Loic Lietar founded the corporate venturing unit of STMicroelectronics last year alongside Guy Lauvergeon.
The two executives are both long-term veterans of the Switzerland-based semiconductor company.
Lietar, managing director, said: “Why corporate venturing in ST? This was not the first time the company has thought about a corporate venture initiative – it is the fourth attempt. Guy and I also tried to start it a few years before.”
He added: “We have $50m until 2015. We built the fund to maintain our strategy. We operate as much as possible like a pure corporate venture capital fund but make arm’s-length investments and do not want to see formal business relationships related to the fact we are shareholder in the company. We have walked away from deals because other investors expected a relationship with ST.
“The only requirement we have is silicon or semiconductors have to play a key role in the company. How much can we learn of the role of semiconductor in the value chain?”
Lietar’s entire private sector career has been with ST. He said: “I have always been in the same company, yet I have had different jobs in all places in the world. They hired me as a PhD student, yet I never passed my PhD, because the company offered me things to do that were more
exciting.”
Lietar studied at the Ecole Polytechnique in France and gained a master’s degree in science from Orsay University and a master of business administration from Columbia University.
He added: “We are not looking for board seats, only observer seats. Our deals in most cases are early-stage and we have looked at seed investments and follow-ons as well. We intend to follow on to keep at the level to retain an observer seat. We also have no deadline for liquidity, which makes us easier to work with than other investors. We have not made an investment yet but we are very active. We are discovering when you are not a lead investor you control the timing less. There are a set of companies we think we want to invest in, but the syndicate has to be in place.”
Lessons from the top: He said: “First of all, a large company does not see everything. I was very surprised to see things as an investor which a large company should have seen and understood. The biggest challenge for the corporate is how to bring back what you have. We are told things we cannot share with ST, yet we try to return things of value for ST.”