Charles Roberts - Chief Investment Strategist of ARK Invest

Dr. Charles Roberts is the Chief Investment Strategist of ARK Investment Management LLC (ARK Invest). As Chief Investment Strategist, Charles is responsible for providing inputs into research and strategies on both public and private markets, with a particular focus on AI and multiomics. In addition, Charles plays a key role in the strategy and execution of ARK’s venture capital efforts. Charles joined ARK in 2023. Prior to ARK, Charles's background is as a deep tech entrepreneur and serial founder with a focus on AI for social benefit, primarily in healthcare. He has been a cofounding executive at a number of companies including Freenome, a Bay Area based company of ~500 people working on saving lives through earlier cancer detection. Freenome currently is completing one of the world's largest ever clinical registrational studies in ~42,000 subjects, having raised $1.35B from leading investors including Roche, Novartis, Fidelity, Janus Henderson, and VCs including a16z, GV and DCVC. Charles also cofounded other AI/tech-bio companies including (as Chairperson) Relation Therapeutics Inc., also backed by DCVC, co-led with NVIDIA, plus Deerfield and other leading investors, with whom Relation completed $60M Seed in 2024. He cofounded biotech companies Agalimmune (acquired by a Nasdaq-listed biotech) and Centauri Tx, backed by Novo and Boerhinger Ingelheim, cofounded with the Nobel Laureate inventor of PCR. Charles also cofounded a non-invasive prenatal testing company that brought the first CE-marked NIPT test using next-generation sequencing to market. He has served as advisor to OSE, Oxford University’s ~$1B spin-out fund, and run a venture studio family office. Topics: - Investment in Disruptive Technologies - Future of AI and Multiomics - Role of AI in Investment Decisions #ARKInvest #VentureCapital #DisruptiveInnovation #AI #Biotech