Black Opal Ventures Holds Second Annual Brilliant Tomorrows Forum

On October 16 in Palo Alto, CA, Black Opal Ventures held the second annual Brilliant Tomorrows, a groundbreaking forum that brought together innovators, investors, and industry leaders to examine how frontier tech is shaping health and security.

Building on the success of last year’s inaugural gathering at Lincoln Center, this year’s Forum reflected the growing scale of the Black Opal ecosystem. From hospital innovation and women’s health to frontier biology, compute infrastructure, and AI security, each conversation underscored a vision for the future of health and security.

The day began with a fireside chat from Lisa Prasad, Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Henry Ford Health in Detroit, Michigan. Lisa explored the role innovation in addressing critical healthcare challenges, describing how health systems are becoming connected ecosystems, extending beyond hospital walls.

The first panel of the day spotlighted how frontier technology is being leveraged to solve key problems in women's health. Moderated by Carina Tyrrell (Black Opal Ventures), the discussion featured Oliver Keown (Oath Surgical), Stephanie Kuku (Conceivable Life Sciences), Marc Lajoie (Outpace Bio), and Katherine Saunders (FlyteHealth), who are each redefining what’s possible through robotics, AI, and frontier biology.

The second session brought the investor lens, featuring Doug Hayes (Atlantic Health System), Galym Imanhayev (Lightspeed), Dan Gebremedhin (Flare), and Olivia Capra (FCV), moderated by Ayesha Appa (UCSF). Panelists reflected on the evolution of health tech investing and how the AI era is changing the market.

The third panel, moderated by Karthik Ramasubramanian (Black Opal Ventures), explored how computation, AI, and biology are converging to transform drug discovery. Speakers Benjamin Van de Graaf (Neptune Bio), Ying Gong (GV20), Jason Gammack (Ansa Biotechnologies), and Kristina Kitko (Eli Lilly) discussed how tools are allowing scientists to model biology with unprecedented precision.

Following the scientific deep dive, Priya Patel (Cooley) moderated a conversation with Ruchita Sinha (Artis Ventures), Tara Bishop (Black Opal Ventures), Nicole Sonnert (Playground Global), and Emily Counceller (Eli Lilly) on the changing face of TechBio investing. The discussion examined how VCs are underwriting risk, identifying business models that can bridge the gap from lab to market, and rethinking capital efficiency.

The afternoon opened with a fireside chat featuring Prith Banerjee, Senior Vice President of Simulation and Analysis Incubation at Synopsys, joined by Eileen Tanghal (Black Opal Ventures). Prith shared insights from Synopsys’s acquisition of Ansys and discussed how digital twins and computational simulation are changing landscapes across industries.

Next, Barry O’Brien (J.P. Morgan) moderated a panel on the compute infrastructure layer powering digital transformation. Brandon Wang (Synopsys), Nick Miller (AWS), Nan Zhou (Qualcomm Ventures), and Mike Henry (Parasail) explored today’s bottlenecks for AI scalability.

Moderated by Hanna Edgren (Black Opal Ventures), this session brought together Aaron Bours (Hyro), Gidi Cohen (Bonfy AI), and Shlomi Yanai (AuthMind) to explore how trust, security, and compliance are evolving in the age of AI. Panelists discussed how AI agents are transforming everything from patient communication to identity management and governance.

The Forum concluded with a forward-looking discussion on cybersecurity investing, featuring Katie Gray (In-Q-Tel), Sidra Ahmed Lefort (Munich Re Venture), Eileen Tanghal (Black Opal Ventures), and moderator Shawn Hoyer (Bank of America). The panel examined how investors are underwriting security and governance risk in an increasingly autonomous and interconnected world.

The 2025 Brilliant Tomorrows Forum showcased the depth and breadth of innovation across the Black Opal Ventures ecosystem. From biology to cybersecurity, from compute to care delivery, the event reflected a vision that technology and trust must evolve together to create a healthier, more resilient world.

Thank you to the sponsors, Cooley and Weaver, all the attendees, and speakers. We look forward to next year’s Brilliant Tomorrows!