One of the great things about corporate venturing is the thrill of mixing established corporations, with all their scale and pedigree, with the most compelling start-ups, with all their energy and innovativeness.
Yet the forums for the two worlds to collide are still disparate and fragmented. At Global Corporate Venturing, we are delighted to be partnering with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which is hand-picking 60 start-ups for our Symposium in London on June 2 and 3.
On the afternoon of June 3, our entire Symposium agenda will be turned over to hold “Pitch sessions from the giants of tomorrow”. We will hear high-energy three-minute presentations from companies in the following four sector groupings: Enterprise; Consumer; Industrial and Hardware; and Medtech and Life Sciences.
The pitch sessions are part of a series of sector-specific invitation-only showcases jointly run by SVB and the UK government’s UK Trade and Investment, where leading UK start-ups pitch to corporate venturing groups and venture capital firms.
The Symposium sessions follow recent start-up show-cases run by the two groups looking at cyber security and digital health.
Gerald Brady, head of UK relationship banking at SVB, said: “Silicon Valley Bank’s desire is to help strengthen the innovation ecosystem within the UK. We are connecting corporates with members of the startup community, and more importantly we are highlighting the quality of UK entrepreneurs. Our pitch event will allow new businesses to demonstrate their unique solutions that are helpful for all types of corporations. Corporates can be very valuable partners both as a customer and as an advocate for startups.”
Brady added: “Through this event we are exposing businesses that are not on the radar, while creating a network effect that enables people to build relationships with their industry peers. Cybersecurity is especially interesting in that most businesses are collaborating rather than competing – because an attack on one is an attack on all.”
Paul Morris, director of corporate venture capital at UKTI’s venture capital unit, said: “Silicon Valley Bank is the bank for start-up and early stage companies, they have a strong reputation and extremely wide range of contacts built in Silicon Valley and are building very rapidly in the UK. They have tremendous access and interactions with start-up companies and their needs. At the same time UKTI has great access to a wide range of CVC and VC investors. This works very well to drive exposure for UK start-ups, establish strategic connections, and get VC funding from many of these investors around the world.“