Bill Reichert: Pegasus Tech Ventures

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Bill Reichert is partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures, a VC as a service firm that makes venture investments on behalf of corporations. This is a model that has been on an upwards trajectory in recent years, as different corporates find themselves at different stages along their innovation journey and sometimes they need outside help, so they reach out to firms like Pegasus and others to help them navigate the venture capital ecosystem.

Reichert talks about the VCaaS model, its advantages and why some corporates choose to go that route as opposed to building their own units, and why the model is gaining so much popularity. He also talks at length about the history of corporate venture capital and how CVC as a service is the latest iteration of it – calling it CVC 4.0. Corporations, Reichert says, recognise that they need to innovate in order to survive, and just because a corporate might already have a CVC doesn’t mean that they don’t partner with firms like Pegasus anyway.

With a multi-sector array of partners, Reichert explains the challenges involved in formulating a strategy for each of them based on their individual needs, and how sometimes they need a lot of help getting the prerequisite groundwork and culture of innovation in place to enter the venture pool.

“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Can record investment in agtech fix global food insecurity?

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We are joined once again by GCV’s very own Kim Moore, who has recently written an article exploring a hugely important topic, food insecurity, a topic which has been aggravated by recent events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, itself building on top of already longer-running themes like climate change and covid-related global supply chain shocks.

However, we’ve also seen a massive increase in venture capital flowing into agriculture technology round the world, which has massive potential to alleviate food shortages and maximise productivity and access to enabling services like financial technology across the industry.

Can record investment in agtech fix global food insecurity?

“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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What background should CVC hires have?

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The economy may be cold but CVC teams are growing and hiring. But what should you look for in candidates? What traits and attributes are best for new hires coming into a CVC?

Fernando discusses a recent GCV article on the topic with senior editor Maija Palmer.

Read the full article on the Global Venturing website.

“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Gustavo Cavenaghi: Kortex Ventures

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Gustavo Cavenaghi is the head of investments at Kortex Ventures – a CVC unit jointly backed by no less than three corporate limited partners, namely diagnostics technology providers Fleury and Sabin, as well as health insurance company Bradesco Saude.

Being a CVC for a single corporate is hard enough – but what about three of them? How do you juggle that? According to Cavenaghi, it’s a complex challenge with a simple answer, stick to your thesis and take an agnostic view.

In this episode, He also talks about the scale of the impact that the pandemic has had on the healthtech investment landscape, particularly in how it has supercharged demand for digital and telehealth services.

He also discusses how important genomics will become in the future of healthcare, the value of patience when trying to set up a new CVC and how corporates would do well to let their CVCs fly and do their own thing – though without breaking the corporate umbilical cord.

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“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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A growing corporate appetite for nuclear fusion

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GCV’s very own Kim Moore joined the podcast to speak about her new feature article on nuclear fusion, exploring the advances that have made it more technologically and commercially viable, how it compares to existing nuclear energy technology, the current landscape of corporate investment supporting it, and where it fits into the clean energy matrix and our global context.

You can read Kim’s full article on our website.

“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Anand Kamannavar: Applied Ventures

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Technology can only get as advanced as the materials that make it up, and things are moving fast.

Anand Kamannavar is the global head of Applied Ventures, the CVC unit of advanced materials engineering company Applied Materials, investing in a wide range of technologies including energy, advanced materials and manufacturing, semiconductors, life sciences, AI and big data and more.

In this episode, he touches on the challenges involved with managing a considerable global portfolio when the whole team is based in California, how Applied Ventures seeks to enable the pushing of the envelope on Moore’s Law – the principle essentially stating that semiconductors double in complexity every few years – and how having been in the game for so long has helped the unit see ahead of the curve.

He also talks about the benefits of having had a stable, long-term and supportive relationship with the parent company, how investing in public companies can be a good play for a CVC, and how the similarities between VCs and CVCs are much bigger than the differences, particularly with the smaller VCs that are more specialised.

“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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The evolving landscape of corporate impact investing

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Global Corporate Venturing features editor Rob Lavine joins the pod to talk about the shifting models corporate VC’s are employing for their impact investment activities.

“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Gonzalo Galindo: Cemex Ventures

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Gonzalo Galindo is the head of Cemex Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of construction materials company Cemex.

Having been at the helm of the CVC since its inception in 2017, Gonzalo talks about how the challenges within the construction sector – such as supply chain issues and sustainability – have evolved over the past nearly six years. We also talk about its recent investment in 3D printing company COBOD and why it was interested in a novel energy storage company like Energy Vault.

We discuss Cemex Ventures’ recently announced LP investment in the newly formed investment fund Zacua Ventures – which Cemex is backing alongside a number of other industry incumbents to invest in initiatives relevant to all of them – and how the construction startup competition it runs with other major construction companies shines a spotlight on fledgling innovators.

“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Hector Shibata: AC Ventures

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Hector Shibata is the head of AC Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of beverage distributor Arca Continental.

In addition to a deep dive into AC Ventures’ strategy, Hector talks about how the pandemic put a number of the firm’s focus sectors like retail-tech and logistics in a position of strength going into the coming economic turmoil and why startups sometimes don’t want to partner with CVCs, thinking there will be strings attached.

He also talks about how putting together a CVC team is like building a special forces squad and how the younger population of Latin America is a major driver for investment in the region, though certain endemic business attitudes – like keeping companies in the family – are proving to be speed bumps.

Don’t forget to like, share and subscribe!

“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Carlos Kokron: Qualcomm Ventures

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Carlos Kokron is vice-president, managing director and head of Americas investments for Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Qualcomm, the developer of semiconductors and wireless technology.

In this episode of the Global Venturing Review, Carlos talks about why series A, B and C are the perfect goldilocks zone for Qualcomm Ventures, why it’s becoming increasingly important to invest in technologies at the edge rather than just at the cloud to enable low-latency-dependent applications, and how Qualcomm Ventures new extended reality-focused fund is set to open up a host of cool new possibilities.

As one of the early venture capitalists (Corporate or otherwise) in Brazil, Carlos also has really great insight into the Latin American venture scene, and he talks about the state of the region and what’s needed to foster more corporate investment there. He also talks about how it’s a really good time to invest right now despite the current cloudy economic conditions.

“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0