Jerneja Loncar, an entrepreneur-in-residence at car maker General Motors’ GM Entrepreneurs since January 2014 after nearly four years at GM Ventures, has been planning her next step after successfully running one startup.
Jon Lauckner, chief technical officer at General Motors and president of GM Ventures, told Global Corporate Venturing by email: “It is good to hear that Jerneja is doing well.”
On his ventures portfolio he said: “Yes, we’ve been able to put a fair amount of money to work and have some exits too. We have not (yet) replaced Jerneja in Europe because we prefer to focus on the opportunities in the US, Israel and China which are more promising than Europe at the moment.
“Perhaps this is something that is specific to automotive-related technologies because we see most European suppliers and OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] in the Valley and Israel too.
“In any event, you have to remain flexible because things change rapidly. Just look at autonomous: Two years ago most people could barely spell the word.
“Now, financial and corporate VCs are chasing any startup with the word ‘autonomous’ in their description. It reminds me a lot of cleantech about five years ago and software-as-a-service companies three years ago. So, let’s see.”
– Photo of Jerneja Loncar courtesy of LinkedIn