US-based credit card company American Express (Amex) made a big splash in corporate venturing when it hired Harshul Sanghi, formerly head of Motorola Mobility’s corporate venturing unit.
It is a splash that continues to ripple out as Sanghi, managing partner at Amex Ventures since August 2011, and his team have made investments in more than 20 companies around the world. He has led investments in, and is currently involved with, the boards of Bill.com, If Only, Instacart, Intacct, Kiip, Learnvest, acquired by Northwestern Mutual, Retail Next and Savingstar.
Previous board affiliations include Ruckus Wireless, Vocera, MFoundry, acquired by FIS, Zenverge, acquired by Freescale, Device Anywhere, acquired by Keynote Systems, and Handmark, acquired by Sprint.
His team’s most recent deals were Boxed’s and Simplee’s series C rounds. Boxed helps with bulk buy customer orders, while Simplee has a technology platform to ease healthcare payments and was Amex Ventures’ first investment in a payments platform that is specifically developed for the healthcare space.
At Amex, Sanghi leads a team including Rohit Bodas, a GCV Rising Star 2016. The main focus of Amex Ventures is to “drive innovation by leveraging investments in disruptive startups in three key areas – consumer commerce, B2B [business to business] services and core capabilities, including data analytics, servicing, and fraud detection and security,” Sanghi said.
He added: “American Express Ventures had a great year in 2015. We continued to make investments in our three focus areas – consumer commerce, B2B services and core capabilities – and also made our first investment in Mexico.
“For 2016, we are laser focused on deepening engagement with our portfolio companies and providing value on both sides of the equation – for us and for our portfolio companies. Another big initiative for 2016 is to aggressively expand our investing activity internationally and foster meaningful relationships that will forge new paths for American Express.”
Sanghi is a veteran venture capitalist with more than 25 years of operating experience and a proven track record in delivering financial returns and strategic value. For his 2014 Powerlist award, Sanghi said he helped establish Motorola Ventures after the phone equipment provider’s purchase of his previous employer, Ucentric Systems, as the “go-to standard for corporate venturing”.
That group was divided in half, into Motorola Mobility Ventures and Motorola Solutions Ventures, when its parent company Motorola was also split in two, with Sanghi becoming head of Motorola Mobility Ventures but leaving before search engine Google’s purchase of the parent business in 2014.