Global Venturing Review

What’s it like to come into corporate VCs from the outside as a contractor? My guest is Bruno Meireles de Sousa, who is an operating parter at Bidra Innovation Ventures, the CVC of phosphate mining company OCPGroup. And he joined me to talk about what he’s seen going from unit to unit across a number of sectors. He tells me about his experience going from a very big corporate in Cargill – where he did both venture investing and venture building – to a smaller parent company when joining Bidra Ventures, and what corporates should keep in mind when doing both investing and venture building. We talk about what indicators he sees that a venture unit is healthy when he parachutes into it, how to effectively bring attention to things that senior leadership might find uncomfortable, and how to gain trust internally when coming in from the outside, and more. The post Advice from a CVC freelancer appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

The whole point of investing is to hopefully get your money back at some point. But what if, as we’ve seen, the usual routes to doing that are effectively blocked off? Ideally, a VC might want to their startup to go public, welcoming in hundreds of thousands of new investors via an IPO and make their money back, at many multiples, that way. Or they might want a bigger fish to come along and acquire the startup outright at a higher value, providing their returns that way.  But IPO’s have been all but dead for a few years now, and despite previous predicitons that this might finally be the year they come back in earnest, that has not been the case. But people still want their money back, so they’re turning to the secondaries markets, where they can sell their shares in startups outside the context of a larger liquidity event that is out of their control. Secondaries markets have grown rapidly and continue to do so. Their visibility, and the attitudes towards using them, have also changed such that investors are

The ugly truth behind the AI revolution is that it needs to be powered from somewhere. Every query you make into ChatGPT or DeepSeek of Claude takes energy. Energy that has to be generated at a power plant, transmitted through the grid, and then used at a data centre to process and then send you the answer you seek. The demand for power from data centres is set to triple globally over the next 10 years. And our grids are not ready. So what’s being done to solve it? How are going to make more power? How are we going to improve our ability send it? How can we reduce demand for it? GCV recently released a report about this very topic, and I’m joined today by my colleague, GCV deputy editor Kim Moore, to talk about it. You can read the full report here: https://globalventuring.com/report/global-energy-council-q2-2025/  The post Do we have enough energy to power the AI future? appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

Latin America is one of the fastest growing regions in the world, with a growing number of unicorns, an increasing array of international investors looking to get a foothold, and ever more savvy entrepreneurs. Ahead of next week’s GCV Symposium in London, I wanted to catch up with Bernardita Araya, manager of CMPC Ventures, the corporate VC unit of Chilean pulp and paper company CMPC, who will be speaking at the event about international investment in the region. Araya talks about how the VC scene has been growing rapidly in recent year, especially in Chile where many new faces are entering the space, as well as how Latin American entrepreneurs, without the same kind of access to grants and other funding as founders in North America or Europe, tend to be incredibly cash efficient. International investors, she says, have been keen to enter the region but mostly with local co-investors. We also talk about the challenges facing LatAm founders, including the prospects of expanding to other continents, as well as

Human decision-making – even when a lot of money is at stake, is not always rational. A lot of the time it’s based on intangible factors that influence people in ways that can’t be explained or justified by data or analysis – this is after all, the entire basis for the field of behavioural economics, and it’s not new information. So why, in an industry like venture capital, are people still led oftentimes more by their gut than their head? The answer, of course, is human nature. But in an industry that looks for outliers, that tries to go against the grain, why is it not more of a priority to minimise the amount of returns left on the table by counteracting well-known flaws in our thinking? My guest today is Sharon Vosmek, CEO and managing partner of VC firm Astia, which has, at the core of its thesis, diversity. Not just diversity for its own sake, though Vosmek argues that that would be good enough – but rather as a tangible, strategic way to cast the net as widely as possible, and to eliminate the biases t

