A cornerstone of Bertelsmann’s success over the past decade has been the importance it has placed on getting the right people on board – as a result, it has been named winner of the Intramezzo Talent Capital Award at the 2016 Global Corporate Venturing Symposium.
Bertelsmann has been developing talent in the US and Europe through BDMI, Brazil and India through more nascent specific teams and Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI), the group’s Beijing-based strategic investment arm focused on early to growth-stage deals in China.
Earlier this year, BAI’s Will Wang was named a Global Corporate Venturing Rising Star thanks to the success he has enjoyed in the early stages of his investment career. Wang joined BAI after leading a team which won the Talent Meet Bertelsmann business plan competition. His victory was attributed to the fact that he had already had a hand in setting up three startup companies before the event.
Dermot Hill, director of Intramezzo, said: “BDMI’s managing director Urs Cete has taken Bertelsmann’s recruitment framework and punched above its weight in terms of hiring, training and promotion.
“Today, BDMI can boast a highly effective team – modest in number but strong in investing experience, having appointed key talent from both CVC and VC backgrounds.
“One of the cornerstones of BDMI’s successful talent strategy has been to recognise the benefits of behaving like a VC – with an incentive structure in place that mimics carry. This puts Bertelsmann at a considerable advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining experienced investment talent.”
Hill added that BDMI’s investment strategy focuses predominantly on the US and Europe, and that the unit had made 23 investments between January 2015 and March 2016 with $961m invested. In the same period, the fund saw $74m in exits.