A £2.5bn ($4bn) corporate venturing fund backed by the UK’s six biggest banks has hired its chairman and chief executive ahead of investing up to 75 companies per year. The Business Growth Fund will be chaired by Sir Nigel Rudd (pictured), also chairman of airports operator BAA, and managed by Stephen Welton, managing partner of… Continue reading UK bank fund hires executives
Category: People
Moncrieff works on Lifestyle Incubator
Alison Moncrieff has moved to become vice-president of new business development of the Lifestyle Incubator at Netherlands-based electronics company Philips’ Consumer Lifestyle subsidiary.
Q&A with Transcosmos Investments
Shin Nagakura, head of Transcosmos Investments since 2003, talks to James Mawson, editor of Global Corporate Venturing, about the company’s corporate venturing strategy.
Genocea promotes Clark after six months
George Siber, executive chairman of Genocea’s board, said: “In Chip [Clark]’s short time at Genocea, he has proven himself to be a tremendous asset to the company” and the company said he “played a critical role in closing the company’s $35m round of series B financing announced last month”.
Verve breaks down Deconstruct
Verve hires Tom MacIsaac as chief executive ahead of buying Deconstruct Media.
Neuralitic hires boss with B round
BlackBerry Partners Fund, a corporate venturing fund backed by investors including phone maker Research In Motion, reinvested in Neuralitic, alongside venture capital firms BDC Venture Capital, Vertex Venture Capital and Go Capital, while Export Development Canada led the round as a new investor. Neuralitic has now raised $20m in total.
Case study: MJ Hudson
Counsel for aligning interests by taking stakes
Profile: WPP
Marketing its innovation credentials, WPP uses corporate venturing amid a broader acquisition and development strategy to transition to a digital future.
The search for opportunities to fuel growth
As part of a series of interviews with leading venture investors and developers, Andrew Gaule, left, founder of the H-I Network and Corporate Venture Senior Executive Forum, talks to Paul Morris (pictured), head of Europe for Dow Venture Capital.
Linn Grove gains Deedrick
Former Mayo Medical Ventures and Accuitive Medical Ventures founder joins venture capital firm Linn Grove Ventures.
Lindsay Grenawalt moves to Google Ventures
Since 2006 Lindsay Grenawalt has been a technical recruiter and sourcer for Google but now deals with its venturing unit’s portfolio companies.
Stephen Moore leaves Motorola
Motorola divided on January 4 into Mobility and Solutions to cover mobile phones and enterprises respectively and its corporate venturing unit has followed the two by splitting its portfolio and concentrating most of its teams back in the US.
Mayer and Wright join Trada
News provider SearchBlog says Tim Mayer is chief strategy officer and Ben Wright vice-president of service delivery and marketplace at Trada.
Sarnoff leaves Bertelsmann for KKR
Thomas Rabe, chief financial officer of Bertelsmann, will replace Richard Sarnoff as president of corporate venturing unit Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments from February 1.