Maddalena Lauzi
Investment Associate
Maddalena is a Double Master’s Degree Graduate in International Management at Bocconi and Fudan Universities. During her studies, she worked as a Business Analyst at Luxottica and before joining Dealflow.eu, Maddalena worked in an EdTech accelerator based in London for one year where she helped start-ups strategically and in their fundraising process. At Dealflow.eu Maddalena oversees the corporate department and works together with the EIC in the Corporate Partnership Programme.
André Sarmento
Investment Associate
André holds a master’s degree in Management with a specialization in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from Católica Lisbon School. Previously to joining Dealflow.eu, André worked at Bynd Venture Capital, a Portuguese-based VC with an Iberian scope, He also held an internship position at Deloitte, and at Sumol+Compal, the leading non-alcoholic beverage retailer in Portugal. At Dealflow.eu, Andre oversees the Healthcare area, and he helps the innovations within this space to scale up.
Merel Kraaijenbrink
Senior Investment Analyst
Merel holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from Amsterdam Business School, and a law degree from Tilburg University. Previous to joining Dealflow.eu, Merel worked as an investor at No Such Ventures, a Dutch VC, where she was responsible for overseeing Southern Europe. She joined VC after being a founder herself. At Dealflow.eu, Merel leads the Cleantech vertical and works with corporates to support them in their innovation journey.
Luis Calandria
Investment Associate
Before joining Dealflow.eu, Luis worked in Deloitte Financial Advisory for two years, specializing in the financial modelling of Capital Projects. He also worked at FTI Consulting in the Forensic department. Luis is a CFA II holder and has a dual degree in Law & B.A from IE University. At Dealflow.eu, he supports the Enterprise Software startups in the strategical, financial and networking areas.
Pauline Avérous
Senior Investment Officer
Pauline has a master’s degree in management from Audencia Business School (Nantes, France). Before joining Dealflow.eu, she worked as a business analyst for the matchmaking platform of Bpifrance, EuroQuity. She also has experience as a venture capital analyst in an impact investment fund, INCO. Pauline manages the grant writing department at Dealflow.eu. The grant service enhances startups’ chances of accessing non-dilutive European funding.
Domenico Germanò
Investment Associate
Domenico is a Master’s Degree Graduate in International Management at NOVA SBE. Before joining Dealflow.eu, he worked at Reflaunt Pte Ltd, a Fashion-Tech start-up. He set up the finance department and helped the company to achieve its growth milestones. He also worked as Fund Operations Officer at Alter Domus. At Dealflow.eu, Domenico oversees the Innovation Radar project, showcasing the top EU-backed innovations to leading investors and corporations.
Maria Gabriela Bragança
Marketing Manager
Maria Gabriela is the Marketing Manager at Dealflow.eu. Maria has a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing & Communications from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica od Rio de Janeiro. She worked in worked in the fashion industry for several years, but prior to joining Dealflow.eu, Maria developped her passion for the startup world when she joined a SaaS startup in 2016. Now, Maria is making sure that the Dealflow.eu brand is recognised among the best startups and investors in Europe.
Pedro Carvalho
Investment Associate
Pedro is an Investment Associate at Dealflow.eu, holding a Master’s Degree in Management and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Nova SBE. He has prior experience working as a Management Consultant at Deloitte and KPMG Portugal, with a stint at the European Commission within the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs. Currently, Pedro is dedicated to providing venture-building support for EIC Companies.
Louis Segers
Investment Associate
Louis Segers holds a Master’s degree in Management from emlyon Business School. Before joining Dealflow.eu, he began his career in venture capital as an analyst at Orange Ventures and 50 Partners. Louis brings his experience in startup operations and finance to provide venture-building support for EIC-backed companies.
Margherita Cielo
Senior Investment Analyst
Margherita holds a Master’s in Management Engineering from Politecnico of Milan and began her career in consulting at PwC. She later worked as a Senior Venture Capital Analyst at Doorway where she screened companies across the main European markets and closed 5 deals in Deep Tech, with a focus on Cleantech and AI. She also launched an advisory service featured on Forbes Italy. Currently a Senior Investment Analyst at Dealflow.eu, Margherita supports the CFO team, advising startups on strategic growth and fundraising initiatives.
Elena Orbetsova
Senior Investment Analyst
Elena holds an MSc in Infrastructure Investment and Finance from University College London. Before joining Dealflow.eu, Elena worked as an Investment and Valuations Analyst at Swiss Ventures Group in Zurich. She also gained experience in M&A Advisory and Private Equity in Vienna and London. At Dealflow.eu, Elena is responsible for the Healthcare industry.
Maria Heinonen
Senior Investment Officer
Maria brings expertise in supporting the growth of health technology companies and in preparing EU funding proposals. She has a Master’s degree in Genetics and Molecular biosciences from the University of Helsinki, and has since then been working in an innovation consultancy company and a startup hub, supporting health technology innovations. Maria joined Dealflow in July 2023 as a Grant Officer & Senior Analyst and is currently supporting mainly health technology companies in securing EU funding, and developing the grant writing services further.
Dennis Seifert
Investment Officer
Dennis holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. Before joining Dealflow.eu, Dennis worked in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Energy where he contributed to EU’s energy policy coordination and interinstitutional affairs. He also worked at the OECD in Paris with a focus on quantitative analysis of Europe’s climate policy landscape. At Dealflow.eu, Dennis supports energy deep-tech startups to scale up and access EU-funding opportunities.
Teresa Nicolau
Investment Analyst
Teresa holds a MSc in Financial Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and a BSc in Management from NOVA SBE. With internships in strategic consulting and transaction management at AskBlue and the EIB, Teresa gained further expertise in financial services during her two years in the Market Operations Division at the ECB. Now at Dealflow.eu, she serves as the Vertical Leader for Software, Fintech, Connectivity, and Security startups.
Vittorio Sambuy
Investment Analyst
Vittorio has a Master’s in International Management from NOVA SBE and a Bachelor’s in Environmental Engineering from UCL. After five busy years in London, with internships in energy and a stint in investment banking at ING, he joined Dealflow.eu. Now, as Vertical Leader for Food & Agtech and New Materials & Construction, Vittorio brings his expertise to help drive sustainable tech solutions forward.
Beatriz Pedrosa
Investment Analyst
Beatriz is an Investment Analyst at Dealflow.eu, holding a Master’s degree in Management from Nova SBE. She has worked in multinational companies in Portugal and Switzerland, gaining valuable experience in consulting and business strategy, and has actively supported early-stage startups. Currently, she oversees the MedTech sector, helping startups in this area to scale up.
Raffaele Foschini
Data Analyst
Raffaele holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Politecnico di Milano and a Master’s degree in Management with a major in Data Analysis from Lisbon’s ISEG School of Economics & Management. After graduating, he spent one year as a Business Data Analyst at Lenovo’s Italian branch, where he gained valuable expertise in data visualisation. At Dealflow.eu He now holds the position of Investment Data Analyst, focusing on data-driven insights to support business decisions and operations.
Hélène d’Orléans
Data Analyst
Hélène is a Mathematics graduate from the university of Durham, with coding skills acquired from attending and teaching a Data Science bootcamp, le Wagon. During her two years living in London, Hélène has gained experience in climate consulting and carbon footprinting, before moving to Lisbon where she has joined Dealflow.eu as a Data Analyst.
Pierpaolo Vaccaro
Investment Analyst
Pierpaolo holds a Double Master’s Degree in International Management at University College Dublin and Korea University. He has experience in consulting and in the strategy department of a French scale-up. At Dealflow.eu, he works for the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme and other Corporate activities.