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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.
For most industries, it is precisely when technologies are shifting in meaningful ways that also change consumer behaviour, as we are seeing today with cars, that companies are at most risk of disruption by new entrants.
My guest today is Marcus Behrendt, managing partner of BMW i Ventures, the german car manufacturer’s corporate VC unit.
We talk about the new technologies coming on the market, everything from the comeback of autonomous technologies – which had dipped in recent years – to easily accessible data, AI, robotics, and of course, sustainability, which cuts across it all. We talk about the importance if strong innovation on these new fronts while bringing customers along as seamlessly as possible.
We also talk about why he would recommend, to any corporate VC, an independent fund structure like the one BMW i Ventures’ has had for the better part of the past decade, which is, in Behrendt’s view, superior to the way most CVC’s tend to do it today, what with the freedom it allows to execute quickly and autonomously without going through so many levels of approval, and the ability to operate like an institutional VC, but with the firepower of a large corporate.
But first, on the week marking the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I speak to GCV reporter Stephen Hurford about how Ukrainian defence technology startups are thinking, from their vantage point at the forefront of modern warfare, about how they’re working on the tech to help the country survive.