Driving global innovation through early-stage investments and tailored consulting solutions.
About the Founder
Laura Smoliar, Ph.D., the founder of Cria Innovations, brings decades of experience at the intersection of science, technology, and global collaboration. As a Founding Partner of Berkeley Catalyst Fund, she pioneered a hybrid fund structure that shares profits with UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry and managed a diverse portfolio of 26 startups spanning biopharma, agriculture, advanced materials, and sensors. She has also been a serial entrepreneur and co-founded Mobius Photonics, where she built strategic partnerships with two Japanese corporations and steered the company through challenging economic times to set it up for a successful exit. She has worked on many international partnerships to push the boundaries of technology development, with partners in Taiwan, Japan, Germany, Canada, and Denmark. She has raised money from Asia, MENA, and the USA to bolster early stage technology development.
