Pascual Cortes-Monroy

Vice President, LONDON

Pascual is an investor at Northzone where he focuses on early-stage companies across AI, Healthcare, Climate and Vertical SaaS. He is particularly interested in solutions that leverage the proliferation of data and advances in computation to transform industries.

Prior to Northzone, Pascual was an early employee at Odd Industries / Lemu, an applied AI climate tech startup where he led the company’s strategy and space teams. Before that, he was a strategy consultant with Bain & Company’s private equity group.

Pascual holds degrees in political science and global affairs from Amherst College and Tsinghua University where he was a Schwarzman Scholar.

No two days are the same

I’m motivated by the opportunity to learn from and support the entrepreneurs that are shaping the future. As an investor, one morning you might learn about technology making our food systems more sustainable, in the afternoon about a solution to reconceptualize how we approach transportation, and in the evening discuss how behavioral trends will impact the way we create relationships and interact with each other.

Changing the lens through which I view the world

I love to travel, it rekindles the curiosity that I had as a kid. I’m always eager to learn new things and challenge my existing beliefs, this tends to happen most often when I find myself in diverse environments.

But it IS rocket science

I was tasked with launching Chile’s first commercial satellite in an effort to tackle deforestation. It meant getting up to speed on the basics of rocket science, something I knew nothing about! I then traveled to Lithuania where we procured the satellite and coordinated all the legal, technical, and financial aspects of the deal. The launch of the satellite was finally announced at Cop26 in Glasgow.