Gaule: Can you please give a brief description of the purpose of your fund?
Kirby: Qualcomm Ventures (QCV) is the primary investment arm for Qualcomm and we are geared towards making investments in innovative private companies. We look for companies that bring both strategic and financial returns to Qualcomm and the broader wireless ecosystem. The fund was formed in 2000 and we have 14 investment professionals around the world with offices in the UK, Israel, India, China, South Korea, Brazil and US.
On the investment process, first we have a VC partner like approval within the venture group where new opportunities are presented to the team. The team then evaluates the opportunity and votes on whether to move forward. Once we have the internal approval within the group we then go for executive approval. The executive committee includes our chief executive (CEO), chief technical officer (CTO), chief financial officer (CFO) and executive vice-presidents.
Gaule: Can you outline the strategic and financial benefit you bring to your core business.
Kirby: Qualcomm’s business is predicated on the growth of the overall wireless ecosystem through the sale of silicon and royalties for the use of our third and fourth generation (3G and 4G) technologies. The companies that we invest in help to grow that ecosystem, increasing the size of the opportunity for Qualcomm and help to accelerate the migration of users from voice only devices to smart phones and data devices. A number of our portfolio companies also work directly with business units within Qualcomm providing direct strategic value to both Qualcomm and the portfolio company. We also provide insight into new ideas, technologies and business models to our executives to ensure that they are aware of the latest trends and to allow Qualcomm to optimise its strategy to include these new developments.
Gaule: How do you work with partners in you business eco system and how does the fund support this?
Kirby: Qualcomm works with all members of the wireless ecosystem from operators to handset original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), infrastructure providers to application and content providers and we do the same on the Venture side. The deep and varied connections we have within the wireless ecosystem can be very beneficial for our portfolio companies. These connections can help portfolio companies to expand internationally and make connections to the right partners in the ecosystem and to accelerate the growth of the startup and to help them optimise their strategic direction.
Gaule: How are you finding the current investment environment for finding VC investment partners?
Kirby: We are still finding there are VC partners to co invest and there is still strong competition for the good deals. QCV will also invest with corporate VC partners as we are supporting the eco system of many other oragnisations.
Gaule: Can you give us a brief overview of the people in the team.
Kirby: We have a team of investment professionals within the fund. Approximately 50% of these are based in the US the remainder distributed in key geographies around the world. Since each region is different folks within each region have local knowledge and expertise. All new deals are reviewed by the entire team which allows all members to have a strong world view and visibility outside their designated markets. Personally this is my second stint in the Qualcomm ventures group. I left the group after the acquisition of one of my portfolio companies, Iridigm to take on an operational role leading the product management group there. I then lead business development and incubation of new business ideas within corporate research and development for five years before re joining the venture group to look outside the company again.
Gaule: Can you give us some insights to an interesting recent deal.
Kirby: There are a number of very interesting deals we are looking at that I can’t talk about at the moment but one recent deal is in a company in the optics space for computational cameras. This technology will allow phones to be much thinner by using an array of smaller cameras versus one larger one. The company uses new techniques for producing multiple closely aligned lenses. These array cameras can offer very high performance in low light conditions and interesting new capabilities including the ability to refocus pictures after they have been taken all in a very thin form factor.
Gaule: What do you do to relax when you are not building ventures?
Kirby: I enjoy spending time with my family and outdoor activities including hiking, mountain biking and backpacking.
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