Darja Nelson

Commercialisation Manager - Biotech at Bridgewest Ventures, New Zealand

Speaker

Darja Nelson is an accomplished commercialisation professional at Bridgewest Ventures in New Zealand. Bridgewest Ventures is the early stage investment arm of Bridgewest Group, a global investment firm headquartered in Miami, Florida with $3billion in unleveraged investment capital. As a Commercialisation Manager Biotech, she works with Bridgewest incubated Life Science portfolio companies to support their commercial strategy and development. In her capacity, she also champions new investments in the life sciences sector as well as working to support the Bridgewest life sciences investment strategy.

Darja has extensive experience in science commercialisation and early-stage start-ups. She has worked with leading universities and research institutes across New Zealand in science and commercialization to identify promising technologies and build investment and commercialisation strategy to move them from the bench to the market. She led the spin-out of one such technology, building a business alongside the research inventor and raising capital from local and global VCs to support the company's growth. Her first-hand experience at running a 0-1 stage start-up based on deep science enable her to continue to mentor scientists and founders and provide guidance through her various governance and management support roles.