our team

Zach Ellis, Jr. is the Founder and Managing Partner of South Loop Ventures, a pre-Seed/Seed stage venture capital fund for founders of color building companies with a nexus to the Greater Houston, Texas region.

For the last 15 years, Zach has held a variety of roles in venture capital, corporate innovation, and technology commercialization across a range of sectors, including biotech, cleantech, agtech and CPG.

His previous experiences include Managing Director at Rev1 Ventures, corporate venture capital at PepsiCo; strategy consulting at Humana, and commercializing university research at The Ohio State University and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Zach began his career as an active duty officer in the US Navy and holds a master’s degree in biotechnology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; an MBA from Pepperdine University and a bachelor’s degree from the US Naval Academy.