Kelly Chen

Kelly leads the direct investment portfolio’s commercial success at the NIF, ensuring that our deep tech startups get a front row seat to proprietary pain points of the largest, most relevant global customers. As an investor and board member, she works closely with deep tech founders on strategy and commercialization, and the million other obstacles that will come up while building a successful company.

Previously, Kelly was a Partner at DCVC, a $4B AUM deep tech venture capital fund based in Silicon Valley, where she led investments and served on the board of companies building revolutionary tech in AI, robotics, manufacturing, logistics, and sustainability. Earlier, Kelly was a fixed-income derivatives trader in New York, overseeing nearly $2B, an angel investor, and had built out a new securitized trading product for a global investment bank. It was in that quantitative role that she started relentlessly focusing on the non-quantitative side of business – understanding customer needs, the sales process, and building trust. Kelly has a BS/MS from Columbia Engineering and an MBA from Wharton. Outside of work, she is most likely found in the ocean – diving, kiting, or testing the max speed on her eFoil.