Barrett Parkman has joined South Korea-based conglomerate Samsung’s US-based Catalyst Fund as director of its startup and venture capital (VC) ecosystem.
Catalyst is Samsung Electronics’ $500m evergreen multi-stage corporate venture capital fund investing globally in the data economy and core technologies in new Samsung business areas. Catalyst complements Samsung’s other corporate venturing units, including Samsung Next and Samsung Venture investment Company.
Parkman joined Samsung last month, having previously been a partner at GWC Innovator Fund, an early-stage venture capital fund that primarily invests in artificial intelligence (AI) and data-centric startups in the US, China, Israel, and India and where he led 19 of its 31 investments, including Tapzo (acquired by Amazon) and FriendlyData (acquired by Service Now).
As well as the GWC Innovator Fund, the company produces the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) and the G-Network, an invitation-only, private network for mobile industry executives and founders.
Samsung Catalyst has been expanding its team under Shankar Chandran and Francis Ho, having earlier in the year hired Scott Levine as a managing director from media group Time Warner’s corporate venturing unit.