In recent months we’ve seen quite a few corporate VC units either shut down, or get spun off, as their corporate parents grapple with how to deal with a tough macroeconomic environment. That’s not always the case though – we’re also seeing a number of other CVCs get launched, and some existing CVCs launch big new funds. My guest today is in the latter category – I speak to Ingo Ramesohl, managing director at Robert Bosch Venture Capital, the CVC arm of German engineering and technology company Bosch, which is known as Bosch Ventures for short. We talk about the brand new €250m sixth fund that the unit just launched, and their plans for it, as well as more broadly, why it is so important for companies to push ahead with innovation even when the going gets tough – and why those that stay the course can benefit from a competitive advantage in the market. We also talk a lot about Open Bosch, which is Bosch Venture’s in-house venture clienting arm – we touch on how they select companies and allocate resources, why

Space has historically been the domain of governments – as that has changed and it’s becoming a more private sector-based commercial endeavour, something else has been changing too, and that is that whereas before space was a matter of launching things up where they will do something for a while, then they come back down. What’s emerging now is the prospect of an entire economy in space, for space – where things don’t always need to come back down to earth for maintenance, or refuelling, for example, and can continue to operate outside earth. My guest today is Timur Davis, director at Munich Re Ventures, where much of his focus is trained beyond the atmosphere, in startups who want to operate in orbit. We talk about how the unit’s thesis of investing in the picks and shovels of space – the enabling technologies that allow for the space economy to operate effectively – things like traffic management and servicing in orbit.  We also talk about the changing business models – how the pendulum has swung back to st

Demand on the power grid is not getting any lower, in fact it’s growing faster than ever, and putting real pressure on the existing infrastructure. As more energy-hungry customers like data centres are coming online, better solutions need to be found to get more capacity through the system. My guest today is Pradeep Tagare, head of investment at National Grid Partners, the US-based VC arm of National Grid, which is a grid operator active in the UK and the US. We talk about the challenges facing grid operators at a time when the growth in demand for power is unprecedented, not least because of the phenomenal growth in data centres in the age of AI. We touch on how people are thinking about providing to these large demand customers like data centres, and what solutions exist to increase grid capacity even without a wholescale upgrade of the grid infrastructure itself. We also talk about the progress being made in the area of distributed energy resources, and how the challenge of interoperability of those divers

The world is becoming, if not a more dangerous place, then perhaps a testier one. Over the past decade or so, we’ve seen an intensifying staccato of cyber attacks against critical infrastructure and other large facilities, which can, of course, bring with it huge financial and operational problems. It is increasingly not just a problem for individual companies, but for nations as a whole. Private companies may own energy assets, for example, but an attack that disrupts that energy supply is a national security issue. What we have seen in response to this is a strengthened focus on cybersecurity that focuses on operational technology – the physical realm – not just the digital IT side of the ledger. More and more investors are looking to back startups that protect not just data and digital systems, but physical systems that people depend on for their daily lives. Joining me today is Stephen Hurford, who sits in the host seat to ask me about it for a change. The post Protecting critical infrastructure is big b

My guest today is Talia Abramowitz, managing partner of Deloitte Ventures, a unit which has made the vast majority of its direct investments in Canadian startups and is well-placed to speak to the feelings within ecosystem. We talk about how startups and investors are thinking of navigating the current uncertainty, and how far along Canada has come in terms of its CVC activity. The unit has also just recently passed its three-year anniversary since founding, so we talk about the challenges of standing up a new CVC, as well as the evolving business of AI, and much more. The post Canada’s startups navigate the new normal appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

It is commonly thought that if you’re dealing with deeptech, that means you’re dealing with long horizons and long timelines to make your money back after an investment, but that is not necessarily the case, according to my guest today. I speak with Julien Fredonie, who heads up investments in Europe and Africa for Honda Xcelerator Ventures, the corporate VC arm of Japanese auto manufacturer Honda. The unit looks at  deeptech and hardtech across a number of areas including decarbonisation, mobility, robotics and manufacturing, and I wanted to talk to Julien about how he sees CVCs coming along in terms of their ability to help those startups scale up. We talk about how much better suited corporate investors are today to back hard tech companies, relative to one or two decades ago. We also touch on the advantages of investing in the European and African markets, how a new generation of more tech-savvy investors is emerging, the importance of having a founder-focused investment approach, bridging the deeptech fu

