Techstars Announces Two New Executive Team Leaders: Rupa Athreya Appointed Chief Accelerator Investments Officer & Marie Moussavou Appointed Chief Portfolio Services Officer
6.1.2022 16:00:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
Techstars, a global investment business that provides access to capital, one-on-one mentorship, and customized programming for early-stage entrepreneurs, has created two new leadership roles as the company continues to scale to serve more founders around the world. With $850 million in assets under management, 47 accelerator programs in 17 countries, and a global alumni base of more than 2,700 companies, both roles will provide strategic and operational support to thousands of entrepreneurs. Athreya and Moussavou will report directly to the company’s CEO, Maelle Gavet.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220106005289/en/
Newly appointed Chief Accelerator Investments Officer Rupa Athreya (Photo: Business Wire)
“Techstars has an unprecedented ability to impact entrepreneurs through our unique pre-seed investment model that identifies exceptional entrepreneurs worldwide and supports them operationally and financially as they build their businesses,” stated Gavet. “We count on globally experienced executives with the ability to think big-picture, enabling the organization to operate at scale which is why both Marie and Rupa are such wonderful additions to our global management team.”
As the company’s first Chief Accelerator Investments Officer, Rupa Athreya will lead a worldwide team of more than 75 investment professionals who represent Techstars in 37 cities around the world. Techstars operates under the principle that the best founders can come from anywhere, running programs locally in the cities where the entrepreneurs operate or seek to grow. Techstars maintains a small class size ranging from 10 to 12 portfolio companies and runs multiple programs in cities with larger entrepreneur ecosystems. Techstars’ Accelerator Investment Team invested approximately $94 million last year and will continue to grow its portfolio as investors around the world seek to invest in viable early-stage companies. Overseeing this decentralized approach requires a seasoned executive with a strategic mindset, strong operational skills and global experience.
Having worked at global firms such as OppenheimerFunds, JPMorgan Chase, Bloomberg and McKinsey, Athreya has most recently been an independent consultant advising startups and new businesses as well as global financial institutions on strategy, innovation, and go-to-market execution. She has close to 20 years of expertise in building and launching new businesses and products, having led product development at OppenheimerFunds, founded a robo-advisor at Bloomberg and launched the Chase Private Client business at JPMorgan Chase. She has a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University, a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Delhi. She will continue to be based out of New York, NY.
As Techstars’ first Chief Portfolio Services Officer, Marie Moussavou will be responsible for advancing growth, providing infrastructure support and investment opportunities for Techstars’ more than 6,500 alumni founders as they lead their companies through later stages. Portfolio Services provides capital and funding, business development and talent connections, mentorship, and knowledge exchange for Techstars’ network of founders, investors, mentors and innovation partners. With this ever-growing network, the Portfolio Services team under Moussavou’s leadership will maintain deep, personal relationships with founders while leveraging robust data management skills to offer founders customized and scalable support.
Moussavou has a proven track record of scaling high growth, customer-focused organizations through innovation and operational excellence. Most recently she worked at Amazon for 15 years in various senior roles, including Technical Advisor to the SVP for International, Director of Alexa Europe, and Director of Operations for Amazon Transportation Services Europe. Marie has an MBA from the London Business School and lives in London, U.K., where she will continue to be based.
