How do corporate venture capital investors define what is strategic and relevant for their firms?
Jill Frankle
Replied Nov 23
When evaluating prospective opportunities, it is classic due diligence: Has the company established product–market fit? Are there beta customers or a pipeline of customers that you can speak with to …
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What does investment strategy look like for corporate venture capital investors?
Kevin Jacques, VP of Corporate Development
Replied Jun 25
The most fundamental questions for a CVC program to get right is understanding what your objectives are before you go about launching a program, or when someone new is taking over the program. There …
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What's your firm's geographic allocation strategy for venture capital?
Mark Sherman
Replied Jun 23
Typically we're investing 70% in the U.S., and the other 30% in other parts of Asia, with China being the largest piece. I think we're likely to just keep that strategy pretty similar. We'll see the …
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When is the best time to invest in a startup?
Mark Sherman
Replied Jun 23
Our thought is that it's after the technology has been proven and just as the companies are beginning to scale. We are investing in Series Bs, Cs and Ds, and the reason why we invest in those stages …
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How is BP Ventures evolving in the next 5-10 years?
David Hayes, Chief Investment Officer & Managing Director
Replied May 20
That's a good question, and slightly hard to answer. BP recently announced its ambition to get to net-zero by 2050 or sooner. We will be coming back to the market in September with a firmer plan of h…
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Corporate venture capital investors: what level of involvement do you seek with the companies where you invest?
David Hayes, Chief Investment Officer & Managing Director
Replied May 20
BP Ventures is very active on the portfolio management side of things. It's our aim to take a board seat on every investment we make. We've had to make concessions in the past, but I don't think we w…
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What does the role of a managing director of corporate venture capital (CVC) look like?
Henry Wong, Managing Director
Replied May 05
Hi Matt:
I would like to reconnect CitiVentures with some of our portfolio companies. Who may we get in touch with in PAlto ? I did only one deal with Citi CFO Office and its eve…
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Many CVC peers are focusing on co-creation strategies. What are your efforts when it comes to that department?
Matthew Carbonara, Managing Director at Citi Ventures
Replied May 01
Yes, the interesting thing about Citi Ventures is there's really four pieces to it. There's the Citi Ventures investing team, which is the team that I'm part of. We report into the Chief …
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What are some of the challenges and hurdles you face in investing through the lens of a large traditional institution as CVC?
Matthew Carbonara, Managing Director at Citi Ventures
Replied May 01
The piece that we are focused on, that can be challenging sometimes, is that we are a large regulated institution. We are one of the few systemically important institutions to the financial system of…
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We had the Tokyo Summit in 2019, and the highlight was the collaboration between new innovative startups and then large corporations, traditional players. How can we help foster more collaboration?
Matthew Carbonara, Managing Director at Citi Ventures
Replied May 01
I believe that trend will persist because there's a general recognition that innovation is happening much faster. It's harder for large companies to attract the talent coming out of universit…
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