Christian Noske, former head of Alliance Ventures, the $1bn investment vehicle formed by carmakers Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, has moved to a partner position at Germany-based venture capital firm Target Global.
Target Global reached a $300m first close of its latest fund earlier this month. Noske had initially moved back to Europe after a decade in the United States to become head of Alliance in September 2019, having joined the fund in California at the start of 2018.
The move followed a rapid rise from analyst to partner at automotive manufacturer BMW’s corporate venturing unit, BMW i Ventures, where Noske made the GCV Rising Stars list in 2016 and 2017.
Alliance Ventures receives 40% of its capitalisation from each of Renault and Nissan while Mitsubishi supplies the other 20%. Its portfolio includes automotive services provider Shift Technologies, driverless vehicle software developer WeRide and microprocessor producer Kalray.
Noske said in a Medium post: “In the last three years Alliance Ventures made 14 investments, including two fund investments, in Canada, China, France, Germany, Israel and the US. I am extremely proud of every single company in the portfolio. In this short period of time we were fortunate enough to invest early on in at least two unicorns and six months from now I could probably say four unicorns….
“I will be joining Target Global’s partnership and will focus on growth investments. Target Global has its headquarter in Berlin with offices all over Europe and Israel and over €1bn under management today across [its] growth, early-stage and mobility fund. I am very excited to dig into health, education and fin-tech as investment fields and to be able to explore new opportunities.
“Over the last years I have already invested in digital enterprise which will be also a big part of my new investment scope, and of course I will always have a soft spot for sustainability, mobility and transportation-related startups. My focus will be Europe and Israel.”
Photo of Christian Noske courtesy of Alliance Ventures.
