Darren Streiler is an investment director at ADM Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of US-based food ingredients producer Archer Daniels Midland. Prior to taking up his current post in 2018, he had been a venture partner at MGV, US-based agricultural products provider Monsanto’s corporate venturing unit, where he worked with MGV and the Monsanto global strategy team for three years.
Streiler enjoys investing, but as investment firms are usually focused on financial returns, he considers CVC to be a better alternative. CVC allows him to take part in building future revenue streams for a company and it allows a corporation to de-risk opportunities by leveraging other entities’ networks, experiences and capital.
Concurrently, he has been trying to cope with the pace of change in digitising the complete agricultural food chain.
On how the corporate venturing industry can perform better, Streiler thinks CVCs need to adopt a partnership model whereby each investment receives joint development agreements, help in testing proof of concepts and opportunities to engage with a corporation and its customers.
Hoping to become a business unit leader at Archer Daniels Midland, Streiler utilises his knack for investing, desire to build something great and 15 years of investment career to achieve his goal.
Previously, he had been involved in venture firms, mutual funds and hedge funds where he built a track record of investing in both private and public companies primarily in the healthcare, industrials and materials industries. Apart from being an investor, he was also chief executive and founder of customer relationship management app provider DGTS.