About Techstars
The Techstars worldwide network helps entrepreneurs succeed. Founded in 2006, Techstars began with three simple ideas—entrepreneurs create a better future for everyone, collaboration drives innovation, and great ideas can come from anywhere. Now we are on a mission to enable every person on the planet to contribute to, and benefit from, the success of entrepreneurs. In addition to operating accelerator programs and venture capital funds, we do this by connecting startups, investors, corporations, and cities to help build thriving startup communities. Techstars has invested in more than 2,800 companies with a combined market cap of more than $195B. www.techstars.com
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220106005289/en/
Contact information
Ali Whitman
ali.whitman@techstars.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Vertex Presents New Data on ALYFTREK ® at European Cystic Fibrosis Conference5.6.2026 19:00:00 EEST | Press release
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX) today announced data demonstrating the potentially transformative impact of treating cystic fibrosis (CF) with ALYFTREK ® (vanzacaftor/tezacaftor/deutivacaftor) in children ages 2 to 5, as well as data from 96-week interim analyses of two open-label extension studies of ALYFTREK in children 6 to 11 years and people 12 years and older demonstrating the long-term safety and efficacy profile of the medicine. The data, presented at the European Cystic Fibrosis Conference, show children ages 2 to 5 with vanzacaftor/tezacaftor/deutivacaftor-responsive genotypes including those who are homozygous for the F508del mutation (F/F) and those who have F508del/minimal function mutations (F/MF)on ALYFTREK had further improvement in CFTR function from a TRIKAFTA ® baseline as measured by sweat chloride (SwCl), with 65% having achieved SwCl <30 mmol/L after treatment with ALYFTREK. Vertex also presented Phase 3 data of children ages 1 to <2 with TRIKAF
Owkin to Build AI Agents as Part of a Multi-Year K Pro Collaboration with Sanofi5.6.2026 14:00:00 EEST | Press release
Owkin, the agentic AI company pioneering Biological Artificial Superintelligence to transform drug discovery and development, today announced a multi-year collaboration with Sanofi to co-develop next-generation biopharma agents, to be backed by a five-year license for K Pro, Owkin’s AI Scientist. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260605704506/en/ K Pro, Owkin's AI scientist for biology, powered by multimodal patient data for smarter biopharma decision making. Owkin and Sanofi have collaborated since 2021 through a €90 million strategic partnership focused on target identification in oncology and patient subgrouping. The collaboration was later expanded to include drug positioning for Sanofi’s immunology pipeline. This new collaboration represents the next evolution in the partnership. During the five-year collaboration, Owkin will lead the end-to-end development of novel AI-driven biopharma agents purpose-built
DFNS Rebrands as the Core Banking Platform for Digital Assets5.6.2026 13:41:00 EEST | Press release
DFNS today announced a rebrand, marking its evolution from a wallet infrastructure to the first core banking platform for digital assets. The company is introducing a new logo, website, and market position as fintechs and institutions move their products and operations onchain. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260603859127/en/ Banks, fintechs, asset managers, trading firms, payment providers, market infrastructures, and clearing houses have stopped asking how to "add crypto." They're asking how to run financial products, controls, workflows, and client services on blockchain rails, with the reliability expected of core infrastructure. Some are going further still, exploring whether the blockchain can serve as the ledger itself, where an account is an onchain object rather than a row in a database. Where IBANs, virtual accounts, and blockchain wallets converge into one governed financial account. “DFNS was built
Compass Pathways Announces New Employee Inducement Grants Under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4)5.6.2026 13:30:00 EEST | Press release
Compass Pathways plc (Nasdaq: CMPS), a biotechnology company dedicated to accelerating patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health, announced today that Compass granted equity awards under the Compass Pathways plc 2026 Inducement Plan to seventeen newly hired non-executive employees. The equity awards were granted on June 1, 2026 and consisted of options to purchase an aggregate of 157,000 shares and restricted share units or, in the case of employees in the United Kingdom nominal cost options, covering an aggregate of 74,700 shares. The options have an exercise price per share equal to $14.19, the closing price of the Company’s American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on the grant date, and will vest over a four-year period with 25% vesting on the first anniversary of the date of the grant and the remaining 75% vesting in equal monthly installments over the three-year period thereafter, subject to each employee’s continued employment. The restrict
Renewable Electricity, Soft Wheat Flour From Regenerative Agriculture, Initiatives to Support Local Communities: Barilla Shares These and Other Projects in “Stories of Sustainability.”5.6.2026 11:00:00 EEST | Press release
A slimmer Tagliatelle pack that saves 150 tons of cardboard and cuts transport-related CO₂ emissions by 20%1; ready-made sauce jars made with around 65% recycled glass; the progressive scaling of regenerative agriculture practices across Barilla’s value chain and initiatives supporting inclusion and equal opportunities across the Group’s production sites and communities. These are just some of the “sustainability” stories the Barilla Group is sharing on World Environment Day with the publication of its 2025 Sustainability Report. The report comes just after Barilla was named the world’s most reputable company in the food sector for the third year running and, for the first time, ranked among the global top 10 in the Global RepTrak 100 2026. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260603162436/en/ “The future of the planet will increasingly depend on our ability to spread culture and education,” says Paolo Barilla, Vic
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom