Claudio Jordán is an investment principal at ABB Technology Ventures (ATV), the strategic corporate venture capital arm of the industrial multinational ABB. Since its formation in 2009, ATV has invested more than $300m in startups that are synergetic with its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio.
Based in Switzerland, Jordán joined ABB back in 2012 as an ATV investment analyst — which he described as a fortunate career opportunity — before he moved the year after to ABB’s business organisation where he contributed to multiple engineering, project management and sales operations roles of increasing responsibility in various countries like Sweden, India, Germany and Switzerland.
He returned to the CVC unit in late 2019, which was a conscious career choice. “Beyond our ATV team, I must thank all our colleagues within ABB’s business organisation and inorganic growth ecosystem that make my job challenging, fun and very rewarding,” adds Jordán.
Jordán believes working in venture capital requires a mix of passion for technology and business acumen — a mix of science and art. The future-looking and visionary aspects part of the innovation ecosystem are enticing, he adds, as well as the opportunity to collaborate with entrepreneurs and contribute to the growth journey of their companies.
“I seek to make, through my job, a positive contribution to our society and economy.”
“I seek to make, through my job, a positive contribution to our society and economy,” says Jordán. “The sense of having the opportunity to contribute with your ‘grain of sand’, not only to the realisation of your parent company’s strategic vision, but to a higher purpose is important for me, and I believe the latter thought is prevalent among our peers within the VC ecosystem.”
Last year was an active year for ABB’s CVC group, which engages in corporate venture capital in alignment with ABB’s operating model, Jordán says. ATV closed 11 new investments in the past year, and in collaboration with ABB’s business organisation, having invested more than $80m in funding and made additional follow-on investments.
Jordán helped lead and co-lead four deals — Key DH Technologies, Cassia Networks, Mavenoid and Morrow, which would total roughly half of the capital deployed during 2022, in addition to the evaluation and execution of three follow-on investments.
He holds multiple observer and board director roles in the unit’s portfolio companies including Graphmatech, IMSystems, Element Analytics and AMEXCI. In addition, Jordán is also responsible for the LP relationship of two of ATV’s venture fund investments in Emerald Technology Ventures and The Westly Group.
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