Our team
Managers
Yuval Peles – Head of Breeding and Innovation
Mr. Yuval Peles joined Kaiima in 2009 and has been leading Kaiima’s castor breeding programs since 2011. Yuval has brought to Kaiima experience in genetics and product development. Yuval is leading an international team working on new castor varieties and adaptation of the world most advanced castor hybrids to single markets. Yuval holds an M.Sc. in Agronomy from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Henrique Martins – Breeding and Seed Production
Graduated in Agriculture Engineering at Uberlandia University with a post-graduation in plant breeding at Lavras University. Henrique had previous experiences in companies such as Pioneer and Syngenta and joined Kaiima in 2017, leading the Castor breeding program and parental seed production in Brazil.
Tabhata Torres – Finance
Tabhata graduated in Business Administration with emphasis in Foreign Trade at Faculdade Municipal Professor Franco Montoro. She has built a solid career at retail and investment banks with over 15 years of experience and the financial area.
Carlos Moraes – Sales
Graduated in Agronomic Engineering with an MBA in Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition, Carlos has over 25 years of experience in the agricultural market in commercialization and distribution of agricultural inputs.
Mariana Cruz – Sales Manager
Mariana is graduated in business Administration and works in the sales administration area.
Vinicius Retuci – Supply Chain
Vinicius graduated in International Relations and Foreign Trade at Universidade UNAERP in Ribeirão Preto. He has over 8 years of experience in inbound e outbound logistics.
Board of Directors
Mark Chess – Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Mark Chess brings over 17 years of experience in private equity and investment management to Kaiima. Mark is a managing director at Infinity Equity, an $800m private equity fund. He helped establish the FBR Infinity II Fund in 2001 and the world’s first foreign currency fund in China in 2005 (Infinity-CSVC) and managed 13 companies in the Infinity-NSF portfolio from 2003-2013. Prior to Infinity, he was a director with Partners500, leading the company’s international business development. Mark graduated with a degree in Business Honors from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas in Austin.
Jack Magid – Board member
Graduated in Business and Economics from John Hopkins University, Jack is a businessman with over 45 years of experience in Brazil. Responsible for leading several highly successful international partnerships also with Israeli companies in the agrotechnology, security and health sectors.
Edison Kopacheski – Executive Chairman
Graduated in Agriculture Engineering with an MBA from Warwick Business School with a track record of more than 30 years in agribusiness worldwide in areas of crop protection, seeds, fertilizers, farming, technology, trading and distribution. Edison has developed several partnerships in the agrotechnology sector.
Investors
DFJ Tamir Fishman Ventures is a leading Israeli venture capital firm, established in 1997 by Tamir Fishman & Co, investing in early stage, Israeli-related technology-intensive start-ups in the fields of: IT and communications, software, Internet, new media, life science and Cleantech.
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a leading venture capital firm with a global presence through a network of affiliated funds, with offices in more than 30 cities around the world and approximately six billion dollars in capital commitments. DFJ’s mission is to identify, serve and provide capital for extraordinary entrepreneurs anywhere who are determined to change the world.
Horizons Ventures Limited is a venture capital firm based in Hong Kong with a focus on disruptive and technology-focused start ups. Started in 2006, its start-ups are being spread around the world in 10 countries including the USA, Canada, UK, Sweden, Estonia, Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, Israel and China.
Infinity Group is a cross-border platform and private equity fund known for its strong roots in China and currently manages $800 million. The group has 100 portfolio companies and 17 RMB joint venture funds throughout China, making Infinity the owner of more RMB funds than any other foreign PE fund in China. Infinity to date has made 100 deals and 30 successful exits. Sectors of focus include: medical, agricultural, water, energy and high end manufacturing.
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries. Established in 1956, IFC is owned by 184 member countries, a group that collectively determines our policies. IFC’s vision is that people should have the opportunity to escape poverty and improve their lives.
Mitsui Global Investment (MGI) is a venture capital and growth equity firm that invests globally in cleantech, healthcare, and information technology sectors. MGI is the private equity investment group of Mitsui & Co. and it currently manages over $300M in capital, having offices in Silicon Valley, New York, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, and London (alliance team in EMEA).
Since its founding in 1972, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has backed entrepreneurs in more than 500 ventures, including AOL, Amazon.com, Citrix, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Google, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Netscape, Sun, Symantec, Verisign and Zynga. KPCB portfolio companies employ more than 300,000 people worldwide.
Musea Ventures was founded in 2007 by Sass and Talli Somekh to create and invest in new companies with exciting technologies in clean technologies. We are enthusiastic investors, seeking to take executive and close advisory roles with our companies to assist our partners to maximize their opportunities for success.
Oberlee Holdings is an early-stage investment fund based in Amsterdam specializing in Agritech and Fintech. Active since 2001 the fund focuses on ventures in countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, UK and Israel. Oberlee prices itself at being able to identify disruptive early-stage endeavours and it was the first investor in Kaiima.