Angie Grimm has been the head of IBM Ventures, US-based technology provider IBM’s corporate investment arm, since 2019, having also been promoted to a vice-president in corporate development at the parent firm last year.
The unit she runs looks to partner and invest in high-growth innovators that are providing new technologies to the enterprise. The team works closely with IBM businesses to support innovation initiatives and investment in strategic partners to drive growth for IBM, its partners and its enterprise clients.
IBM Ventures was formed in 2001, making it one of the more seasoned open innovation players. Its mission is to promote an innovation ecosystem engaging the full range of IBM resources together with a broad set of partners to support growth for all. It serves as a strategic unit of IBM that provides ‘headlights’ by understanding various disruptions in the market, and then engaging with the best startups to help solve the business problems of both IBM and our enterprise clients.
She has rebuilt the investment arm, bringing together a team with roughly 50 years of investment experience. Among the unit’s recent deals are an investment in Quantinuum, a full-stack quantum computing company, and participation in the series F round for Singlestore, the single database for data-intensive applications. IBM Ventures also took part in the $140m series C round for Copado, a devops platform.
Grimm has worked in a variety of leadership roles at IBM since joining the company two decades ago. Previously, Grimm had spent three years at the storied brokerage Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) as an investment banker in Chicago and aided in establishing DLJ’s European M&A and technology group presence in London, UK.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing from Indiana University Bloomington’s Kelley School of Business.
