There are not many CVCs with more than 10 years under their belt, but telecoms company Singtel’s $350m Singtel Innov8 unit is one of them, and chief executive Edgar Hardless has no intention of stopping.
He joined Singtel in 2001 and in 2006 he became the head of what was then called Singtel Group Innovations, the corporate’s first open innovation unit, before he took charge of Singtel’s M&A unit a couple of years later.
When Singtel decided it needed to start a venture unit, Hardless put his hand up to set up the new unit, Singtel Innov8, for when it launched in 2010, and the rest is history.
I have had a lot more fun doing the million-dollar transactions than the billion-dollar transactions, as you are often trying to assess if there is a meaningful market for the startup’s technology.
“I remember telling people that when I joinedInnov8, I went from doing the billion-dollar transactions to the million-dollar transactions. I have to say, I have had a lot more fun doing the million-dollar transactions than the billion-dollar transactions, as you are often trying to assess if there is a meaningful market for the startup’s technology, whereas for large transactions the product-market fit is already established,” says Hardless.
Today, like most sectors in the global economy, telecoms players are thinking about how to handle and invest in the advent of generative AI. With so many potential applications, it is nearly impossible to tell exactly which ones will pay off. But what they will all need are things like better and cheaper compute. That is where Innov8 is looking to make an impact –on the technologies that could be utilised by AI developers, rather than necessarily the AI itself.
“It is like the California gold rush. The people who made good money consistently were not the gold miners, who were hoping to strike it rich, but the people who sold the picks and shovels to every miner who needed them.”
Hardless says that people setting up CVC funds should always remember two things: make sure you understand what your corporate wants from you; and make sure you demonstrate self-sufficiency.
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