AP Ventures has a diverse, multidisciplinary team with deep expertise across industry, science, engineering and finance. Our backgrounds span chemistry, materials science, engineering, venture investing, corporate strategy and largescale project execution.
This technical depth enables us to evaluate, select and support companies in the most demanding parts of the energy and industrial system, sectors where specialist knowledge and strong networks are essential.
We combine this technical depth with active company building experience, enabling us to support founders from early development through commercialisation, market entry and scaleup. Our team works closely with our global network of Limited Partners, creating a collaborative ecosystem that connects portfolio companies to industrial insight, strategic partnerships and value enhancing opportunities.
Alexis is a Senior Investment Manager at AP Ventures. He is responsible for deal origination, structuring and execution, and for supporting research into the hydrogen value chain. His areas of focus span industrial decarbonisation (steel, cement, agriculture), hydrogen and industrial gas logistics, power generation and geologic hydrogen. Alexis has led the Fund’s investments into Hypermotive, Noble Gas Systems, Snowfox and Rosy Soil. He is a Director on Hypermotive’s board and a board observer at Noble Gas and Snowfox.
Prior to joining AP Ventures, Alexis worked as a management consultant for Kearney, where he gained experience in Private Equity and M&A, Operations and Strategy, mostly in the energy sector.
Alexis holds a MSc. in Aerospace Engineering from ISAE in Toulouse, France, as well as a Masters in Management from London Business School.
Outside of work, Alexis enjoys culinary arts, as well as outdoor activities, especially if it involves going up a mountain by foot or on skis.
Andrew Hinkly is the Founding Managing Partner of AP Ventures. He is a board member of Amogy, GreyRock, Hazer, Hydrogen Mem-Tech, Fabrum, Noble Gas and Rosy Soil.
He has enjoyed a high-profile career spanning more than 30 years working in the automotive, mining, and venture capital industries. He held several senior leadership positions at Anglo American, where he worked for a decade and was a member of the Anglo American Platinum Executive Committee.
He previously held senior roles at Ford Motor Company where he was a member of the North American Executive Committee.
Andrew has an MBA from the University of Manchester and a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Loughborough.
Andrew is a committed sailor, cyclist and commercial pilot.
Angela is an Investor Relations Associate at AP Ventures, supporting the fundraising and investor relations team. She is also responsible for marketing and PR for AP Ventures.
Before joining AP Ventures, Angela worked for an organisation specialising in professional development for the public and voluntary sectors, leading the conference production team to deliver events and content on a wide range of public policy topics.
Angela holds a BA in Japanese and East Asian studies from the University of Cambridge, and a MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London. As part of her undergraduate degree, Angela lived in Kyoto for one year, participating in the Nichibun programme at Doshisha University.
Outside of work, Angela enjoys reading, watercolour painting and swimming.
Birgit Behrendt is a Venture Partner at AP Ventures and a senior advisor and Board member to Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies and Infinium Holdings, Inc.
She is an experienced global automotive leader with an extensive career in supply chain management and procurement. A former Company Officer of Ford Motor Company Birgit has lived and worked in Europe and the US. She held positions as Vice President Global Purchasing and as Vice President Joint Ventures, Alliances & Commercial Affairs and was a board member of Joint Venture companies in Germany, Russia and Turkey. Birgit continues to serve on the Board of Ford in Germany.
Furthermore, Birgit is an independent Supervisory Board member of KION Group AG, thyssenkrupp AG and Umicore SA.
Birgit has a degree in Business Administration from the Academy of Administration and Economics (Verwaltungs-und Wirtschaftsakademie – VWA), Germany
Outside of work Birgit loves to read, spend time near or on the water and runs to eat.
Caelin is an IR and ESG Analyst at AP Ventures. She supports the firm’s investor relations activities, including fundraising and CRM systems management. In parallel, she leads ESG reporting and its integration across the investment process. Her role also involves regular engagement with Limited Partners and portfolio companies on ESG matters.
Before joining AP Ventures’ London office, Caelin worked at a low carbon Impact Fund in Toronto, where she supported the investment team with portfolio management systems, ESG due diligence, and impact reporting.
Caelin holds an MSc in Sustainability Management from the University of Toronto, where her research focused on analysing policy gaps that contribute to fugitive methane emissions in Western Canada’s oil and gas sector. As part of her master’s, she worked on developing a baseline GHG inventory for a local manufacturing company.
Outside work, Caelin enjoys reading, skiing and spending time outdoors. Since moving to London, she has enjoyed exploring different parts of the UK and Europe.
Calum is an Investment Manager at AP Ventures and leads the firms’ San Francisco office. He is responsible for deal sourcing, structuring, execution and technical analysis, as well as and the Fund’s follow-on and portfolio construction strategy.
