Vanessa Vreeland is head of Truist Ventures, the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm set up by Truist Financial, the US-based commercial bank formed in December 2019 following a merger between BB&T and SunTrust.
Truist Ventures was created in 2020 to invest in and partner with companies developing financial technology and other innovative areas. Among its current portfolio companies are young person’s fintech company Greenlight, small businesses analytics specialist Enigma, payment service Veem and Greenwood, a digital banking platform for Black and Latinx people and business owners.
Vreeland has over 20 years of private equity, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions and banking experience. When she joined the Truist Ventures team she said: “As the venture capital division of the sixth-largest bank in the US, we have the scale to provide the capital early-stage companies need to grow, yet we are nimble enough to deliver meaningful access to the deep domain expertise from our extensive network of teams across technology, investment banking, capital markets and innovation.
“We work closely with the companies in which we invest, leveraging our executive-level talent and industry experts to help them grow.”
Prior to joining Truist Ventures, Vreeland had been a senior vice-president of commercial banking at SunTrust for a year and a half from August 2018, after more than 12 years at Fifth Third Bank, first as managing director of private equity for a decade, before ascending to head of acquisitions and strategic investments.
She has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Saint Mary’s College in Indiana.
