Krystal Somaza
Senior Associate
Technology only matters if it survives commercial reality, the world doesn't change through science projects alone. I look to back founders building the foundational, load-bearing infrastructure of the future, builders who prioritise real impact over noise.
Backstory
On the lookout for
I was born in Pittsburgh, but grew up across three countries over seventeen years - the US, Mexico and Venezuela. Raised by doctors, curiosity was always rewarded, and I got hooked early on understanding how people think and how things work, from Nordic mythology to marine biology. Economics and finance eventually won out over law school, and a Master's at the University of Edinburgh brought a real shift: I didn't want a role, I wanted to build something.
I became the third employee at a London startup building a MiFID II data solution - seven years, intern to Head of Data Analytics. I lived the realities of building from scratch: product-market fit, a seed round, pivoting fast - once spending two years on a machine learning platform only to scrap it when the market wasn't ready. That built real empathy for founders. Later, as an investor at Aramco Ventures focused on industrial technologies, I found depth hiding in sectors most people wrote off as boring. When Adara told me, "there are a lot of opinions, but we want people who can bring facts," I knew I'd found my place.
Early-stage deep tech is full of compelling visions, the hard part is knowing which ones survive reality. I'm drawn to companies building the unsexy, load-bearing parts of a system, the infrastructure nobody talks about until it breaks. Too much of climate tech and AI gets evaluated on intention rather than economics. Tthe world changes when technology becomes economically inevitable, not only when it's a good idea.
I build conviction by constantly questioning, testing and updating my own assumptions and I value substance over noise.
Outside investing, my life runs on traveling to see people I love across the globe, walking the Camino de Santiago (three times so far), and clearing whole weekends for unnecessarily complex board games like Brass or Anno 1800 - I love watching a system you built either hold together or fall apart.
Backstory
I was born in Pittsburgh, but grew up across three countries over seventeen years - the US, Mexico and Venezuela. Raised by doctors, curiosity was always rewarded, and I got hooked early on understanding how people think and how things work, from Nordic mythology to marine biology. Economics and finance eventually won out over law school, and a Master's at the University of Edinburgh brought a real shift: I didn't want a role, I wanted to build something.
I became the third employee at a London startup building a MiFID II data solution - seven years, intern to Head of Data Analytics. I lived the realities of building from scratch: product-market fit, a seed round, pivoting fast - once spending two years on a machine learning platform only to scrap it when the market wasn't ready. That built real empathy for founders. Later, as an investor at Aramco Ventures focused on industrial technologies, I found depth hiding in sectors most people wrote off as boring. When Adara told me, "there are a lot of opinions, but we want people who can bring facts," I knew I'd found my place.
On the lookout for
Early-stage deep tech is full of compelling visions, the hard part is knowing which ones survive reality. I'm drawn to companies building the unsexy, load-bearing parts of a system, the infrastructure nobody talks about until it breaks. Too much of climate tech and AI gets evaluated on intention rather than economics. Tthe world changes when technology becomes economically inevitable, not only when it's a good idea.
I build conviction by constantly questioning, testing and updating my own assumptions and I value substance over noise.
Outside investing, my life runs on traveling to see people I love across the globe, walking the Camino de Santiago (three times so far), and clearing whole weekends for unnecessarily complex board games like Brass or Anno 1800 - I love watching a system you built either hold together or fall apart.
Personal Side
Board Games / Hiking / Family & Friends
