One map, not many buckets
It is common to describe an investor's interests as a set of separate buckets: a bit of fintech here, some healthtech there, a little deep technology on the side. Nicole Junkermann sees it differently. To her, these fields form a single connected map of how technology is moving, and the most interesting places on that map are usually the borders, where one area meets another.
This note traces that map from fintech to biotech, with artificial intelligence running through the middle and deep technology at the frontier. The point is not to rank the fields but to show how they link together. Once you see the connections, the logic of investing across artificial intelligence, healthtech, biotech, fintech and deep technology stops looking like scattered bets and starts looking like a coherent view of the world.
Fintech
Begin at one edge of the map, with financial technology. This is where some of the most visible changes of recent years have happened, in how people pay, save, borrow and move money. Nicole Junkermann's association with companies such as Revolut and Lendable reflects an interest in fintech that widens access and makes the rules of the modern economy easier to understand.
What makes fintech a good starting point is that it shows, in plain view, the qualities that matter everywhere on the map. Trust is the product. Access is the goal. And the best tools fade into the background, doing something genuinely useful so reliably that people stop thinking about them. These same qualities reappear as we move toward health and biology, which is exactly why Nicole Junkermann treats the fields as connected rather than separate.
Artificial intelligence in the middle
Move inward from fintech and you reach artificial intelligence, which sits at the centre of the map because it touches everything else. It is less a single destination than a layer that runs underneath the other fields, making each of them more capable. In fintech it helps people understand their money. In health it helps read complex data. In deep technology it pushes at the frontier of what is computationally possible.
Nicole Junkermann tends to think of artificial intelligence as a set of new materials rather than a standalone market, a theme she develops in the note on the technologies shaping the next decade. Because it sits in the middle of the map, it is also the main bridge between the fields. A company working at the meeting point of artificial intelligence and biology, or artificial intelligence and finance, is drawing on the centre of the map to do something new at its edges.
Healthtech and biotech
Continue across the map and you arrive at health and life sciences, the area closest to Nicole Junkermann's philanthropic commitments as well as her investing. Healthtech and biotech are where careful technology can do some of its most meaningful work, because health is hard, slow and deeply human. Her support for Owkin, which applies artificial intelligence to medical research, sits right at the junction of the centre and this part of the map.
Biotech extends this further, into the ability to read and work with biology with growing precision. The pattern here echoes everything that came before. Does the science translate into something a real patient or clinician can use, and does it earn trust along the way. The fuller version of this thinking lives in her notes on AI in healthcare. What matters for the map is that health is not a separate island. It is connected to fintech and artificial intelligence by the same threads of trust, data and patience.
Deep technology at the edge
At the far frontier of the map sits deep technology: space, advanced computing, new energy, novel materials, the harder edges of biology. Nicole Junkermann's association with SpaceX captures the spirit of this region, where progress is slow, ambitious and occasionally astonishing. Deep technology is where the map runs out into genuinely new territory.
Yet even here, the connections hold. Deep technology depends on advances in computing and materials at the same time, and increasingly on artificial intelligence from the centre of the map. The companion notes on deep tech explained and on what she looks for in a deep tech company go deeper into this frontier. For the map as a whole, deep tech is the reminder that the edges are where the most surprising progress often begins.
The threads that connect them
Step back and the same few threads run through the whole map, from fintech to biotech and out to the frontier. They are what turn a list of fields into a single connected picture, and they are what Nicole Junkermann looks for wherever she invests.
- Trust as the real product, especially in health and finance.
- Data and artificial intelligence as a shared foundation.
- Patience, because the best work tends to be slow.
- A focus on real, human problems rather than novelty.
- Genuine progress at the overlaps between fields.
Seen this way, investing across artificial intelligence, healthtech, biotech, fintech and deep technology is not a scattering of unrelated bets. It is a single, considered reading of how innovation travels. To follow the rest of this thinking, you can return to the work of Nicole Junkermann on the home page, or read about reading the future of technology.
Frequently asked questions
What does Nicole Junkermann invest in across her map of innovation?
Nicole Junkermann invests across artificial intelligence, fintech, healthtech, biotech and deep technology. She treats these not as separate buckets but as one connected map, with the most interesting work often at the overlaps.
How are fintech and biotech connected in Nicole Junkermann's thinking?
For Nicole Junkermann, fintech and biotech share common threads: both rely increasingly on data and artificial intelligence, both depend on trust, and both reward patient, careful building. The map links them through these shared foundations.
Why does Nicole Junkermann invest across so many fields?
Nicole Junkermann invests across several fields because the biggest advances often appear where they meet. A broad map helps her spot connections and back companies that draw on more than one area at once.