James Mawson, editor-in-chief of Global Corporate Venturing and founder and CEO of its publisher Mawsonia, opened the proceeding by welcoming attendees back to in-person events for the 10th GCV Symposium, thanking the sponsors and attendees, highlighting the success of the recent GCV Summit in Monterey, California.
Mawson said: “Corporate venturing when done well is about acting internally and having great impact externally.”
Welcoming Ignacio Gimenez, managing partner at BP Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of UK-headquartered oil and gas supplier BP, and chairman of the group’s carbon offset subsidiary, Finite Carbon, to the stage, Mawson pointed out how BP Ventures was on the vanguard of thinking sustainably within BP, something that has now spread to the entire organisation.
Gimenez said: “What 18 months we have had – it has been tough, no one could predict what has happened. The world has changed but we have been keeping very active. A lot has changed in the last 18 months.”
Venture capital, according to Gimenez, is now a required asset class to a balanced portfolio. This is why there have been so many new units coming into the industry, he added, and you can see the impact in the record amount of capital going into startups from CVCs.
Sustainability is not just the realm of impact investors or early-stage investors anymore, he said. “The future is going to look different from the present, and it is going to have to look sustainable or there will not be a future.”
Noting the importance of the discussions ongoing at the COP26 (UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties) summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow, Gimenez remarked on the importance of the conversations that will be taking place at the symposium to boost innovation for many of the same goals.
“Not all of us invest for impact, but we all have impact when we invest – keep in mind that responsibility when you are looking at your next investment and your next collaboration,” Gimenez advised.
