Global Venturing Review

For every dollar that is invested in semiconductors, around $3 of economic activity is thought to be generated downstream – and in this case, downstream means absolutely anything technology-related. Just about piece of tech equipment you can buy today will rely in some way on a semi-conductor. The post We are in another iPhone Cambrian explosion for the chips industry appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

Latin America has always been fertile ground for fintech innovation and growth. Combining a young, tech-savvy population and a relative under-penetration of financial services you may see in other developed markets, there is plenty of opportunity for startups to feast on. The post Torq hopes to replicate Brazil’s fintech success across LatAm appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

Nightlife has changed in recent years. It’s not just the macro-effects of the pandemic – with higher costs of living and young people having less disposable income – but their preferences are also evolving. The post Best Nights VC wants people to meet in real life again appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

We’ve got a bit of a different episode again this week – Fernando sits down with GCV’s editor-in-chief Maija Palmer, who asks him some questions about a recent report he wrote for GCV’s Global Energy Council on the topic of getting first-of-a-kind cleantech technologies and projects of the ground. The post How to get first-of-a-kind cleantech projects off the ground appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

At the beginning of the year, I spoke to Bill Taranto, president of the MSD Global Health Innovation Fund about what he expected over the course of the year in the healthcare space. He had predicted that M&As would make a moderate comeback and more liquidity would be coming into the market from private equity firms, and that we would see a wave of consolidations taking shape as smaller “point solutions” get integrated into larger platforms. The post M&A and liquidity making a slower comeback in healthcare, but CVCs are stepping up to the plate appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

The past year has not been the most active for the Brazilian CVC market. High interest rates, lack of sufficient liquidity, and decreased dealflow, among other things, have all slowed it down relative to past years. But that is not true across the board. Some funds, like, L4 Venture Builder – the single-LP fund backed by Brazil’s main stock exchange, B3 – have been investing a lot since it officially launched early in 2023. The post While others are cautious in a slower Brazilian market, L4 wants to be greedy appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

To fix things in the human body, you have to see them. This is what Olympus does. The legendary Japanese camera-maker, which in recent years divested its camera business and went full-tilt into medical devices, retains its core strength of optics and doubling down in its application to medicine. The post How Olympus Innovation Ventures is looking into the human body appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

With Lotte Group’s expansion into biotech, it wanted its CVC, Lotte Ventures, to set up a new office in the world’s largest biotech innovation ecosystem, the US, with a new – 3-person team in the Bay Area. But going into a new market is never a walk in the park. The post Opening a new CVC office in the US is not easy – here’s how Lotte Ventures is doing it appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

The group of smaller and medium-sized investors has been growing, and their value has never been clearer to founders and co-investors. They tend not to seek M&As, neutralising a concern that some startups have about having corporates on their cap table, while still bringing the advantage of corporate connections. They often place an even heavier emphasis on the health of the investment syndicate, as they may be in a worse position than larger funds if things fall through, and they often opt, for example, for observer seats over board seats. All in all, they are team players who can still open very important doors. The post The US healthcare system has a huge resource shortage. Here’s how small and medium-sized investors can help plug the gap. appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

If you have a pet, you will no doubt have come across one of Mars Petcare’s brands – Pedigree, Whiskas, Iams, Royal Canin, and many others – it is the biggest company in a global petcare market which, depending on what figures you look at, stood at around $250bn last year and is en-route to nearly half a trillion over the next decade. The post Petcare will be a half-trillion-dollar market in the next decade, and its not just treats and toys appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

Today I’m talking to my colleague Angela Logan, news and production editor at GCV. Angela recently had a very interesting interview with Nichola Bates, head of global accelerators and innovation programmes at Boeing (which you can read here) in which Bates spoke about what it’s been like to be a woman in the corporate VC industry, how in the past there were times when she wasn’t taken seriously, or been undervalued – an experience that many, many women can relate to in the professional context – and how she’s trying to run the unit she leads differently, and hopefully in a way that also disrupts the wider corporate culture. The post Radical change is needed to fix CVC’s gender problem. Here are some ideas. appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

My guest today is Alejandro Solé, chief investment officer of TechEnergy Ventures, the CVC unit for the energy transition division of Tecpetrol, an energy company that is part of Italian-Argentine industrial conglomerate Techint group, which has under its umbrella companies in areas like steelmaking, engineering and construction, and energy. The post Investing in the hard assets of cleantech – a conversation with TechEnergy Ventures’ Alejandro Solé appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

Investment is no longer the exclusive domain of investors. Increasingly sophisticated tools are coming on the market that are giving everyone access to investment capabilities that used to be confined to institutions and financial professionals. My guest today is Alokik Advani, managing partner of Fidelity International Strategic Ventures – or FISV – the CVC unit of asset manager Fidelity International. The post Making investing for everyone – a conversation with FISV’s Alokik Advani appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

My guest today is Murat Arcan, managing director of Sabanci Climate Ventures, the CVC unit of Sabanci Climate Technologies, the international energy arm of one of Turkey’s largest conglomerates. The post Sabanci wants to invest $200m into renewables technology appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

As companies are increasingly looking for faster innovation cycles and increased collaboration with startups, but don’t always want the risk associated with direct investment, venture clienting has grown massively in popularity in recent years. The post Venture clienting as an entry point for more risk-averse corporates appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

Paradoxical though it may seem that an industry as extractive in nature as mining would be so important to making the world more sustainable, that’s exactly the case. Partly that’s because of the need to reduce its own impact – bringing down its emissions and reducing its waste – but also because most other energy transition technologies rely on metals that need to be mined. The post Can mining be at the forefront of the energy transition? A conversation with Vale Ventures’ Bruno Arcadier appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

Historically, Latin American corporates, have been risk averse, wanting control, often family-owned, and that has been a barrier to innovation, but that is changing now, and they are more open to doing things in a new way, if for no other reason that it’s imperative to not being out-competed. The post LatAm is hungrier for venture service providers – a conversation with Innova 360’s Laura Chicurel appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

The “typical” accelerator model as we know it – a cohort of young startups that go through some sort of curriculum and hopefully convince investors to back them at the end of it – sometimes offers mixed results. Founders may well find that the conversation they have at the end is an investor telling them to call them back when they have more revenue. The post Should accelerators chase revenue instead of investment? appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

The US healthcare market is a big, complicated one. It’s fragmented, it’s large, with long sales and feedback cycles, making it difficult to innovate and bring about change at scale, especially that which the venture model would be patient enough for. The post Innovating in an intractable healthcare system appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

Last September, I had the pleasure on this show of speaking to Mike Smeed, managing director of InMotion Ventures, the VC unit of Jaguar Land Rover, when he had just recently completed his first year on the job, which was also his first year as a CVC at all. Now, I’m happy to have him back on to talk about what he has learned, and how the team has applied those lessons, in Year 2. The post A year of learning at InMotion Ventures – Mike Smeed returns appeared first on CVC Unplugged.