Qianran (Katherine) He
Investor at TDK Ventures
Qianran (Katherine) He
Investor at TDK Ventures
San Jose, California
Overview
Work Experience
Investment Associate
2023 - Current
TDK Ventures is a venture capital firm focus on global early-stage tech startups and impact scaling entrepreneurs who are creating a new era of sustainability and social value.
Investment Analyst
2022 - 2023
Established the deep exploration and built the startup landscape in energy-storage materials, supply chain, and battery technologies. Sourced, investigated, and invested in startups with support on company growth after investment. Led TDK Ventures' 2nd annual Energy Week 2022 with a content-filled event comprised of over 30 of the top leaders in the cleantech and energy field.
Summer Associate
2021 - 2022
Strategic planning for energy focused fund with innovation landscape in 8 energy segmentations across the globe. Supported investment director with memo/due diligence report on various technology verticals. Planned and organized TDK Ventures Energy Week 2021 with 33 world class speakers, 12 event partners; Collected 2000+ connections in the energy field with experts from academia, industry and VCs.
Investor
2023
Developer of giga-scale energy storage technology solutions designed to lower the cost of energy storage. The company offers to industrialize sodium-ion, with a target to lower energy storage costs by up to 50 percent and also helps to accelerate grid decarbonization, enabling businesses to get alternatives to lithium-ion for stationary applications, such as grid storage and a technology that can help the U.S. take a leadership position in global battery manufacturing.
Investor
2022
Novalith Technologies is a climate technology company that uses carbon dioxide to simplify lithium chemicals production. Novalith's LiCAL™ lithium extraction technology uses significantly less equipment, chemical reagents, water and energy than conventional processing, which reduces capital and production costs.
Investor
2021
AM Batteries is a leading player in lithium-ion dry-electrode technology. AM Batteries‘ powder to electrode’ method cuts the drying and solvent recovery steps, creating a more energy-efficient electrode manufacturing process.
Co-Founder & Managing Editor
2020
The Volta Foundation harnesses the power of community to advance the energy storage ecosystem. We are a collective of 40,000 battery professionals representing 5,000 organizations, the Foundation's projects include monthly events (Battery Brunch), publications (Battery Bits), industry reports (Battery Report), and open communication channels (Battery Street) to promote a vibrant battery ecosystem globally.
Senior Engineer on Energy Storage
2019 - 2021
Work resulted in three patents on novel electrode design and manufacturing process. Design and prototype high energy density electrode materials, assembly cells for electrochemical evaluation. Source and qualify materials suppliers; involved in product development stages from customer requirements gathering to final deliverables
Entrepreneurial lead of I-Corps: Silicon(Si)-based Rechargeable Batteries
2019 - 2019
1. Connect with worldwide battery and electric vehicles manufacturers, and conduct more than 100+ in-depth interviews with potential industry partners 2. Build value proposition and customer segment for advanced Si rechargeable batteries 3. Collaborate with Technology Lead and Industry Mentor on business model iteration
CNM TEM User
2016 - 2019
The First Place winner of poster competition in Advanced Photon Source/Center for Nanoscale Materials(APS/CNM) Users Meeting, Argonne National Laboratory (May 2018)
Tang Fellowship and Research Assistant
2014 - 2019
Co-inventor for “Method of fabricating Si micro-reactors for Li rechargeable batteries” * First place in PhD category in IIT MMAE Student Research Poster Competition (March 2018) * Recipient of Tang Fellowship at IIT for three consecutive calendar years (Sep 2013 to April 2016)
Manager of IPRO project “Fabrication & Commercialization of High Power Li-ion Batteries”
2016 - 2017
IPRO Day Track 9 Outstanding Winner award and Engineering Dean’s Choice award (May 2017)