Innovation has long been one of the primary forces shaping power around the world. If your society is innovating, it will be more prosperous, more influential, and more consequential.  In today’s world, we’re seeing some shifts in global power dynamics between democracies and less democratic nations. We’re also seeing traditionally democratic governments on the backslide, losing faith and confidence in the systems that have kept them doing so well for so long.  My guest today is James Mawson, founder and CEO of GCV, who I wanted to talk to about the role that innovation has to play on the grand scale - how open societies are more conducive to innovation, and how innovation can help keep them ahead of their rivals. The post How innovation can keep democracies ahead appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

Since the end of last year/beginning of this year there’s been quite a bit of optimism that investors will once again be able to count on the public markets for exits – with 2025 being highly anticipated as the year where listings will be back on the menu.  But that is now more uncertain – or at least the timing of it is – what with the amount of uncertainty that’s been injected into the market, for the most part by policy decisions in the US. I speak to GCV's editor-in-chief, Maija Palmer, about the hopes for public markets. The post Everyone is waiting for IPOs, but will market uncertainty delay them? appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

If we rewind to 2021, as we were starting to come out of the covid pandemic, there is nowhere you could look without seeing a flurry of investment rounds, many of them very, very big, backing Web3 and crypto startups. Everyone and their dog was looking to get a piece of the action. Eventually, of course, it cooled off but it’s been making a big comeback in recent months, especially since the US elections late last year. What we are now starting to see, which we didn’t see even back when valuations were massive and everyone was looking for a crypto startup to sink their money into, is the spectre of exits. Today I speak to GCV’s special features editor, Rob Lavine, about the growing tide of M&As we’re likely to see in the space, what kind of investors are looking to jump in, if we’re expecting the return of megarounds, and why gaming and entertainment is likely to be a huge frontier bringing in people who might not otherwise have been exposed to Web3. The post The coming Web3 acquisition wave appeared first o

My guest today is Greg Zavorotniy, who was managing director at what was then called BayWa Energy Ventures, and is now partner at rEnergy Partners. We talk about the advantages of being able to invest from outside the corporate architecture, the unit’s plans to raise a fund north of $200m to invest in cleantech startups, and their plans to bring in multiple LPs. The post rEnergy Partners: Charting a new course as a spun-out cleantech investor appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

Pilot projects between corporates and startups are a dime a dozen, just about any large corporate can do one. The problem, according to my guest today, is after the pilot – why is it that so many startups’ solutions don’t end up scaling within a corporate post-pilot, and what can be done about it? The post Cencosud Ventures: Venture clienting should involve skin in the game appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

Investing in automotive is not what it used to be – it has gone far beyond just what makes the car itself better, but of course to the entire ecosystem and experience around them. The post BMW i Ventures: Carmakers must innovate to navigate rapid technology shift appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

If you happen to be a human being, chances are you need to eat in order to survive. Agriculture is as crucial an industry to the maintenance of modern society as any other – and with a growing population and threats from climate change, finding new ways to produce more food is more important than ever. So why is it that investment into innovative agricultural technology has been so weak in recent years relative to other sectors? The post Leaps by Bayer: Agtech investors look for zebras, not unicorns. appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

Investing in fintech is hard wherever you are, but what if where you are is known for its economic and political turbulence? My guest today is Sebastian Spena, the managing director of Galicia Ventures, the corporate VC unit of Argentinian financial services company Grupo Galicia. The post Argentina’s turbulent economy is a forge for fintech founders appeared first on CVC Unplugged.

The past year has been a big one for fintech startups. The high interest rate environment we’ve been under is slowly easing, along with the uncertainties stemming from having to wait for the outcome of the election in the US. The huge amounts of capital that have been parked on the sidelines are now looking to be deployed, and momentum is returning to the fintech space. The post Looking ahead at fintech’s comeback appeared first on CVC Unplugged.