Calum has led investments in Aether Fuels, Amogy, Immaterial, Mitico and Ravel, and represents AP Ventures on the Boards of multiple portfolio companies as Director or Observer.
Prior to joining AP Ventures, Calum worked at Frazer-Nash Consultancy, advising clients across power generation, gas turbines, nuclear, and defence sectors. He is a published scientist and previously conducted research at EMPA, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, in Thun, Switzerland. He holds an MA MSci in Natural Sciences, specialising in Materials Science, from the University of Cambridge. Outside of work, Calum enjoys swimming, cycling, running and being in the mountains.
Charlie is a Senior Investment Manager and has been with AP Ventures for seven years. He is responsible for deal origination, structuring and execution, as well as managing companies post-investment. He also leads the Fund’s research workstream and manages a number of Limited Partner relationships.
Charlie manages five of the investments in Fund II and two in Fund III. He sits as a Board Director for three companies and as Board Observer on three.
Prior to AP Ventures, Charlie worked for two years in the metals and mining team at an investment bank, and for four years at EY Advisory. Charlie holds a BSc in Natural Sciences from Durham University and an MSc in Metals and Energy Finance from Imperial College London.
Charlotte is an Investment Analyst at AP Ventures, focusing on deal origination and execution across the carbon capture and utilisation, bio-based processes, and the circular economy. Alongside deal support, she researches emerging carbon utilisation and bioprocessing technologies to help guide the Fund’s investment decisions. She co-led the Fund’s investments into Rosy Soil and Rubi Laboratories and currently sits as an Observer on both Boards.
Before joining AP Ventures, she worked at PA Consulting, specialising in private equity and strategy within the decarbonisation sector, conducting due diligence and market analysis for potential acquisitions.
Charlotte holds an MEng in Chemical Engineering with Management from the University of Edinburgh, where she worked on carbon capture design and bioprocessing projects.
Outside of work, she enjoys running, reading, and walking her dogs.
Daisy is a Senior Finance Manager at AP Ventures. She is part of the AP Ventures finance team and oversees investment valuations and reporting to investors on investment performance. Daisy is also responsible for a number of the key South African relationships with investors and regulators.
Prior to joining AP Ventures, Daisy worked at African Rainbow Capital as Group Finance Manager and was responsible for group financial reporting, financial administration and financial control across various investment holding companies, the listed entity within the group and an asset management company. Daisy’s other previous experience includes roles as an External Auditor at Deloitte and SNG Grant Thornton and as an Internal Auditor at the FirstRand Group.
Daisy is a Chartered Accountant (CA(SA)) and holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, as well as an MBA from Wits Business School. Daisy is admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa.
Outside of work, Daisy enjoys spending time with her family and friends, baking, cycling and travelling.
Elaine is the Executive Assistant and Office Manager at AP Ventures. Her support is essential to ensuring the successful coordination of a busy team. Elaine also supports the Investment Committee and Compliance functions within the business.
Prior to AP Ventures, Elaine has held similar roles over the past 30 years within the finance industry, ranging from global organisations to smaller start-up businesses.
Outside of work, Elaine enjoys yoga and long dog walks with her family.
Elisabeth is an Investment Associate at AP Ventures focussed on deal origination, execution, research, and representing AP Ventures in its US office in San Francisco.
Elisabeth co-led the Fund’s investments into Mitico and CREW Carbon and currently sits as an Observer on both Boards.
Prior to joining AP Ventures, Elisabeth gained experience working in the US and the UK. She started her career at Johnson Matthey where she worked in commercial and operational roles in the Precious Metals, Catalyst Technologies, and Battery Materials business units. Most recently Elisabeth was part of the Strategy team at First Mode, an Anglo American spin-off, focussed on the decarbonisation of heavy duty applications with an initial focus on mine haulage.
Elisabeth holds an Integrated Masters in Chemistry (MChem) from the University of Edinburgh. During her studies Elisabeth co-founded a healthcare start-up Augment Bionics, and started the Edinburgh University Women in STEM Society.
In her spare time Elisabeth enjoys playing volleyball, tennis, and the piano.
George is an Investment Associate at AP Ventures, where he contributes to the origination and execution of investments across the industrial decarbonisation value chain. He supported the Fund's investments in Snowfox and Rosy Soil, and works with portfolio companies after investment. George also conducts in-depth research on emerging technologies to guide the Fund's investment decisions.
Prior to joining AP Ventures, George was technical business development lead and R&D project manager at FAC Technology, a startup developing advanced composite materials for decarbonisation in aerospace and automotive. He led the commercialisation of novel insulation systems for electric vehicle powertrains, spanning both the technology and its route to market.
George holds a PhD and a first-class MEng from the Mechanical Engineering department at Imperial College London. His doctoral research, funded by EPSRC and an industry partner, examined the damage resistance of carbon fibre composite sandwich structures under high-rate loading.
