Lee Sessions, newly-appointed executive-in residence at Global Corporate Venturing, moderated a panel on the changes in the corporate venturing industry over the past five years.
The panelists were Henry Chung, vice-president for corporate venture capital at consumer electronics firm LG; Dave Stevenson, managing director of pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co’s Global Health Innovation (GHI) Fund; and Christina Riboldi; director of the GCVI Summit.
Filling the summit agenda was a tough ask when it began five years ago, Riboldi recounted.
“We were not this large conference – when I was building the agenda, I would call traditional VCs and ask them to be part of this program and they would say ‘no’. Now they call me,” she revealed.
Sessions predicted diversity and inclusion would be one of the biggest developments for corporate venturing going forward, a sentiment endorsed by Riboldi, who relayed her experience over the years setting up the Women in Ventures luncheon, held in its latest installment a day before the conference.
Chung added that diversity was part of the corporate investor’s responsibility as an “actor” to multiple parties.
“When we start putting on our corporate venture capital hat, we cease to be in a sense just an employee of our company. We have to look out for the interests of our current company, but also look at the interests of startups and entrepreneurs, and take care of other [consortium] investors.
“An actor is being cognisant of all of their needs and understanding the dynamics that are in play each and every day.”
Stevenson meanwhile set out the concept of community as a guideline for CVC cooperation – new members would receive benefits but only on the expectation these were paid forward once they had settled in.
Pharmaceutical CVCs were relaxed about co-investments with peers and collaborations with other parties, Stevenson added, a model perhaps for how corporate syndication could further disrupt the innovation landscape.