Alicia Castillo Holley, PhD, holds the position of Senior Advisor for Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship.
Dr. Castillo Holley is an experienced operator/investor in early-stage companies with a background in life sciences, strategy, and finance. Her areas of expertise include angel and venture capital investing, high-impact entrepreneurship, and life sciences. She is laser-focused on achieving socioeconomic impact and financial returns through investments, a formula that has given her a stellar reputation in the industry.
Dr. Castillo Holley is CEO and Founder of the Wealthing VC Club,a boutique investment club that provides access to VC-backed rounds to accredited investors, filling seed and post-rounds. The club reviews over 500 deals per year, investing in 8-9 of them. She is also GP of the Wealthing VC Fund, an opportunity fund that invest in companies that are 4-5 years to exit. Both groups focus on life sciences (health-tech, plant-based food and ag-tech), and climate (energy, climate, mobility and space) and are very active in the VC industry sharing deals with over 50 funds and 9 angel groups, and supporting emerging VC managers.
Since moving to Silicon Valley in 2013, she has made over 40 investments in slightly over a decade; joining Sand Hill Angels (SHA), one of the most prestigious angel groups in the world. At SHA, she was a highly active senior member. Dr. Castillo Holley co-chaired the life-science group, and was a board member before leaving the organization in 2022 to focus on her club, personal investments, and philanthropic activities.
She is credited with being a crucial figure in developing the VC/entrepreneurial ecosystem in Chile where she lived between 1996 and 2002, founding the country’s first center for Entrepreneurship at the Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, and later Chile’s first seed capital fund “Capital Semilla”. Dr.Castillo Holley’s international fund network currently includes investments in the Lagos, Nigerian-based Aruwa Capital Management.
Dr. Castillo Holley is a well-recognized speaker and trainer in innovation, venture capital, and high-impact entrepreneurship; developing programs around the world in the Americas, Asia, Australia, Eastern, and Western Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
Her education spans three continents graduating from the University of Western Australia receiving a PhD in Finance and Entrepreneurship, an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson College, and an MSci in Biotechnology and Engineering from Universidad Central de Venezuela. Additionally, she is a graduate of the Australian Institute for Company Directors.
A global trotter, Dr. Castillo Holley has lived in a number of countries, speaks several languages, and has supported the high-impact ecosystem around the world. She enjoys reading, gardening, traveling, and spending time with her very global family; philanthropically, she supports domestic harmony, pro-inclusion, and representation of diversity. Alongside her daughter, they manage Box of Life, a non-profit that sends food to Venezuela, where she was raised.
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