Jacqueline LeSage is founder and managing general director of Munich Re Ventures (MRV), the strategic investment arm for Germany-listed reinsurance firm Munich Re.
MRV’s current areas of focus are climate tech, cybersecurity, industrial equipment and technologies, the future of transportation and insurtech.
During her time at MRV, LeSage’s main focus has been to develop a strong and stable investment platform for many of the diverse and still emergent approaches that Munich Re takes to accessing innovation. After the closing of the $500m Munich Re Fund II in 2021, the MRV platform is now over $1bn. In addition to that, LeSage remains an active investor and over the past year has been actively building a robust thesis for the intersection of risk transfer and DeFi.
MRV has already added eight new portfolio companies in 2022, including its first investment in Latin America (LatAm). Highlights include a lead role in the $4m seed round for Helixintel, a developer of a digital tracking system based in New York State, as well as a $15m series A round for FloodFlash, a UK-based provider of parametric flood insurance. MRV has recently scored three exits – with Hippo, Babylon Health and Forge Global going public over the past year.
MRV currently has over 35 active portfolio companies across six sectors, having invested more than $330m in companies at all stages across North America, Europe, Asia and LatAm.
LeSage was previously vice-president of innovation and corporate venture capital at US-based insurer Hartford Financial Services Group. She founded the groups responsible for both internal innovation – incubating new offerings, customer experiences and business models through the Innovation Studio – and external innovation, investing venture capital in startups and forming strategic alliances through Hartford Ventures.
