Podcast
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Miles Kirby: Deeptech Labs
Listen nowMy guest today is Miles Kirby, CEO of Deeptech Labs, the Cambridge-based accelerator and investor focused, as its name suggests, on deep tech – which is of course an umbrella term encompassing a broad set of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum, advanced materials, other advanced compute, and just about any technology that has not quite been commodified yet and still has substantial engineering or scientific challenges to overcome.
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Mario Augusto Maia: Cogent Venture Partners
Listen nowSetting up a corporate venture capital unit comes with a lot of hurdles. You have to deal with a wide range of stakeholders, and you have to find a place to fit within the wider corporate structure, much of which is not necessarily well-versed in the value that a venturing unit can bring.
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Jeffrey Grabow: EY
Listen nowThe scale and speed with which the venture market has changed over the past year has caused some whiplash for startups and investors alike. All of a sudden, we find ourselves in an environment with higher inflation, higher interest rates, and much more difficulty being able to raise money, be it equity or debt. While the current venture market does represent a drop from the heady heights of two years ago, in some ways it also marks a return to normal, albeit in a tougher macroeconomic environment.
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Dina Routhier & Michael Mahan – Stanley Ventures
Listen nowOne of the interesting shifts that happened during the covid pandemic was in building things. Larger construction projects slowed down while at home DIY projects took off as people had to spend inside. This is but one of the patterns that Stanley Ventures, the venturing unit of Stanley Black & Decker, had a front-row view to, sitting on the intersection of construction and consumer goods.
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Erin VanLanduit: Cargill Ventures
Listen nowEveryone needs to eat, and as one of the largest private companies in the world, Cargill has played a large role in providing much of what, at least in the US, shows up in supermarkets. But what does the future of food look like? And what innovation is needed to bring agriculture up to speed with the demands of a growing population with shifting views?
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Raj Singh: JLL Spark Global Ventures
Listen nowEvery business needs a space, but how will those spaces be valued in the future? Commercial real estate is in the beginning stages of some important changes in the way it looks, operates, shares its space, and even where it is located, much of the changes coming in the aftermath of the pandemic.
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Lukasz Garbowski: Btomorrow Ventures
Listen nowBtomorrow Ventures (BTV), the venturing unit of British American Tobacco, is a CVC unlike the rest, in the sense that While the typical aim of corporate venturing is to complement and innovate on top of its parent company’s business, BTV’s main purpose is to help its tobacco producing parent to move away from its core product and into new categories that will create growth in the future.
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Brian Walsh: Wind Ventures
Listen nowWhat does it mean to grant “unfair” access to a region? That’s what Wind Ventures, the venture capital arm of Chilean energy company Copec, wants to do for its portfolio companies wanting exposure to the Latin American market. With a wide remit that primarily straddles energy and mobility, Wind has been bullish on the energy transition and EV charging, among a number of other focus areas including logistics and retail experience.
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Brian Schettler: HorizonX
Listen nowSpinning a fund out of the corporate parent’s umbrella can be a tricky process. If done right, though, you can end up with a situation where you can enjoy both the benefits of being your own outfit and the advantages of close operational links with a big name corporate. You can have your cake and eat it too. This is where AEI HorizonX, the venture firm spun out of aerospace and defence company Boeing, finds itself.
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Investing in defence tech
Listen nowThere has never been a more crucial time to invest in technologies related to defence and security. War in Ukraine and growing geopolitical tensions between the US and China are bringing a new focus to an area that used to be taboo for investors. Global Corporate Venturing editor Maija Palmer talks to Ryan Lewis, partner at SRI Ventures and Tom Park, partner at BDC Deep Tech Fund, about why they are setting up the GCV Defense Council Advisory Board to foster collaboration between corporate investors looking to invest in this area.