Omar Alam, director and senior corporate counsel for Salesforce Ventures, enterprise software producer Salesforce’s corporate venture capital arm; Tracy Isacke, managing director of venture debt firm Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) which is a silver sponsor for GCVI Summit 2020; Will O’Donnell, senior vice-president of corporate development and head of Prologis Ventures, a corporate venturing subsidiary of industrial warehouse builder and logistics facility owner Prologis; and Eric Steager, vice-president of CVC at health benefits provider Anthem, discussed how they managed their investments.
The session was moderated by Kelsey Chase, founder and chief operating officer of private capital data analytics platform Aumni, a gold sponsor for this year’s program.
Chase asked the panellists how data were being used in their respective CVC units. Alam responded, as an in-house attorney, he could understand Salesforce Ventures’ life cycle and dynamics, adding that “data is key” when it came to investment terms of the portfolio companies.
Steager explained that Anthem gave priority to figuring out ways to utilise the data beforehand, and consolidating what technologies to invest in and its identity as a strategic investor with financial intentions.
O’Donnell highlighted how Prologis Ventures leveraged data to define its level of interaction with the ecosystem: how the unit positioned itself and what value proposition it would offer to entrepreneurs. In addition, its relationship with other investors, due diligence and investment criteria were also important. “The more data you have, the better decision you can make,” he said.
Isacke reiterated that “there is nothing strategic about losing money”, adding that SVB sought to capture data from its commercial and strategic dealings. She noted: “The more you can get access to data, the more you can do what only humans can do – build relationships. Let us be clever about the data we sit on.”
