If you’re curious what the future might hold for humanity, and how targeted investments can help get us there, you could do worse than to have a conversation with Reema Khan.
Khan is the founder and CEO of Green Sands Equity, a boutique venture capital firm focused on investing in the technology, healthcare, space and frontier tech fields. Frontier tech includes subcategories like quantum computing, brain-computer interface and nuclear fusion.
It’s heady stuff, and Khan knows it. There are “ideas and technologies that aren't here today, but when they come, they could bring paradigm shifts with them,” she says. “We want to have some part of our portfolio invested in a future that could be. It’s a big bet we take on these deep tech companies.”
But technology is only part of the equation, Khan notes. “It isn't possible for any technology or innovation to solve problems for the world or to make the world a better place unless there is cultural readiness for acceptance of it.”
That, she says, is why she also dedicates time and resources to advocacy and philanthropy, with a special focus on empowering women and minorities. Khan is an ambassador to the United Nations for Women in Science & Technology on behalf of the Royal Academy of Science International Trust.
She is also a trustee of the SETI Institute and Chairwoman of their Endowment Committee. The SETI Institute is a scientific organization, funded in part by NASA grants, dedicated to investigating the nature of the universe and the prevalence of life beyond Earth. Khan funds the SETI Forward Award for the Carl Sagan Research Center, a prize which supports undergraduate students interested in careers in astrophysics, astrobiology and astronomy.
“My overarching philosophy is that progress is punctuated by increases in knowledge, and what we want to do is not work on making the world just more convenient, but we want to discover new truths and new ways of looking at the world and solving problems,” she says. “I often say progress lies not in enhancing what we have today, but in towards what will be.”
Green Sands also specializes in political and policy strategy aimed at helping countries design incentives and strategies to attract foreign direct investments. The firm is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in New York, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. That global vision brings an inherent “humility,” Khan argues, in seeing and approaching topics from different perspectives, as well as in staying “constantly curious.”
Khan herself was born in Saudi Arabia and raised between Europe and the US. “We often say that at Green Sands we have the DNA of an entrepreneur, a scientist and a diplomat,” she says. “We’re all free thinkers and people who care about the world. We are very global.”
Here, Khan shares insights into the work of Green Sands and her thoughts on the role of private equity in shaping the future.
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