Brian Schettler is the senior managing director of HorizonX Ventures, US-based aerospace firm Boeing’s corporate venture capital (CVC) arm formed in April 2017. The unit invests in innovative aerospace technologies, business models and manufacturing processes.
Regarding the unit’s performance in the past year, Schettler said: “The last 12 months was an incredible year for the HorizonX Ventures team. We continued investing directly in a number of new high-quality aerospace companies, maintained our commitment and provided additional validation to our existing portfolio through follow-on investments, and launched a leading accelerator program in conjunction with the ATI [Aerospace Technology Institute, an air transport-focused research and development public-private partnership] in the UK.
“We have built a tremendous team with great depth and experience and have established a dedicated portfolio development team to drive strategic benefits of the portfolio into Boeing and the aerospace supply chain as well as bringing the best of Boeing and our collective experiences to the portfolio companies.”
In May 2019, HorizonX made eight new hires: Gabrielle Kouchacji, principal at Global Accelerators; Nicola-Jane Bates, principal at HorizonX UK; Charles Coccia and Devyn Noriel, portfolio development analysts; Elianna Goldstein, investment analyst; Colin Lovell, portfolio and valuation analyst; Jason McClain, investing director; and Patricia Dods, staff analyst.
The unit also promoted three team members: Ayal Somech, now portfolio development director; Martha Cosgrove, investment associate; and Damineh Mycroft, an investing director who was a Global Corporate Venturing Rising Star this year alongside her peer Beckett Jackson.
Furthermore, managing director Michael Lohnert was included in GCV’s inaugural Emerging Leaders roster in 2020, having featured in GCV Rising Stars list for two consecutive years. One of the investments Jackson oversaw was a $20m funding round for space exploration company Virgin Galactic that became publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange in October 2019.
HorizonX will accelerate its collaboration with its portfolio companies in the remainder of 2020, according to Schettler, who said: “Given pressures on financial activity around the world, this year will be much more heavily focused on working with our existing portfolio. There are so many opportunities to promote them further across aerospace and other industries that we will be working tirelessly to make them as successful as possible.
“We have developed a ‘menu of offerings’ that encompass all the valuable tools, knowledge, and assets that we have at our disposal to help our portfolio as much as possible. We will maintain pro-rata funding levels, and help identify other sources of funding as well from potential new investors and forms of non-dilutive capital.”
The menu in question focuses on supporting HorizonX’s portfolio companies during the Covid-19 pandemic, with offerings ranging from information on government aid packages in partnership with GovOps (California Government Operations Agency) to requests for SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) knowledge, financial scenario planning, and tips for adjusting their marketing strategy while leveraging affordable channels thanks to the unit’s own marketing team.
For the corporate venturing industry to be a stronger technology investment group, Schettler considers more co-investment, more focus, less fragmentation, better-coordinated training for the next-generation of CVC professionals to be crucial steps.
Prior to joining HorizonX, Schettler had overseen strategic development and mergers and acquisitions at Boeing for a year and a half from late 2012, having led corporate strategy and M&A teams at various aerospace and defence companies.
Schettler holds a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA from University of Maryland.
