“If there is any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt to understanding someone sharing. I know, it is almost impossible to succeed but who cares really. The answer must be in the attempt.” Julie Delpy, Before Sunrise (1995)
It was a privilege to hear the insights at the GCV Digital Forum 2.0 yesterday. Combining our regional and sector events, GCV Asia Congress, Synergize and Energy, was always a recipe for some of the world’s leaders to gather and share as well as network. The insights started with Gen Tsuchikawa, CEO of Sony Innovation Fund, as chairman of the Asia stream explain how it had made 10 deals since April through the covid-19 crisis and launched a new fund with an impact focus on the environment.
Impact and sustainability was a running theme through the whole agenda, with Sir Ronald Cohen, chairman of the Global Steering Group working on impact investing, giving a keynote and answering questions from attendees about his new book, Impact: Reshaping capitalism to drive real change.
Ira Ehrenpreis, managing partner at venture capital firm DBL Partners, draw a powerful response from Sir Ronald to his question: “The impact investing sector – and even the traditional venture capital sector for that matter – often focus on new entrants to the asset class, new funds raised, and the total amount of AUM [assets under management].
“One of things I love about your new book, Impact, is that you place the entrepreneur at the centre of the rise impact investing movement. For those of us who have been on the frontlines of deploying capital for several decades, we know that it is all about the entrepreneur and the talent entering the industry. You have written about my close friend and colleague of many years Elon [Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX,] and the impact he has had in positively disrupting the automobile and energy industry. And you were fortunate to invest in some incredible entrepreneurs like Steve Case and Steve Jobs.
“How have you seen the depth and breadth of entrepreneurial talent in the impact investing sector evolve, or mature? Relative to what you saw in the technology industry?”
Sir Ronald pointed out that big crises led to big steps for change and there would be “impact unicorns,” which are private companies worth at least $1bn in value and affecting one billion people.
Similarly, speakers from across sessions, including Lo Toney from Google-backed Plexo Capital, Shiva Dustdar from the European Investment Bank, Andrea Hoffman and Daryn Dodson to Jay Eum, father of South Korea’s corporate venturing industry in North America, pointed to the need for change and greater diversity and inclusion.
The key question covid-19 has thrown up was whether CVCs would retreat or advance in the downturn. Martin Haemmig’s analysis of GCV and other venture data showed the global perspective and continued dealmaking.
Corporations, such as Jeffrey Li, managing partner at Tencent, to Rajeev Misra, CEO of SoftBank’s Vision Funds, reiterated their desire to step into the opportunities. Tencent invests most of its $10bn of net profits each year in minority investing, Li said, while SoftBank is active through its second Vision Fund and other vehicles for investing. Others, including Om Nalamasu, chief technology officer at Applied Materials and president of its Applied Ventures unit, Jason Young, senior vice-president and head of T-Mobile’s corporate venturing unit, and Stefan Oschmann, CEO of Germany-based Merck, gave powerful keynotes on the areas of opportunities they foresaw.
However, Touchdown Ventures’ survey of VCs and CVCs found outside of the big firms some caution and a disconnect between perception and reality for the corporate venturing community.
But the opportunities are drawing in more corporations and increasing their professionalisation, with a waiting list for the GCV Institute of online training to complement the GCV Academy. In the roundtables covering sectors and different regions a host of ideas and best practices were showed alongside hundreds of virtual meetings and discussions through the GCV Digital Forum app hosted by Brella.
And prosperity relies on this continuing. Philip Coggan, Bartleby columnist at the Economist magazine, said his latest book, More, clearly found the conditions for prosperity rely on connections between people for trade, specialisation, ideas and freedom.
