Olga Batygin is Director of Strategic Philanthropy, Deep Tech & Exploration at XPRIZE, where she leads fundraising strategy and partnership development for prize competitions advancing breakthrough innovation in quantum computing, AI, robotics, satellite technology, and space exploration. Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Strategic Philanthropy, Advancement, she works cross-functionally with prize design teams, marketing, and impact groups to mobilize capital from philanthropists, foundations, and corporations.
Olga's career has centered on building bridges between the scientific world and the resources needed to bring ambitious ideas to scale. At Caltech, she spent over a decade in a variety of operations roles working with faculty, staff, students, and leadership, including serving in a chief of staff capacity to the division chair of Physics, Math and Astronomy where she helped secure hundreds of millions of dollars for new facilities. She led business development for causal AI and digital twins in pharma and biotech at GNS Healthcare (now Aitia), where she helped prepare the company for its Series B and staffed the board. As co-founder and CEO of Lucinetic, she raised millions in investment and successfully exited the company through an IP sale. Her strength lies in translation: helping researchers and industry understand each other, connecting the right people at the right time, and building the infrastructure that turns scientific breakthroughs into real-world impact.
Olga began her career as a molecular biologist, earning her Bachelor of Science in Biology from UC Santa Cruz and publishing research while working in a Caltech biology lab before realizing her passion lay in connecting scientific breakthroughs with the people and resources to scale them. This insight led her to pursue an MBA from the University of Redlands and transition into roles bridging technical innovation and commercial implementation. She serves on the Executive Committee for the Caltech Entrepreneurs Forum and is a member of the Expert Network at Fusion Fund.
Olga lives on the Caltech campus as Faculty in Residence with her husband and their two children. Their home is shared with several animal friends of various species, and family time is often spent exploring nature, history, and architecture. Influenced by Zen and Shinto practices, she brings full presence and curiosity to every conversation, genuinely interested in how people arrived at where they are and committed to building relationships that endure.