Julia Wagner, Investor at Positron Ventures, shares her journey from mathematics and contemporary dance to venture capital, where she now focuses on funding groundbreaking science startups. In this conversation, she discusses the challenges of bridging scientific research with venture funding, the importance of deep tech investments, and how Europe can foster a more risk-tolerant innovation ecosystem.
Julia discovered her passion for mathematics and contemporary dance early in her life, eventually earning her PhD at ETH Zurich. She embraced the unpredictable, exhilarating world of entrepreneurship by launching NFTech Venture and co-founding the student-led VC S2S Ventures. Now at Positron Ventures, she is on the hunt for groundbreaking science startups.
First, I want to know a bit about your background—mathematics and contemporary dance.Are you still doing both? I mean, we know you do mathematics, but what about contemporary dance?
I would say I’m currently doing more contemporary dance than pure mathematics. I think I’m quite far from my mathematical studies, but I still dance very regularly.
Nice! Are you part of a club or a team?
I join artistic sessions focused on free dance and also take contemporary dance classes to improve my technique. Unfortunately, I haven’t found the time yet to work on my own choreography. That’s actually my goal for 2025—to bring together a group of people and put on a show. It’s a creative energy I try to work on during weekends, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Wonderful! Once you do it, please let us know—I think balancing hobbies and passions with work is so important. And speaking of work, let's go back to our main topic.
As a mathematician, how did you end up in venture capital?
I would say it was purely coincidental. I knew early on that entrepreneurship was interesting—my father is an entrepreneur, and I had my first startup job at 18. I was very motivated to have my own company, so I launched a solo venture in the education space alongside my studies.
However, I hadn’t heard much about venture capital. During my PhD, I quickly realized academia wasn’t the perfect place for me to build a career. Then, over a beer with some friends, the idea for a student venture fund in Switzerland was born.
We were discussing why Switzerland didn’t have a student-led VC like Dorm Room Fund in the U.S., which allows students to invest in startups led by their peers. Switzerland is a wealthy country, yet most ETH Zurich and EPFL graduates aim for Big Tech jobs. This was 2021, right after or in the middle of the pandemic, and many were looking for job security.
However, we noticed that many students were already working on small projects but lacked education and access to capital. They didn’t have the first 50K–100K needed to start a venture and dedicate real time to their ideas. That’s what we wanted to change—to make access to capital easier and create a peer-to-peer learning environment.
Who were the LPs behind S2S Ventures?
High-net-worth individuals. Interestingly, we didn’t have universities on board, even though other student-led funds do. Some of our LPs were female investors.
So, there were LPs willing to invest in young, talented students?
Yes! Most of them were deeply connected to the ecosystem. Some were serial entrepreneurs who had successfully exited a company, studied at ETH Zurich, and wanted to give back. A portion of the fund’s profits also went toward student education and events.
We also contributed to ETH’s first tech investing lecture, which educated students on venture capital. Many of our LPs wished they had received similar support when they were younger, so they were eager to fund the next generation.
S2S Ventures is still active, right?
Yes, it’s still running! I just heard yesterday that the new student team is onboarding. We now have three major teams in Zurich, Lausanne, and St. Gallen, and they continue to make investments every year.
Do you have a standout investment—perhaps not a unicorn, but one you’re particularly proud of?
It’s still early to say, but our first investment was Adaptive Bio, a Y Combinator company, which was a fantastic start. Another investment I’m particularly proud of is Corentix, which provides climate resilience analytics. They work with major consulting firms and are growing rapidly.
Some of our portfolio companies have already been successfully acquired or partially acquired, which is a great sign.
Now, you're at Positron Ventures. What is your investment thesis?
Positron Ventures invests in and supports scientist-entrepreneurs across Europe who want to commercialize their groundbreaking research and turn it into successful startups.
We focus on very early-stage researchers—often while they’re still at university, just as they’re spinning out their company. Most of our investments are in hardware-based research solving big problems in sustainability and health. We take a very thesis-driven approach, mapping out entire solution spaces before making bold bets on science.
Do you work closely with universities?
Yes, we work with universities, researchers, PhDs, and postdocs, as well as professors looking to spin out companies.
Is your focus on a specific region, such as Zurich?
Our primary focus is Europe. We’ve already made investments in the Netherlands, Germany, and, recently, Switzerland. While our investments are European, we engage with American and Asian universities to stay connected with global scientific advancements.
How would you define "science-based investments"?
I personally don’t use the term "impact investing" much because investing, by definition, should create impact.
For us, science-based investments are ventures that emerge from years of research, often protected by IP (patents, trademarks, or proprietary knowledge). These ventures typically have a strong technical foundation within the team that is difficult to replicate.
Science-based means that significant time has already been spent in research, and there’s some proof at the lab scale that the technology works. There may still be scaling challenges, but we need that initial validation.
