Ingo Ramesohl is co-managing director with Philipp Rose, and has been there since 2015. RBVC is a direct subsidiary of Germany-based industrial group Robert Bosch, with an advisory board staffed entirely by Bosch executives. The unit’s aim is to provide Bosch with a “strategic open innovation matchmaking” service alongside “excellent financial return-oriented investment funds”.
RBVC is currently deploying its third fund, originally announced in 2016, of €150m ($171m), but In late February announced a fourth fund worth €200m. The third is focused on deep-tech startups in artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) and enabled RBVC to push into China, where it currently focuses on strengthening and extending its activities before it looks to new regions.
Ramesohl is clear on how RBVC goes about its business. “Our methodology is very similar to most of the institutional venture funds. We invest in Bosch-relevant fields, such as AI, IoT or automated driving. Therefore our investments focus on series A, B and C. In some exceptional cases we also do seed deals.”
RBVC, like most other corporate venturing units, source its deals through its network. That dealflow is then relayed to the parent, where RBVC serves as the intermediary, matching startups with Bosch’s business units. In turn, Bosch provide its expertise to RBVC for deal assessments and to startups for temporary product and engineering support.
Yet Ramesohl believes RBVC provides something unique, simply by virtue of the relationship it has with Bosch. The parent provides the weight of capital, expertise and business acumen, while the structure of RBVC’s relationship with Bosch provides RBVC with the independence to make decisions quickly.
He said: “RBVC has a perfect combination of a corporate venture firm with processes like an institutional fund. We feel the power of the Bosch expertise on the one hand in all kind of technical and market areas. On the other hand, the partner structure of RBVC makes our decisions extremely fast. We enjoy a form of independence that enables us to act so.”
Bosch is a giant company, with a large number of business lines. RBVC as a strategic partner needs to operate across all those. It is a hard task, and of which Ramesohl is patently aware.
“All portfolio companies have or have had a Bosch relevance at the time of our initial investment. In very few cases, the strategy of the company or that of the relevant Bosch unit is changing so the strategic fit is lowered. In these cases we always stick to our companies and support them until we have an exit.”
Ramesohl remains enthusiastic about AI, saying: “In my opinion AI is still an exciting wave, which has lasted now for more than four years – 2019 will be the year of AI hardware startups.”
Part of that excitement is justified by the RBVC successes. The unit was an early backer of AI chipmaker Graphcore, leading its series A in 2016. Graphcore closed its series D late in 2018 with $200m, with RBVC reinvesting alongside Samsung, Microsoft, and BMW. The round valued Graphcore at $1.7bn.
“In AI, we have done some investments in world-changing companies such as Graphcore. It became a unicorn in December 2018. Back in 2016, RBVC was the lead investor in the foundation of Graphcore. We are very proud to be on board.”
RBVC has a stake in three AI companies – Graphcore, DeepMap and Syntiant, and is looking to expand that interest.
“In the field of artificial intelligence, it is important for us to be strongly represented. IoT is another future-oriented field. Sensoro, one of the most important IoT companies in China, belongs in our portfolio. We can also be proud of successful exits. For example, Intel acquired Movidius, a manufacturer of image processing processors.”
Yet investing in technologies always involves risk, something Ramesohl points to in the automotive sector.
“The automotive market is a bit more complicated because this is a relatively new field for venture companies. Some of these companies realise that the long development cycles in a rather closed automotive ecosystem is difficult to crack. Some companies in our portfolio will have a great future, but investors need to be patient in that industry.”
Ramesohl is positive about the future for RBVC, and AI as a technology sector. Given RBVC’s success already, he has every reason to be.