Katie Rae

BIOGRAPHY

Why a Tech Power Player? For investing in “tough tech” approaches to the world’s biggest problems with an emphasis on equity and sustainability

Katie Rae is CEO and managing partner of The Engine, a venture capital firm spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that zeroes in on companies tackling the most challenging technologies, from fusion to sustainable lithium extraction to genome editing. The Engine has backed companies such as Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which is developing nuclear fusion to generate pollution-free power, and Form Energy, which is creating energy storage systems to support the shift to renewable energy. At the end of 2022, The Engine had invested in 44 companies, the majority of which had a founder or CEO from an underrepresented minority group. Before The Engine, Rae was a managing director at Project 11 Ventures, which invested in tech companies, and served as managing director of Techstars Boston, an accelerator program. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Oberlin College and a master of business administration from Yale University.