Outside of work, George enjoys rock climbing and cycling.
Heledd is the Investor Relations Operations lead at AP Ventures primarily focused on coordinating the support of our Limited Partners and the fundraising team.
Heledd has a background working in philanthropic fundraising within the healthcare sector. She holds a BSc in Geography from the University of Bristol.
Outside of work Heledd enjoys yoga, gardening and takes any opportunity to get her hiking boots on.
James is a Senior Investment Manager responsible for portfolio management strategy in parallel with closing new and follow-on investments with his team. He supports research and thesis development across Fund III investment areas, including low-carbon and circularity, and is the relationship owner for several of the Fund's limited partners, and supports quarterly reporting across the Fund. James has led investments into Infinium and Airhive, where he is an Observer and Director, respectively. Through his team, James has contributed to the closing of Mitico, CREW Carbon, Rubi Laboratories, and Ravel.
Prior to joining AP Ventures in 2019, James spent five years with BP Upstream Exploration, where he specialised in technical and project management engineering of subsea well system projects, predominantly in the Caspian Sea region.
James holds an MEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bristol and an MBA from London Business School with a concentration in private equity.
Outside of work James enjoys cycling and is a keen skier.
Karoline joined AP Ventures in 2025 as an Investment Analyst. She supports the deal team across sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio management, and leads the firm’s ongoing engagement with its Limited Partner, KIRKBI Climate - the climate investment arm of KIRKBI A/S, which invests in scalable businesses and technologies focused on energy transition, circular plastics, and land sustainability to help build a more resilient and sustainable planet.
Prior to AP Ventures, Karoline was part of the Energy Transition team at KIRKBI Climate, where she contributed to shaping investment strategy, driving transactions, and managing portfolio companies across both emerging and mature technologies aimed at accelerating the decarbonization of global energy systems.
Outside of work, Karoline enjoys spending time outdoors, discovering new places, and exploring new music genres.
Kevin Eggers is a Founding Partner of AP Ventures. He is a board member of several AP Ventures' portfolio companies.
Kevin has a broad range of international experience spanning nearly twenty-five years, having worked extensively across Europe, South Africa and the United States. Prior to founding AP Ventures, Kevin was with Anglo American plc for 10 years in various senior Commercial and Corporate Finance positions.
Kevin received his honours degree in Business Science from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and initially qualified as a Chartered Accountant..
Kevin is passionate about investing and rapidly scaling advanced technologies addressing societies biggest challenges.
Away from investing, Kevin enjoys health, fitness and the outdoors.
Khangzhen is an Investment Associate at AP Ventures, supporting origination, diligence, and execution across industrial decarbonisation investments, and researching emerging technologies across the energy transition. He led the fund’s first software investment and supported a complex synthetic fuels technology transaction. He also manages the fund’s deal-flow platform.
Prior to AP Ventures, he worked in sustainable investment research at Lombard Odier, supporting the Plastic Circularity growth equity fund; and at E4tech, where he focused on hydrogen, bioenergy, and energy system innovation. He began his career in a cleantech startup and in water technology engineering.
He holds an MPhil in engineering for sustainable development from the University of Cambridge and a degree in chemical engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Outside of work, Khangzhen enjoys spending time with his young family and cycling up hills.
Mardé van Wyk has obtained extensive experience in Private Equity over the last 14 years working with and being responsible for a broad spectrum of private market transactions, across the entire deal value chain. Underpinned by a strong financial skillset, her expertise lie in deal structuring and portfolio management, including investment restructuring – a skillset obtained whilst working with distressed investments at South Africa’s largest asset manager. Mardé is regarded as a solutions specialist with an appreciation for innovation and sector exposure spanning a myriad of investment (direct and funds) positions facilitated from generalist to financial services, logistics, energy, food security, housing, education, tourism, real estate focused, just to name a few. As a golden thread throughout her work Mardé is passionate about being involved in the promotion and incorporation of gender, racial and ethnic equity in investment decision-making. She has served on the Board, Advisory Board and various sub-committees of a number of underlying companies and funds during her tenor as an investment professional.
Mardé holds a Bachelors in Accounting Science and is an alumni of the Oxford Private Equity Programme.
Niki is a member of AP Ventures Investment Committee. As an independent committee member, she is separately a part of within PIMCO’s Alternative Investments Team.
Prior to joining PIMCO in 2019, she was part of the early team of GreenOak Real Estate, now BentallGreenOak, which she helped kickstart. Prior to that, Ms. Dembitz was at McKinsey & Company, focusing on strategic reviews and planning for boards and corporate clients. She started her career in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley and then moved to the firm’s real estate division (MSREF) to focus on acquisitions across Europe and other locations. She has 17 years of investment and financial services experience and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an undergraduate degree in economics from Yale University and a degree from Singularity University.
