EVCA Newsletter | April Edition - the latest VC jobs, news, and content
After four years at the helm of this newsletter, it’s time for me to say goodbye and pass along the torch to the next generation. What began as a side project during the peak of the pandemic to keep our growing EVCA community connected turned into something far more meaningful—a space to share ideas, celebrate wins, surface challenges, and feel a little less alone on the venture path. It’s been a privilege to help tell the story of this next generation of investors and to learn from so many of you along the way. While I’m stepping away from the newsletter, I’m not going far—please don’t hesitate to reach out and connect with me on LinkedIn.
And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!
Featured Investors
This month we highlight Tom Springer of BMW i Ventures and Summer Hua of Aramco Ventures as our featured investors of the EVCA community.
Tom Springer is an Analyst at BMW i Ventures, where he focuses on investments across robotics, energy, and climate tech. He joined BMW i Ventures in early 2023, initially based in Munich. Now back in San Francisco, he's leveraging the region's unique concentration of talent and contrarian perspectives to identify meaningful outliers and feed an insatiable curiosity. Previously, Tom began his career at an enterprise software startup, where he experienced firsthand the challenges of product-led growth—discovering intense customer engagement and precise alignment between product and market often matter far more than sheer technical innovation alone. Since 2018, Tom has actively engaged in social impact initiatives in South Africa, working to drive meaningful outcomes in resource-constrained environments through higher education sponsorships and technology access initiatives, leading NGO Ditsala.
Summer Hua is an investor at Aramco Ventures, a $7.5B AUM venture capital arm of the world’s largest energy company. As the first hire in California, Summer wears an “entrepreneurial” hat, playing a pivotal role in establishing the firm’s presence on the West Coast through sourcing and investing in deeptech companies from seed to pre-IPO. Her passion in impact-driven solutions drives her to develop theses and investments across energy efficiency and industrial digitization. Summer graduated from UC Berkeley with degrees in Business Administration, Economics, and Data Science.
EVCA Leaders: Climate Tech Vertical Co-Lead, Sydney Chiu
This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.
Sydney Chiu is a Senior Associate at Clearvision Ventures and focuses on investing in early stage as well as growth stage companies at the intersection of sustainability, infrastructure, and technology. She started off her career in investment banking at Deutsche Bank in the NYC Industrials group, covering industries such as transportation, diversified conglomerates, and industrial tech. Prior to Clearvision, Sydney was at Apple in Cupertino, working to bridge supply chain shortages as well as plan cost and operations strategy across both sustaining and future products. Sydney has a BSBA in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis. In her free time, Sydney enjoys practicing martial arts, attending music events, and finding ways to practice sustainability on a regular basis.
What We’re Reading
Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:
Pandora’s Box: What History Teaches Us About Tech Revolutions - Phoebe Zhang of DivcoWest provides an overview of the historical evolution of some of tech’s most revolutionizing inventions.
Builders Are Everywhere - Jesse Rodgers of Builders Club, explains why startup ecosystems thrive when we stop chasing founders and start supporting the people doing the work
The Wisdom of Bill Gurley - Kevin Zhang takes a look at US-China tariffs through the lens of American competitiveness and argues that tariffs are a net negative to America long-term
Why We Need to Log Some Hours Holding Babies - Nicole Ruiz of CompoundVC, shares why holding a baby might be the most radical thing you’ve done in your lifetime
For LPs evaluating new VC managers: my 2x2 framework - Raph Grieco of Olive Capital, provides a framework for aligning vision with readiness when backing first-time VC funds (micro ones in particular)
Events
➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.
Jobs
Corporate Venture Capital Principal at SAIC in San Francisco
Principal - Venture Capital - at the StepStone Group in Palo Alto
Junior Partner or Partner at Outlander VC in San Francisco or New York
Associate/senior associate at Infinity Ventures in San Francisco or New York.
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, and Isaac
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