Laufer was a co-founder of Lilly Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of drugs peer Eli Lilly, and later a managing director at Visium Asset Management, a healthcare-focused investment firm.

Kuiper has worked across Philips for more than 20 years.

He came to the role after heading Scarlet, an acquisition of Belgacom, as chief executive from 2008 to 2010.

He worked at a Nokia corporate venturing unit spun off from the company as BlueRun Ventures between 1998 and 2007 before becoming managing partner at Nokia Growth Partners, which looked at later-stage deals.