Born and raised in Switzerland, she’s a keen powder skier and environment enthusiast.
Pamela Darchiville is the Chief Financial Officer/Compliance Officer at AP Ventures and manages the Finance team and Office Manager. She is also responsible for HR and legal (relating to the AP Ventures structure).
Pam has worked at AP Ventures since inception and introduced many of the controls and processes currently in place.
She has over 20 years’ experience working in a similar role for Venture Capital and Private Equity firms.
Pam is a qualified accountant and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Outside work Pam enjoys cooking, exercising, travelling and spending time with family and friends.
Penny Freer has worked with AP Ventures since its launch. She is the Chairman of AP Ventures LLP and also Chairs the Investment Committee and the Limited Partner Advisory Committee.
Penny has considerable business experience with more than 25 years working in finance where she has held senior leadership positions including at Robert W Baird where she was responsible for the Equity Capital Markets activities and was a member of the UK Board.
Over the past 10 years Penny has worked with high growth companies as an investor and as an advisor. She has also served as a non-executive director for listed companies and funds.
Penny holds a BA (Hons) in Geography from the University of Leicester. In her free time Penny enjoys reading, skiing and sailing.
Ran Li is a Senior Fund Accountant at AP Ventures. She is responsible for the production of management accounts and various financial statements, drawdowns and distribution notices for the Limited Partners as well as monitoring the company compliance programme.
Ran has a background in accounting. Prior to starting at AP Ventures she worked for five years in a medium size accountancy practice, and five years at IQ-EQ Fund Administration services.
Ran holds an upper second-class BSC in Finance and Accounting from Brunel University and an MSc in Risk Management and Financial Engineering from Imperial College London.
Ran is a qualified accountant and has been a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants since 2015.
Outside work Ran enjoys walking, reading, travelling and photography.
Sabah is the Management Accountant at AP Ventures, where she supports the finance team. She is responsible for the production of the management accounts for three entities. Her responsibilities also include capital account preparation and managing FCA regulatory returns.
Sabah studied Mathematics at the University of Surrey, is ACCA part qualified and aims to be fully qualified by 2027. With five years of accounting experience, she has worked across a range of sectors including education, the arts, technology, and fund management.
Outside of work, Sabah enjoys reading, travelling, and skating.
Shimpei joined AP Ventures in 2026 as an Investment Manager. He is responsible for deal sourcing and execution, as well as portfolio company management. He also leads relationships with three of AP Ventures’ Limited Partners from Japan: JGC, MOL and Sumitomo Corporation.
Prior to joining AP Ventures, Shimpei spent over a decade in Sumitomo’s corporate venture capital team, where he was responsible for deal sourcing, execution, and business development with portfolio companies in North America, Europe and Asia, covering many industries but with special focus on cleantech fields including hydrogen, biofuels, batteries and photovoltaics. He also spent six years with Sumitomo’s mobile telecom businesses in Mongolia and Myanmar, working on initiatives including network optimisation, multimedia offerings, dark fibre resale, and mobile finance. Most recently, his responsibilities included Sumitomo’s Quantum Transformation initiative, where he conducted quantum computing PoC projects with Sumitomo’s partner and portfolio companies in verticals including mining and financial services. Before Sumitomo, his career took him through the Tokyo offices of Bain & Company and Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting (present-day ABeam Consulting).
Shimpei holds a BS in Physics from Stanford University.
Outside of work, Shimpei enjoys cooking and learning history. He is also an avid fan of classical music, often found in concert halls on weekends.
Yohei is an Investment Associate at AP Ventures, where he contributes to deal origination, structuring, and execution across the hydrogen and CCUS value chains — spanning methane pyrolysis, fuel cells, steel decarbonisation pathways and geological hydrogen space. He is also involved in portfolio company management and leads the investor relationship with a Limited Partner, Mitsubishi Corporation (“MC”), working closely with their executive team to help them maximise their investment in the Fund.
Prior to joining AP Ventures, Yohei served in the business development function at Mitsubishi Corporation, focusing on projects and building strategic partnerships related to hydrogen, synthetic fuels, and biofuels, including feedstocks. During his time at MC, he also conducted European natural gas market analysis and negotiated commercial and operational terms and structures for LNG projects and buyers.
Yohei holds a Bachelor's degree in International Business and Finance from the School of Business at The George Washington University.
Outside of work, Yohei has a deep passion for food and enjoys travelling and discovering new cultures.
Yonatan Sher is Head of Legal at AP Ventures.
Yonatan assisted with the initial formation of AP Ventures, and prior to that he specialised in public and private M&A and Equity Capital Markets at a leading corporate law firm.
Yonatan holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree and is admitted as an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa.
In his free time, Yonatan enjoys travelling, hiking and reading.
