Marcos Battisti, formerly vice-president and head of Western Europe and Israel at Intel Capital, chipmaker Intel’s corporate venturing unit, will join UK-based venture capital firm C5 Capital next week.
C5 launched Europe’s first dedicated cybersecurity fund in 2014. Hiring Battisti, who is the first of several senior investors expected to join, is intended to help it raise a $150m fund focused on the cloud computing sector that will look to do five to 15 deals. He left Intel Capital earlier this year.
C5 has formed a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to look for cloud startups, and the collaboration was a big part of Battisti’s decision to join C5 rather than raise his own fund, he told Global Corporate Venturing.
In an exclusive interview, Battisti said: “C5 is independent but there are four or so big US companies in the cloud space and, while I cannot talk for Amazon, the goodwill and cooperation C5 has with AWS was a big part of my decision making to join [the firm].
“My experience at Intel Capital involved speaking very regularly with business units and knowing what drives them, and while Google, Amazon and all corporations have different cultures, knowing what language they speak is very important.
“If you look at most VCs in Europe they come from finance or consulting or entrepreneurial backgrounds, and have left technical areas of investing to follow consumer deals. This has left the field that Intel Capital went into open, and that [space] is still there for a bigger fund that recognises that corporate relationships matter.
“There are very few sector-specific VCs out there, and while the big three to four European VCs can cover specific sectors the overall venture market is small and shrinking, even though there have been big exits and [there is] appetite from acquirers to look at European assets.”
Battisti said he hoped his relationship with Intel would continue, having delivered “outstanding” returns over the past five years, including investments in mobile connectivity group Sigfox in France and Anobit, the Israel-based semiconductor company bought by Apple in 2012.
Erik Jorgensen, an investor at Intel Capital in its London office who reported to Battisti, said: “Professionally, I was disappointed he left because I really enjoyed working with him. On the personal front, I think he was ready for some new challenges and this was a catalyst for him to go out and find them.”
Battisti was equally complimentary about his former colleagues and particularly noted the mentorship and opportunity he had received from his predecessor in Europe, Ashish Patel, and former president Arvind Sodhani, who left Intel Capital last year.
– Photo of Marcos Battisti courtesy of Intel Capital