Until August 2018, Monica worked as Investment Director for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Mónica has extensive experience working for large organizations such as Providence Equity Partners, J.P. Morgan, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Mónica Simó Black is the latest addition to TheVentureCity, where she will lead the Fund as a Partner for the Americas. Mónica will be based in her hometown, Miami.
After 15 years away from her hometown, spending the last few years in San Francisco, she comes not only to help TheVentureCity founders, but also to contribute to Miami's fast-growing tech ecosystem. Over the last two and a half years, Mónica analyzed and chose investments for the philanthropic organization Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, in terms of education, where they invested more than $100 million.
“Mónica’s experience is going to be essential in the continuing internationalization of our Fund. Her vision matches ours: to think of founders first and to keep an eye on them, when challenges arise. We are executers; they know we can help them in crucial moments,” said Laura González-Estéfani, TheVentureCity Founder and CEO.
Mónica’s relationship with high impact investments dates back a few years, when she worked for the Gates Foundation and was involved in Clever’s origin, an education startup that follows students’ learnings in the United States and that received investment from Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Partners, two of the largest funds in Silicon Valley.
Regarding our investors, Mónica is the first to be passionate about education. “Education means action. The better education in the investor ecosystem, the better the results,” said Laura.
Although she is a Cuban-American, who was born in Miami, Mónica has been away from her hometown for over 15 years. That is why “arriving at TheVentureCity satisfies me in some ways: having the best of Silicon Valley, a methodology and a clear vision, being in the place I want to live and having a global reach project,” she ensured.
“I would like to grow in the city I was born, but I'm also seduced by the idea of a vision focused on the Americas. The social and economic impact of tech investments is going to change the emergent enclave. Working with startup founders is a privilege,” said Mónica.
At TheVentureCity, we believe that innovation is more decentralized than ever and a great idea from anywhere in the world can become a catalyst of impact and the greater good. Mónica’s experience will be key to understand the great scale impact of the ideas that arrive at TheVentureCity.
Mónica joins our team with a clear message:
“Investments in technology must act as a social impact catalyzer. These projects must help create welfare.”
During her time out of Miami, Mónica studied at two of the best universities in the world: MIT and Stanford. She drove her career into the investment and financial sectors, working for two well-recognized firms: J.P. Morgan and Providence Equity, a global company of private equity that manages over $60,000 million.
