Having been in the venture capital business for 12 years, William Pescatello has helped build three funds, two of which are in the top quartile. He is a founder and managing partner at Evolv Ventures, US-based packaged food producer Kraft Heinz’s $100m strategic venture fund investing mainly in the food industry.
On completing his MBA at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, he started his venture career as an associate at GE Capital, where he completed a post-MBA leadership program. He achieved the highest rating and was commissioned to help media group NBCUniversal found and manage $250m venture arm Peacock Equity Fund. Prior to joining Evolv, he had spent seven years at venture capital firm Lightbank and partnered serial entrepreneurs Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell.
Pescatello first took notice of strategic investing at NBCUniversal. The investments he worked on yielded a better than four-times return, with an advantage in the market in terms of “dealflow, proprietary information, focus and a value-added industry network”. By doing it right, he said, CVCs could outperform traditional financial investors in the market.
He also led or helped make stellar investments, such as US-based online education marketplace Udemy, US-based automated advertising platform developer Rubicon Project, and Germany-based online gaming company Bigpoint, among others.
He said he constantly needed more time. “At my last firm, Lightbank, we made more than 100 investments over a seven-year period and sat on over 12 boards at a time. I will be more focused and concentrated on a small number of investments at Evolv Ventures, but you never have enough time.”
