New to corporate venturing when he joined BMW four years ago, Christian Noske finds himself in a having a sizeable impact as investment principal at the car manufacturer’s venturing unit.
Working in a close-knit operation alongside Ulrich Quay, managing director of BMW i Ventures’ New York City office, Noske was promoted last year to investment principal after working as first an analyst and later a senior associate at the venturing unit.
Studying economics and computer sciences at Stuttgart, Germany, Noske went on to business development roles before finding an interest in consumer product development at Germany-based industrials group Robert Bosch, later discovering another way to develop that passion through corporate venture capital.
Admitting he was no car enthusiast, Noske said he concentrated instead on mobility service and digital products. He added: “The corporate part of corporate venture capital (CVC) is the most challenging. I am dealing with old processes at BMW and then the complete opposite in the startup world, and bridging them is the biggest challenge. It’s about finding ways to get a 100-year-old industry find ways to work with startups that live week to week. Explaining the value of a great team over having substantial business plans for the next five years is always a challenge too.
“It is important to note that Ulrich came from 10 years inside BMW, whereas I came from outside. So I spend around 80% of my time dealing with external people, which are mostly startups but also other VCs and corporate VCs. The first couple of meetings are with me. When I have narrowed down the dealflow funnel, I will bring Ulrich into the discussion.”
As a result, Noske said helping the digital transformation of a 100 year old company through investments in international startups was one of his biggest successes: “BMW is on a great path to become the world largest service provider of premium mobility. I was leading the investment efforts in companies such as Moovit and Zendrive. Both of those will help BMW to get to the finish line faster.”
Noske said the most important thing corporate venturers could do to make the whole industry stronger is changing the structure of how a corporate venturing unit is set up in the first place.
“A lot of corporate venturing units work in the same way and make the same mistakes. They all start by saying ‘we want to be very protective, we want to keep it close to the company’,” said Noske. “If you are coming from an industry, such as car manufacturing, that is an older industry, we have a tendency to set up corporate venturing units so they aren’t as dedicated as perhaps Google or Intel are.”
If Noske were to change anything about the industry, it would be to make all new CVC units start from the point at which other corporate venturing units are two years after their launch.
“New CVCs should not lead. They have little experience in the field in dealing with startups and yet they want to try to be the most helpful party in the investment group, which does not make sense,” Noske explained. “They need to have an exploration side, which is as important, in my opinion, as ventures that are supporting the business.”
Looking ahead, Noske hoped to reach partner or managing director level: “Looking at our portfolio, we have made 17 investments in 13 companies over the past four years. But we are also stretched thin right now and it would be great to expand the group while I personally can take on more responsibility.”
Noske added: “The CVC world is an interesting place. We are in a very hot phase of the economy and there is a lot of money. Therefore, money that has some real value attached to it is sought after. People want a little more than money and CVCs can fill that gap. But what about when that money is not about? People will want to have a CVC that can stand by them. I want CVC to be known as a good thing to have standing by others in both the hot times and the quieter times.”