Claudia Fan Munce, managing director at US-listed technology company IBM’s Venture Capital Group, discussed IBM’s pioneering Watson fund in her keynote speech at the Global Corporate Venturing Symposium on Tuesday, asking the room: “How can corporate venturing capital be used to build a partner ecosystem for a new business unit?”
Fan Munce is one of the founding members of IBM Venture capital. The Watson Group is focused on investing outside IBM and developers at other companies create apps for Watson.
IBM Watson has so far has allocated $100m to incubation, with IBM previously stating the Watson Group would be used to invest $1bn into R&D companies.
About 87% of people check their smartphones when they wake up, which means that the mainframes are busier than ever.
Fan Munce said research shows that the average person checks their phone around 150 times a day, and that this is transforming the way consumers want to engage. That level of interaction has led to what Fan Munce described as a new ‘engagement model’ of enterprise, which is driving IBM’s investment.
“There needs to be a new enterprise model in order for companies to transform the businesses,” Fan Munce stated. “How do you engage with your clients?”
The fund is part of IBM’s strategic unit, working to drive business partnerships with venture capital firms and their portfolio companies.
Dubbed ‘The Watson Journey’, which takes its name from the IBM Watson supercomputer, which beat human competitors on US game show Jeopardy, the fund is shaping the future of IBM’s investment.
Big data is continuing to transform the industry, and IBM is optimising its business potential on both big data and cognitive computing. Utilising business analytics is a central focus for IBM Watson.
Fan Munce stated that as an enterprise focused company, IBM sees this as an opportunity to enter new markets. More often than not, IBM looks to local companies offering solutions that can be integrated into its system.