Ed Phillips came to venture investing with a science background, having studied molecular genetics and biology and won a prize for research on climate change's impact on marine ecosystems, and he was part of the founding team that grew Future Planet Capital from a $20M fund into more than $400M, later leading investments in companies like Vaccitech and Navenio while managing the Blue Ocean fund. He has also built some unusual structures beyond typical fund investing, including helping create a pandemic-response micro-fund with Barclays and developing a partnership with Seedrs that let outside investors buy into the management company itself.